Fact: Mean People Suck At Running Businesses

While drumming up some new business in the ‘gigs’ sections of Craigslist a few weeks ago, I came across an ad from a woman looking for help with her marketing. She was a Rolfer, new to the area, trying to fill her new practice with new patients. She needed a marketer to review her website and current marketing efforts, as well as to suggest new marketing initiatives to further support her business development efforts.

She could not offer monetary payment, but rather, could barter for a Rolfing session.

I, being not only a fan of the barter system but also intrigued by the promise of structural integration, took her up on this offer.

This woman was a great person. From a small town in Washington State, raised in Boulder and, now, a victim of our heartless city.

Since she liked my recommendations, she offered an ongoing barter. 12-13 Rolfing sessions for a new website and a few other miscellaneous projects. I accepted. But only to decline later. I am a fan of the barter system…but not an all barter system. There has to be some cash. Or NStar needs to start accepting Rolfing sessions as payment…

I knew I should have declined from the beginning. How unprofessional of me to accept and then push off the project and then push off the project a few times and then admit that I am too inundated to take on a new project?

But I really wanted to help her. She was a great person.

I am constantly coming under fire for being “too nice.” “A pushover,” they say. “It’s okay to say ‘no’,” they say. But I don’t want to say no. I like helping people. I more so like helping people whose businesses I am passionate about. After all, if I am going to spend most of my spare time working, it better be rewarding work.

I am constantly coming under fire for spending more time on a project than what I invoice. Excuse me for wanting to do the job right, but spending the extra time to deliver something that I am truly proud of is rewarding to me and, usually, rewarding for my clients as well. And isn’t that what I’m hired to do? Deliver effective work that generates a financial reward?

I am constantly coming under fire for my generosity…but now all of you naysayers out there – all of you it’s-business-not-charity-sayers out there – feast your eyes on the Attention Max article by Max Kalehoff, ‘Why Generous People Get Things Done.’

Fast forward to the end of his article, “The mandate: To be successful as a leader or manager, you’d better help others, and hire and associate with people who like helping others…Your organization and your world will become a much more pleasant, nurturing place.”

And his sources are Forbes and an Ivey Business School article.

I am constantly coming under fire for my generosity. But it has never bothered me. I am happy being generous. I wish there were more generosity in business, in the world. I will spare you a socio-political rant about our rat-race driven, morally corrupt, do-whatever-it-takes-to-make-a-name-for-yourself-no-matter-how-many-people-you-leave-dead-and-bloodied-along-the-way country.

But, I will ask you to be generous. In your business, in your life.

And I will help that Rolfer out. I will. Just as soon as I have the extra time…