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When Business Is Love: The Spirit of Hästens—At Work, At Play, and Everywhere in Your Life

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When Business Is Love tells the story of Jan Ryde’s mission to create the world’s finest beds and to operate his fifth-generation business, Hästens Sangar, on the basis of love.

Love.

It isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.

Despite the world being such a rich and abundant place, love is one thing that all the world is longing for, yet (as the old song goes) just can’t seem to get enough of.

In When Business Is The Spirit of Hästens — At Work, At Play, and Everywhere In Your Life, Jan Ryde, the fifth generation CEO of family-owned Swedish bed manufacturer Hästens, reveals the secrets to running a business and living a life rooted in love.

When Business Is Love is a book about what can happen when one approaches business and life with the single intention to give everyone involved the opportunity to experience their best life.

When Business Is Love shares Jan Ryde’s mission to make the world a better place by putting people first and leading with values of humility, honesty, integrity, mastery, gratitude, forgiveness, encouragement, joy, peacefulness, and — above all LOVE.

Readers will follow Jan's personal journey from business school professor to CEO of a modest family business that he built into a global company, and learn from his successful leadership

* Why you must embrace your whole story — even the dark times.

* The importance of a clearly-defined mission.

* The magic of imagination and retaining one's child-like creativity.

* How to step into and live in abundance through connection to the Source.

* The myth of competition and how you only have to create to succeed.

* The power of modeling and acting on the clues that success freely leaves for you.

* The miracles that show up in your life when you invest in helping people to have their best life ever.

Under Jan Ryde's management, Hästens, founded in Sweden in 1852 as a one-man saddlery, has grown into one of the world’s most beloved brands with stores from Los Angeles to London, from Istanbul to Singapore. Hästens enjoys an outstanding international reputation for creating the finest beds in the world, as evidenced by a client list that includes everyone from Hollywood royalty to actual crowned heads of state. Its luxurious, handcrafted, top-of-the-line Grand Vividus sells for as much as a million dollars.

Readers following Jan Ryde's example of business as love will find themselves asking the transformative question that motivates the entire Hästens how good do you want to have it?

367 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 9, 2024

20 people are currently reading
96 people want to read

About the author

Jan Ryde

1 book

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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
Profile Image for Ivone Liset.
53 reviews
October 10, 2023
Beautiful philosophy invested in a business as a way to live. I enjoyed every page
1 review
January 9, 2024
Great business book, well-written about how mindset and dedication enable you to reach your personal, professional and spiritual goals! Money and time well spent!
4 reviews
January 9, 2024
This book changed everything for me! It gave me awesome strategies to break free from life's routine and build a life filled with love, abundance, peace, and success—both personally and professionally.
Profile Image for Steven Finkelstein.
966 reviews10 followers
February 1, 2024
When Business is Love is a touching nonfiction book. The writer, Jan Ryde, is the fifth generation CEO of the Swedish bedmaking company Hastens. He sees the world a little differently than most CEOs and company owners, though. He is intent on living his life in as compassionate a way as possible. He wants everyone he interacts with to be happy, and he will go to great pains to make that aspiration a reality.

What’s fascinating about this is that it’s an attitude that very few other business leaders would ever embrace, or even think about. Ryde is cut from a different cloth, though, and it’s pretty interesting to spend some time inside his brain. His atypical approach to life and love are inspirational. Perhaps some industry leaders who read this book will be convinced to make positive changes in their lives because of it.

Profile Image for Yolanda Gomez.
568 reviews9 followers
February 8, 2024
When Business Is Love by Jan Ryde, CEO of Hästens is a groundbreaking book that redefines success in business and life through love. I think this book in particular is amazing because the author shares his journey and philosophy, emphasizing values like humility, integrity, and, most importantly, love and that something different in a professional read.
The book offers insights on embracing one’s full story, the importance of a mission, the magic of creativity, and living in abundance. Ryde argues against competition, advocating for a mindset of creation. I loved to see a book that demonstrates how integrating love into every aspect of life can lead to not only business success but also a fulfilling life. I recommend this book, eye closed; it is great to find a purpose and make a positive impact, presenting a refreshing perspective on handling modern life's complexities.
Profile Image for Agustina Sureda.
606 reviews13 followers
February 1, 2024
When Business Is Love was written by Jan Ryde, the fifth-generation CEO of a family-owned Swedish bed manufacturer Hästens, who reveals the secrets to turning a simple business into a luxury brand and living a life filled with love in the process.
Jan's writing is engaging, compelling, and fun to read! Providing great business advice, Jan narrates his personal story but manages to connect with the reader so they can see themselves reflected too. He shares the ups and downs of having to balance your personal life with your work while spreading positivity to those around you. This is a beautiful reading.    
Profile Image for Saundra Woodmansee.
1 review1 follower
January 9, 2024
Mr Ryde brings a refreshing approach to growing and maintaining a well-balanced work system. What he has done within Hastens can be scaled to almost any business. I recommend this book to any leader to enhance their leadership skills.
Profile Image for Jaume Sués Caula.
247 reviews2 followers
February 22, 2025
You really need a leap of faith to connect with the book. The background story of the author is great, but then he jumps to a series of motivational sentences and business techniques presented as dogma, with not enough (in my opinion) fact based substance.
Profile Image for Jill Campbell.
49 reviews1 follower
July 9, 2024
Listened on audible. Had some good thoughts but a lot of the time felt like an advertisement.
14 reviews1 follower
January 9, 2024
I'm reading this with my business book group now and we are all in agreement about bringing some of Ryde's principles into our office.
Profile Image for Gianfranco.
555 reviews7 followers
February 6, 2024
The best approach to success

How nice to find such inspiring stories as the one Jan Ryde brings us. I have always believed that success is strictly related to doing what you love. Those who devote their lives to activities they don't enjoy, are constantly frustrated and don't think clearly.

Jan's perspective, of growing in the business world by bringing well-being and love, is a clear example of how you should lead your life and your actions in general. Now, having an authoritative person tell you this is the best method of confirmation.

This book gives us the perspective of someone who made a leap in his life to go from being an ordinary professional to direct the success of a huge company like Hästens Sangar.

The message to be who he is is given through love, because it is love that brings you happiness, creative ideas and allows you to flow in everything you do.

I love this kind of books, they inspire me to direct my life towards what I am passionate about.
Profile Image for Jessica.
2,332 reviews23 followers
January 18, 2024
Business is love

This book was a novel idea. Retooling your corporate culture, to step away from profits and focusing on love for both your people and your product. The author chronicles his experiences as he took over the family business and how he transformed it. One of his quotes that resonated with me was: "When people don’t have meaning in their lives, then they look for pleasure, which is completely different, and an inadequate substitute for meaning." He also gives a thoughtful discussion on the inevitable questions, discourse and even employee turnover that will happen should you choose to follow in his footsteps which I thought was a great way to temper and balance the message in the book. Very novel and interesting ideas.
Profile Image for Santiago Flores.
1,029 reviews11 followers
Read
February 17, 2024
Provides a great perspective of the topic

I believe "When Business Is Love: The Spirit of Hästens" by Jan Ryde offers a transformative perspective on business and life. As the fifth-generation CEO of Hästens, Ryde shares invaluable insights into running a successful business while prioritizing love, integrity, and human connection. Through his personal journey and leadership philosophy, readers are inspired to embrace values such as humility, gratitude, and forgiveness in both professional and personal spheres. Ryde's commitment to making the world a better place shines through, making this book a compelling read for anyone seeking to infuse their life and work with purpose and compassion.
14 reviews1 follower
January 9, 2024
I received an Advanced Reading Copy of this book and found it refreshing and inspiring. When Business Is Love has the potential to transform work and it comes just in time as the antidote to AI, which seems to be encroaching on every industry. Highly recommended for an office book club discussion.

Merged review:

This is among the most inspiring business books I've read. I have already begun to incorporate some of the examples modeled in When Business Is Love and am sharing it with my reading group at work for our February selection. Highly recommended!
Profile Image for Gregory Downey.
101 reviews1 follower
January 10, 2024
I was blessed to read an advanced copy of When Business Is Love.
This book is on the level if not beyond the level of Think and Grow Rich.
It is unique among books of its kind.
This book unlocks the door to success in your physical life, mental and emotional life, spiritual life, relationships and of course, business and finance.
It truly is a must have on any bookshelf.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews

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