The next advantage of the Baal Bitachon is that:
מנוחת הנפש והגוף מן המעשים הקשים והמלאכות המייגעות את הגופות
He has peace of mind, body, and soul for he doesn’t choose difficult, back breaking or dishonest jobs.
He knows he’s just doing his hishtadlut/effort to cover the miracle. Therefore, why choose something difficult if he can choose something easier?
The Baal Bitachon chooses work that will give him a good name, spare time, quality of life and the ability to fulfill his religious obligations.
The following story may possibly bring this down to practical understanding:
Many years ago the Yad Yosef Torah Center took a trip to Israel.
One of the men on the trip was in between jobs at the time. He had two options (for example, either opening a liquor store or a dry cleaning store)
He went to Rav Shteinman to ask which of the two jobs he should take.
The rabbi answered with a question: Which job will give you more time to learn with your children? To be with your family?
What he was saying was that, after all, you aren’t really doing anything. It’s not you. You just have to do enough to cover the miracle.
We might try to weigh other factors, such as the extra benefits, the insurance package etc. but what we have to ask ourselves is:
What do we really want out of life?
The Baal Bitachon knows that Hashem can make anything work out, so when choosing a parnasa, he’ll try to choose something that will give him the most quality of life.
I know a doctor who, when deciding which field to go into many years ago, chose dermatology for no other reason than that there were few emergencies in that field. He could set his office hours and then be off, without worrying that someone would pass out from a case of poison ivy. He chose it because it was a better quality of life for him.
We know people who have said they don’t want to travel to China anymore. They get tired of going overseas once a month. So they go less frequently, maybe only every six months, and hire someone else to do the frequent traveling, even if it’s not as good as being there themselves. They are able to let go, for quality of life reasons.
Stephen Covey, (author of the bestseller Seven Habits of Highly Effective People) says we should delegate. He says we should let others do things and free ourselves of some responsibility. We have to let go.
We can add a Bitachon spin to this-
The Baal Bitachon is better able to take the Stephen Covey approach, because he knows Hashem will give it to him anyway. He may recognize that his replacement is not as great as he is, but he realizes that he just has to cover the miracle, and this way, he’ll have more time with his family and a better quality of life.
The Baal Bitachon has more wiggle to listen to these outside business consultants. It might sound counter intuitive- work less and be more successful? But the Baal Bitachon can try it leshem shamayim.
Because that’s what Hashem wants.
Some people have the work ethic to get to the office at 6am and stay till 8pm, like their father and grandfather. A business advisor might say this is not advisable. The Warren Buffets of the world might just sit back, think a lot, and make 1-2 big deals a year.
The Baal Bitachon has more options in business.
Hopefully you’ll take this message with a grain of salt. There may be a little sarcasm here or there but there is certainly truth to the lesson.