Yesterday I mentioned some rules that you can get away with breaking in your efforts to keep focused on the money making activities in your business.
But there are some rules you should never break. These unbreakable rules apply not only to your business but also to your entire life as well.
Really there aren’t many of ‘em. But you can totally shoot yourself in the foot and potentially sink your business by breaking them.
They are basic rules, and should be common sense. Of course common sense isn’t so common these days, is it?
It all boils down to basic things like good customer service and treating your business associates and employees well. Most all religions have some form of instruction along these lines. Lots of philosophers even have addressed the issue.
Jesus said we should treat other people as we would like them to treat us.
It’s a rule we should never allow ourselves to break.
An Example
A friend of mine recently was burned pretty badly by a business associate in a way that was completely unethical. There was a bunch of money involved and talk of lawyers.
Thing is the industry my friend is in is way smaller than I think the burner realizes. These things have a way of becoming known. Before to long folks stop doing business with unethical players.
Treat someone the way my friend was treated and word will get around eventually.
It doesn’t matter whether you neglect you blog to focus on your core business (unless your blog is your core business, of course). Your web site will still be there.
And so will those customers, business associates, and employees. At least the same people will be there. You break this rule and they may become your competitor’s customers, former business associates and ex-employees.
Or you can follow the rule and keep them all on your side.
The choice is yours. Treat others well.
Y’know, people can talk all they want about “situation ethics”, but when it comes right down to it, there really ARE some things that are universally true!
Good one, Chris!
Thanks Robert! I guess it boils down to a simple cause and effect thing sometimes.
You harvest what you plant – eventually!
You talked about the industry being smaller smaller than the guy realized. That is almost always the case, you know. We are a niche-networked world now. Burn one blog guy, burn them all.
Have I mentioned how much I like you, lately?
Hi,
I passed on an award, because I like the way you mix personal and business on your blog. Keep it up!
yup i agree with you there are certain rules that are there that should never break and that should remain constant at all costs.
Great advice, but it’s sad that we still actually need to tell people this stuff. I guess common sense went out with the dinosaurs.
I think one of the best pieces advice I heard was that in order to succeed in business you must provide a genuine value to people, and you can do this by helping people get what they want. this is great because it means the more you help others the more you will help yourself, so in the end everyone wins.
Good advice. Any industry is never as big as we think. If you do wrong by one person, that person will talk and there won’t be that many degrees of separation between you and the person you burned.
And with the power of Google, people can easily found out a lot of information that you may not like out there. It’s best to treat people well.
It’s that simple – “Treat others well.”
Sandy
interesting…