(Minghui.org) Greetings, Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!

I've been working in our media projects to clarify the truth for more than 10 years now. Even though we've made significant progress during the past few years in terms of running more professionally as a regular business, and thus having a better impact in reaching ordinary society, my understanding is that we're still falling short of the requirements of Fa-rectification, and I would like to share my understandings of why this might be happening.

I've noticed a phenomenon where practitioners working in the media companies are focusing more on running like normal businesses, sometimes looking within less, and starting to act more like ordinary people. This has started to worry me. I believe that these issues may be causing problems with the healthy development of our media companies, particularly financially, and that the old forces could use these problems as an excuse to throttle our growth.

In summary, it appears to me that staff at the media companies, including those in management positions, often use the dual excuses of "we need to be professional" and "we are a business" whenever issues are pointed out to them, using these excuses to deflect feedback or overcome shortcomings, and to force other practitioners to listen to them.

In some cases, practitioners who've pointed out shortcomings in their manager or the company, either privately or in public, have moved to another department or even been dismissed from the company for various vague reasons. I agree that the behavior of many practitioners who are pointing out problems, particularly in terms of how they deliver their feedback and suggestions to management, could be improved. However, on some occasions, even practitioners who followed established policies and gave feedback quietly were treated harshly.

In my personal understanding, this is not how practitioners should react when problems are pointed out to them. As practitioners working in the media, we all definitely have shortcomings and issues that we need to improve on, and when problems and issues are pointed out to us, we should look within and see how we can improve based on the feedback. It seems inappropriate to use excuses to force practitioners to listen to us without questioning, or cast out practitioners who hold differing views.

I believe this is exactly the sort of issue that Master warned about in "Fa Teaching Given at the 2015 New York Fa Conference:"

"So how should you act, as a coordinator? Could it work if you serve as a coordinator for only some of the people? What kind of coordinator would you like to be? Have you thought about that? Are you hoping that everyone will be as obedient as a flock of sheep before you? That’s what you want, not what I want. As complicated as things are, [you should figure out] how to be a good coordinator of Dafa disciples."

"They want me to give them some assurance or approval, and most of the time it’s because they have run into resistance. But once I give them my take on the matter, they will turn right around and tell people something different, and say that Master is supportive of what they’re doing."

Our Media Should Be Run Professionally

Our media definitely should be run professionally, similar to how successful businesses are run in ordinary society. In this regard, I think Master has given us detailed guidance on what we should pay attention to in order to be more professional.

First of all, the companies should be run according to the overall direction of the main coordinators. Master said in "Be More Diligent:"

"So, I want to tell you that from this day forth, the main coordinator for each project—the one principal coordinator—is that project’s representative. This holds true for the main coordinator of each region’s Dafa Association as well. He or she is its representative. Whatever it may be that the coordinator does, requires of you, or decides—carry it out unconditionally."

"Carry it out unconditionally. Understand what I said? In many instances, when people are debating things at length, all it should take is that coordinator stating his stance on it, and then that’s what you do. Furthermore, with many things, he should be able to just go straight ahead, without having to consult you, and assign tasks for you to do."

My understanding is that, in regard to the business work that needs to be done with the projects, the overall coordinator should make decisions and set the overall direction of the project. Particularly when there are conflicts on which direction to take or what needs to be done in some specific regard, the main coordinator should determine the direction for the project and thus put an end to endless discussions or conflicts.

Master also said in "Fa Teaching at the 2013 Greater New York Fa Conference:"

"I said to the TV station’s main coordinator that if a media company doesn’t take seriously the professional development of its staff, it won’t be able to improve the quality of its product, and the level of professionalism won’t be up to par, which is unacceptable. For any large-scale media operation, this is something that must be emphasized."

Generally speaking, there are definitely shortcomings in our professional work, and each of us needs to work hard and improve the quality and professionalism of our work, so that our products are professional, polished, and able to stand on their own compared with other mainstream media entities in society. This way can we have a good impact in saving sentient beings.

Master said in "Fa Teaching on World Falun Dafa Day" in 2014:

"I’ve said before to our various projects—the media companies, in particular—that to do a better job of clarifying the facts, counteracting the persecution, and saving sentient beings, the media companies must be grounded in ordinary society, run their business operations well, maintain healthy financials, learn from regular media companies, and really operate in a normal fashion. Only then will our companies be effective at what they’re supposed to accomplish."

I believe we could do a better job at learning from professional companies in ordinary society that are successful, structuring our corporate entities to be more complete and run like ordinary enterprises, and become financially successful and profitable, so our companies can grow and reach a larger number of sentient beings.

In summary, we should follow the overall direction set by the main coordinator, do better at executing by following the overall company direction, be more professional and constantly improve ourselves, and learn from companies in ordinary society that are run well, so our companies will be profitable and able to grow.

We Are Still Cultivating and Need to Look Within

I don't believe that any of Master's teachings indicate that, since we are to run our companies professionally, we can stop looking within. The Minghui website has many cultivation stories about practitioners unconditionally looking within even while working at larger and more professionally run companies, and I believe this should apply even more so to our media companies, which currently consist mostly of practitioners working with one another.

Master said in "Fa Teaching Given at the 2015 New York Fa Conference:"

"Why are Dafa disciples running a media company, after all? To save people. Don’t forget that your purpose is to save people, and the reason to run a media company well is to save people. Clarifying the facts and saving sentient beings are what you need to accomplish. There is nothing else for you to accomplish. There is nothing else in this world that you need to accomplish. Those are the things that you need to work toward, and yet some people no longer pay much attention to even their own cultivation, and have instead made a priority of ordinary things. Haven’t you strayed from the path of Dafa disciples’ cultivation, then?"

Practitioners say we should learn from Shen Yun Performing Arts about how to operate more professionally, but I believe that the cultivation sharing videos by Shen Yun performers show that they unconditionally look within whenever there's a problem, regardless of their role or position. Don’t they treat themselves as cultivators when they encounter problems? Isn’t their outstanding behavior as practitioners, in addition to the level of professionalism they exhibit, among the reasons why Shen Yun is so successful and unlike other performing arts companies?

Master said in "Fa Teaching at the 2009 Greater New York International Fa Conference:"

"How sales go in a given locale is, in reality, a true, tangible sign of how well practitioners have cultivated and cooperated there. (Applause.) I'm not just saying this because I think Shen Yun is so important. Rather, it truly is a reflection of your cultivation. The assistants in some areas are narrow-minded. They will only team up with the people they 'believe in,' and if there are other people that they can't stand, they don't let them participate and even drive them away. In some areas there are students who interact with each other with strong human attachments and neglect to make cooperation the top priority. The fights between people there are endless, with the result being that it compromises our validating of the Fa as well as our selling of tickets. In some places, people try to grab practitioners to join their side, each group goes its own way, and they don't work together in the least."

Doesn't this apply to our media projects as well? Don't we practitioners working in the media, whether as regular staff or as managers, have to cultivate well, look within unconditionally, and cooperate well in order to truly bring the media companies to success?

If we use the excuses of "being a business" and "being professional" to reject feedback and impose our will on other practitioners, isn't this squandering the limited chances we have to improve ourselves? Is this true cultivation?

I know that I myself suffer from many of the problems that I've raised in this article, and I need to do better at improving myself as well. I feel that the issue of failing to look within is becoming more prominent in my fellow practitioners as well, and I am concerned that if we don't improve ourselves and cultivate well, in addition to being more professional, the old forces could use it as an excuse to impede our growth.

These are just some understandings I've had recently from observing some recent happenings at our media companies. Please point out any shortcomings in my sharing.

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Category: Improving Oneself