Getting naked

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I am not a fan of business speakers in general.

Many on the circuit will just re-hash stuff you already know, in very uninspiring formats, passionately telling you obvious things like “good communication is the secret to good business relationships” as though they alone had just discovered this important fact.

But sometimes, somebody speaks so much sense that you are interested to hear it. Patrick Lencioni (author of Getting Naked amongst other wonderful books) spoke to me. Seriously, right to me. What a lovely fellow. I am sure the other 600 people in the room also felt he was speaking to them. That’s the kind of person he is.

He practices what he preaches and it is worthy of a ‘preach’. He believes that life is too short to work with people you don’t like, so don’t. He believes you should drop the political attitude and take your guard down. Speak honestly and openly. Be yourself. Get Naked. And when you work with people you like, be it colleagues, suppliers, clients, you help them if you can. Give them free information, cut them some slack and help them succeed. Don’t focus on what they can do for you but what you can do for them. Pay it forward, create a better way. He reckons he is not being a selfless saint. He believes this attitude gives him permission to be himself, enjoy what he does and take pleasure from sharing in the success of others. Selfish really.

I love his attitude and believe in the same. Maybe that’s why I was so impressed. My inner Florence Nightingale was silently pointing at him and saying “see, he agrees with me, you can choose to not be a business wanker and still succeed”.

You know that scene in “It’s a wonderful life” where Jimmy Stewart is trying to save the Building and Loan, explaining how each person’s savings are helping to build everybody’s houses. This is the stuff that makes me really happy.

I rather daftly run my business like this. I give away too much time, advice, creativity, support….and for what? A big fat thanks?

That’s not it. I do it because I can. I don’t need to be paid by everybody. I won’t starve because of a few freebies and too many mates-rates. And there is a bit of me that loves to know that somebody has been able to get something done because I provided some skills they couldn’t afford. And my larger clients? Well yes, they do pay for my work. But they also get more hours than I ever charge.

Maybe it is my way to balance up my karma for being an overpaid marketer in the first place, but I think it makes my small corner of the world a little bit better.