when business is love: the spirit of hästens--at work, at play, and everywhere in your life

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, 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 Love: 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 else: 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 philosophy:

* 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 team: how good do you want to have it?

Jan Ryde is the owner, chairman, and CEO of Hästens--and the fifth-generation family member to lead the powerhouse bed manufacturer since 1852. Ryde studied industrial engineering and management at Sweden’s Linköping Institute of Technology where he received a Master of Science degree before commencing doctoral studies in business. As an associate professor, Jan earned among the highest student rankings at Linköping University, where he taught business for several years prior to taking the helm at Hästens. As with every employee, regardless of their ultimate role in the company, Jan Ryde began as an apprentice, learning and contributing to each step in the process of handmaking a Hästens bed. Jan is honored not only that his sons Lukas and David have joined the family business, but that multiple generations of other families continue to spend their careers at Hästens, dedicated to improving people’s lives by helping them sleep soundly.