To succeed in business and thrive in life the goal should always be to stand out (in a positive way) and rise above the masses.
“Me too” will only get you so far, and average behavior unsurprisingly produces average results.
A quick look at what “average” produces should leave you running, no, sprinting in the opposite direction of whatever “everyone else” is doing.
Average after all is sadly:
- Rising debt
- Rising depression rates
- Rising obesity levels
- Decreasing accountability
- Decreasing respect (both for oneself and for others)
You don’t want to be average.
Fortunately for you, armed with this knowledge you’re now well informed of exactly what not to do and can then find new and creative ways to differentiate yourself, your business, and your life.
Kindness In Business
One of the best ways to differentiate yourself is to ABK (always be kind).
We’re taught that to succeed in business today we need to be cold, ruthless, and cut-throat. “It’s a dog-eat-dog world and if you don’t look out for yourself nobody will.” Yeesh, what a terrible thing to believe._
This is old-school thinking that’s been dead for many years now.
In today’s world of always on social media and viral videos kindness is now more important than ever.
Kind But Strong
There’s a big difference between being kind and being a pushover.
You can still disagree with people, negotiate difficult contracts, and even perform necessary layoffs and downsizing, but you can do it kindly.
We need to change our societies perception of kindness in the business world.
Kindness is strength, power, and confidence all rolled up into one.
After all, it takes all three of these traits to be kind in difficult and challenging situations.
Nice People Finish First – Literally
If you foster an environment of kindness or are fortunate enough to work for a company that has one, then you’ll experience lower employee turnover, and a much (much!) higher level of productivity.
Higher productivity as you know means more work gets done in less time which means more money made and more value provided to the world; both good things for business and overall happiness.
The key with kindness is that it should never be an either or thing.
You can be strong AND kind, smart AND kind, ambitious AND kind, and powerful AND kind.
The beauty of kindness is that initially even a little goes a long way, and the results always tend to come back around.
