You’ll always get what you want

if you help enough other people

to get what they want!

— ZIG ZIGLAR, Motivational Guru and Sales Trainer

     You know, a lot of business people  still have trouble digesting this idea. It’s easy to see why a small business owner who’s struggled to pull together enough of a business and personal life to make a go of it, can feel threatened by the loss of time, money, and energy that it takes to lend others a hand.

     Especially  strangers.

     I mean it’s one thing  to pull your needy in-laws up by the bootstraps, and quite another to give up an hour or two of valuable work time to meet with someone who calls you from out of the Yellow Pages, who has no money to pay for your products or services, and offers no promise of networking connections, but who seeks guidance and advice.

     “Let ’em go to a guidance counselor!”  I’ve actually heard more than a few entrepreneurial types say. “I’ve got no time to waste with some low-life looking for a free ride. Whadda I look like, a community college business department?”

     Now, I’m NOT suggesting  that business owners and managers throw open their doors to every gutter-crawling illegal immigrant welfare recipient drug addict out there and suddenly offer free products, services, and career counseling. There are caregiver organizations that already exist that provide these essentials.

     But don’t hang up or slam your door  on someone who’s sincerely interested in getting your help, who happens to be down and out. Because why? Because there but for the grace of God, it could be you. Because everyone deserves a break. Because EVERY one is fighting some kind of battle. And who are you to judge?

     Stories about the magic  of helping others are written every minute of every day, but we’ll never hear about these good and inspiring happenings because mainstream media doesn’t want us to think positive.

     Mainstream media sells more advertising  by focusing news reports on trivia like who has what right to tell the President the truth, or what some Hollywood buffoon thinks about cap and trade or our healthcare system.

     Mainstream media wants your mind  dwelling on what horrible torture is delivered to some child or domestic animal, or who died in what terrible accident. So what’s bad, ends up squashing what’s good. And — from childhood — we get brainwashed about that.    

     But, you know what?  That’s not an excuse for not reaching a genuine helping hand out to others. Just because the media is invested in sensationalizing and editorializing, doesn’t justify buying into their onslaught of negativity any more than bad toilet training as a baby justifies murder as an adult.

     The point is that it’s a choice.  All behavior is a choice. And you know what else? Choosing to help someone in need will give YOU a better sense of self-worth, which translates to self-esteem, and which — by the way, for the benefit of those more hard-nosed business folks among us — translates to self-confidence, which (ah) just so happens to often translate to sales. Hmmmm.

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