The way the monks live also says a lot about how they treat their customers. Just now, Brother Gumula is on the phone with a woman from Florida, carefully answering her many questions about the proper use of compost on houseplants. It's a long conversation -- especially for a $7 order. (Ensuring quality and providing top-notch customer service often requires the patience of, well, a monk.) But Brother Gumula considers it time well spent. "It's not just that we want people back for another sale -- we do. But they deserve to open a carton of eggs and not find crushed eggs or manure smears. What would that say about this place?"
Although a company and a monastery are fundamentally different, the monks' sense of fairness and loyalty is good business and good for business, says Turak. And their perspective on work is healthy: "It is designed to provide us with food, clothing, and security, so we can do other things with our lives," he says. "That's something that the monks never lose sight of."
Chuck Salter (csalter@fastcompany.com) is a Fast Company senior writer. Visit Mepkin Abbey on the Web (www.mepkinabbey.org).
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