I know Derik the founder of Yogaglo. He's both passionate about the practice and ideals behind Yoga and a savvy business person. I don't think the two are mutually exclusive.
Despite all this Yogaglo is a fantastic case of a highly successful, primarily bootstrapped business.
I don't know Derik, however I imagine he must have found value in yoga to start a business in it - to at least see the potential and value it has for others - and as a viable way to make money. Nothing wrong with that. Though patenting something is fear-driven (or it's for protective purposes, though they sent out cease & desist orders already AFAIK), or it's purposely repressive in forcing someone else to not be able to express themselves in a certain way. If it's fear-driven, I don't blame him - our capitalistic system is designed so that if you fail at earning enough money to pay yourself, then you can't survive - and that's a lot of pressure and reason for fear. If it's to purposely repress people from expressing themselves in a certain way - which I highly doubt it is - then I would have a problem with that.
Who would you rather buy shoes from: someone who obsesses over making great shoes, or someone who obsesses over making money by any means possible, and has decided that shoes are the optimal means to that end?
At best, pure business type are a necessary evil, doing the dirty work that enables people to make a living by offering genuine value. But at worst, they are soulless parasites leeching out every ounce of passion and creativity for a cold, hard buck.
You're casting about in a generalization, but one problem is that there's no such thing as business ethics, and capital is amoral.
In case you're going to further ask in-kind whether this means I'm saying the concept of business and/or money itself should be banished, the answer is no.
Yoga at its epitome is a lifestyle, a way of life - a philosophy of how to live. Business politics and yoga a lot of the time don't mix - that's the simple answer. Lots of business-minded people run businesses ... I'd imagine most do or are in charge of them. There can be issues though when heart or compassion isn't included in it. Example: Do you make money by hurting people or allowing people to get hurt? Is that a good business to be in or a bad one? What kind of people do you think would make money in that type of business? People with heart and empathy or more on the business-minded-lacking-empathy side?
