In the Name of Business

Right and Wrong

Most people know the difference between right and wrong however when it comes to business, they hide behind the words “it’s just business” to do bad things and act poorly. Cancel culture seems to be tackling all sorts of things today, why not bad business people? You get caught being a bad person in the name of business and you get shut down or shut out. No lawyers needed.. 🙂 That said, I have other more practical thoughts.

I have an idea, it’s probably pretty morbid but maybe it would help “business people.”

What if every person when joining a company gets an estimated death date? Based on your age, demographic, and other factors, its estimated that you will die on Tuesday, Jan 29th, 2062. On the card is an image of your tombstone or marker and under that it says “What are you going to do with the time you have left?” or whatever.

Another idea, some organizations place signs in hallways and working areas. Many of us have seen them.

Maybe we should all put mirrors in our working areas, our offices and our conference rooms with different sayings. Something like ..

• How do I feel about me today?
• Do I have integrity?
• Am I doing the right thing?
• Hello, me it’s me, and I’m ok with that.
• If there’s a heaven and hell, which gates will I be walking through?
• Hey, it’s not just about you.
• Do you trust this person?

I can think of a bunch more but the bottom line is that you are responsible to yourself and for yourself and in some cases others. In the name of business many people violate all sorts of principles and they don’t think anything of it. They go home and sign a check to the local charity and call themselves good people because they got themselves a tax write off while helping the invisible person.

On the other hand, if you want to be a self centered person with only your own personal interest in mind, you may get exactly what you ask for. A few years ago, I was introduced to a new group and I became very close with some of my peers. My peers were all great people with different styles of leadership and communication.

As we met, I learned the history of the organization through their perspectives. It was interesting to me that while some of them didn’t mention previous leaders at all, others did but it wasn’t in the best light possible. I was thinking that if I were in a company or organization for many years, I’d like to be remembered in a good light. I would also like to be remembered as a good person that inspired others and cared about the mission of the organization, the people and her customers. I am sure some of the former leadership received a nice pension and benefits but with no legacy it seems meaningless.

Not all of us have the same goals in mind, maybe you want to make lots and lots of money and be rich. Great for you, but you don’t need to be an asshole and you don’t have any need to hurt anyone in the name of business. If you think about it, there can’t be a business without people. Even if you automated things, someone at some point in some way requires supply and demand by people.

If you are on a deserted island totally alone with all of the money or gold in the world and no additional food and resources, what’s that going to do for you?

I suppose that I am not going to wake anyone up from their being an asshole with my blog post but for those of you who get what I am saying, it is up to us to keep the big dummy assholes that are self centered Mr. or Mrs. Business in the name of Business in check. We don’t owe them anything and there are lots of opportunities in the world for us to give and get loving transactions AND do good business!

What do you think? I think we should fire Gary..