Meditation at work

A Restaurant Founder's Meditation Routine: The WSJ's 2014 Report

A summary of the Wall Street Journal's February 24, 2014, piece on Tender Greens co-founder Erik Oberholtzer and his twice-daily meditation.

By TM Business Review Newsroom
· 3 min read
A smiling man in a denim apron leans on the counter of a restaurant.
A smiling man in a denim apron leans on the counter of a restaurant. PHOTO: Canva

Erik Oberholtzer, a co-founder of the California restaurant chain Tender Greens, meditates twice a day and once took three weeks away from his business to trek in the Himalayas, the Wall Street Journal reported on February 24, 2014, in a piece by Jen Murphy headlined “To Scale a Mountain, First Meditate by the Sea.” This article summarizes it in our own words. We have not been able to confirm the article’s current address on the Journal’s website, so we give its headline and date for readers who want to find it there.

Excerpts from the piece were once posted on this website as a PDF, and that address now leads here.

The piece in brief

The Journal profiled a founder under pressure from fast growth, at a chain that then had 13 locations in California, who switched off completely for a three-week trek in mid-2012. He had learned Transcendental Meditation while a student at Drexel University in Philadelphia and, the Journal reported, had kept it up every day since. His routine is two sittings, one at the start of the day and one in the afternoon.

How it compares with the standard instruction

TM teachers ask students to sit twice a day for about 20 minutes, once in the morning and once later in the day. Oberholtzer’s pattern follows that plan. In New York in 2014, the course that taught it took four consecutive days: a 90-minute one-to-one lesson, then three group follow-ups, with refresher sessions after. Our page on how the course worked has the details and the prices of the time.

The second sitting falls in the working day. Other executives in the coverage of that year described how they found the time. Ray Dalio of Bridgewater Associates told Business Insider in February 2014 that he would stop during market hours to meditate if stress built up. In July 2014 Bob Roth of the David Lynch Foundation advised readers of the Financial Times to book the time like a meeting and have calls held. Our checklist for a quiet break at work collects those ideas.

A busy month for the subject

The Journal profile appeared in a month when meditation on Wall Street was a running story. On February 11, 2014, the earliest New York town hall on meditation for business leaders in this website’s records drew about 300 people to the AXA Equitable Center. Business Insider reported Dalio’s remarks from that evening the next day. Women’s Health ran a beginner’s guide to TM on February 17, Yahoo Finance looked at stress in banking on February 27, and Institutional Investor published its account of the town hall on February 28. Our press roundup lists the coverage from that period that we could confirm with each publisher.

What the piece did not say

The Journal piece was a personal profile of one founder’s habits. It made no claims about health or business results, and neither do we. Readers who want to know what studies have reported can start with our page on the research.

This page is general information, not medical advice. The Manhattan Business Review is not affiliated with the David Lynch Foundation or any Transcendental Meditation organization, and it does not sell courses. Transcendental Meditation and TM are trademarks of their owners.

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