I received a phone call today from a competitor who pretended to be a prospect.  I of course — being me—– understood this right off the bat.  I played their game for a few minutes and when I didn’t give her what she wanted…. she got very upset and hung up on me…  I didn’t even realize I had been hung up on.  Again — me being me — I called back to a very upset woman who had been lying through out the whole conversation about her true intentions and how dare I call her back after calling me???  WOW….  What they don’t realize is …. I have good relationships with my clients and we take care of them.  We go above and beyond and do things that others won’t do. I highly recommend building quality relationships and becoming friends with clients… and clients becoming friends… it’s in my opinion…. THE only way to go.

It’s amazing what goes on out there.  The economy is bad and some people think they have to do dirty, underhanded things to succeed.  Guess what people??? You don’t.  Whatever happened to “Do unto others…. ” ?

When people don’t know what you are all about… the simplest emotion for them to feel is fear. The simplest thing they can do is talk negatively about you. 2010 – try to let go of the fear and rejoice in the success of others. -FB quote HAC

In the start of this new year…. be happy for others’ successes.  Do your own thing and create your own business.  There is plenty of it to go around if you just look hard enough.  (If you don’t know how — call me — I can help you with that.) 

I have owned businesses since I was a kid…. coming up with ideas and making some happen and writing down others for when I had the time to implement them properly.  One of my mentors and I were talking about life and business and we altered an analogy that we liked that day about apples.  WE LOVE analogies…. they help set the foundation for understanding in any environment.  Analogies bridge the gap when words strung along in a sentence don’t seem to make the cut.

The analogy?  It deals with people. If you put a bad apple in a bag full of good apples – the good apples won’t turn the bad apple good.  However…. one bad apple can spoil an entire bag of good apples in a very short period of time.

So what’s the point here?  Well…. I would suggest that you are either a good apple for the people around you or a bad apple.  We have the ability in all of us to be both… Why don’t we strive to be good apples and pay that forward all week, month and year?

Be careful what you give to others.  Make sure it’s from the heart… Make sure it won’t come back to haunt you.  I think this video is great and I love the message behind it.  It really comes down to the golden rule.  Treat others and do unto others …. right?  Maybe that is a stretch here.  Maybe not.  Just make sure you don’t give what you can’t GIVE or don’t really want to give.  Make sure you don’t end up hiding from your gifts.  You might want to make sure you are prepared to give what you promised.  It all comes down to your heart.  If you give something…. you better mean it.