"A Little-Used
Business Secret."
By John Harricharan
Sometimes, the simplest things are the most profound.
Many times, the most obvious things are often ignored. A good
percentage of the time the most common sense principles are the
ones most disregarded. Perhaps, it's because we are so intent
on making a living that we forget about making a life.
One of the most forgotten principles for personal
success is a word ignored by almost everyone--Goodwill. It is
a principle so underused, yet so powerful, that it could take
us to the heights of success. It remains underused because people
overlook the disarming power disguised in subtle terms such as
compassion, kindness,
empathy, unselfishness and caring.
In marketing classes in MBA school, we learned
many useful things about advertising strategy, marketing to consumers,
studying statistics of a sales campaign and getting the order.
To this day, I use the tools of the trade to help me in my business.
But one thing that hardly anyone touched upon was the concept
of "Goodwill."
Goodwill is not just a number on the accountant's
balance sheet, but is an invisible, little-used tool that all
of us have at our disposal. Let me explain. Most of us could help
solve someone else's problems, either with a telephone call, an
introduction or referral, a signature or other obvious means.
But we refuse to do it. Why? Let me tell you why. Because we feel
there's nothing in it for us! Or we are afraid to get involved.
Let me tell you a true story. It was many years
ago. A young woman walked into my assistant's office. She was
looking for a job, but we had none to offer. Just the week before,
all job vacancies had been filled. At the request of my assistant,
I spoke with the young woman. She only wanted to work for the
summer and then would complete her last semester of graduate school
and return home to her country. She had been looking for a summer
job for almost four weeks. No one wanted to hire her and train
her to work for such a short period of time.
I remembered my days as a graduate student and
felt her anxiety. Although there was no sound business reason
to do so, I told my assistant to create an office job for her.
Afterall, she needed help and it felt good to help someone without
figuring what was in it for me. I hardly saw her until the last
day when she came into my office to say goodbye. She thanked me
again for the job and handed me a business card.
"This is my father's card," she said,
"If you ever visit my country, call my dad, he'd be very
happy to meet you. I've told him all about how kind you and your
employees were to me. In my country, my dad is a government minister."
And that's how I ended up having lunch with the
mayor of Nairobi, dinner with the Vice President of Kenya and
making business alliances that brought my company profits hundreds
of times greater than the salary we had paid for summer help.
On top of that, I enjoyed going on photo safari to the Serengeti
Plains of East Africa, walking along the beaches of Mombassa and
sipping Pimms#3 at the Mount Kenya Safari Club.
This is not an isolated case. It's just one of
the more obvious ones. You never can tell who will lead you to
that next contact, that profitable contract or the added financing
you were looking for. It is important that we treat everyone with
dignity and respect. REMEMBER: Business does not do business with
other businesses. People do business with people.
The Internet is not about computers, technology
or even marketing. That would be like saying cars are about the
internal combustion engine and the laws of thermodynamics. The
Internet is about people and communications. If we communicate
with honesty and feelings, we'd find that most others respond
in kind.
So whenever the opportunity arises, do something
for someone else who is powerless to do it alone. Don't worry
about what you are going to get out of it. The Universe has a
way of repaying in ways far too strange to understand. Earn "goodwill"
and you'll prosper beyond belief.
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