better business blog

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The Memorial Story

16 February 2020

Business is part of life. We work hard, we train, we find customers and we take time to support our staff. And we make friends.

Business should be friendly in my opinion. It’s too easy to let our ego get the better of us. We become a King in our world and lose touch with reality …forgetting that once we are cruising around our local supermarket, buying beans, nobody cares a damn who we are.

We can forget that our staff have partners and children and complex lives and need us to be supportive. If we shout and scream at people we just create stress …bottled up emotion that they get to take home and vent on their families.

Life ought to be calmer, fairer and brighter than that.

Business life needs to be friendly. We need to be aware of ourselves, keep our ego in check and offer smiles and warmth to staff, colleagues and customers.

When coaching, I’ve often asked clients what would be on their gravestone, if their colleagues could write it for them? That’s a tough question. Although we all want to be remembered with kindness and compassion, if we’ve been a diva in life our memorial might be a muted affair.

If we are friendly in business then our reputation will be enhanced, life will be more pleasant for our colleagues and our legacy will be positive.

My friend Sara sadly died a few weeks ago. She was successful in her business and worked hard. She was a colleague of mine and then I was a client of hers. She was a pleasure to work with.

Death is part of life and yet is so very sad for those left behind. She was too young. Her family are heartbroken and her friends miss her.

I went to her memorial service and was struck by just how many business colleagues were there; to pay their respects and share stories about what a wonderful, dignified and kind person Sara was.

She was an exemplar of what friendly business is all about and her business thrived as a result. Someone of whom I’ve never heard anyone grumble about. Never, not once. A rare thing in business.

She always smiled, had time for people, carried her expertise with ease and had a total lack of ego.

Her memorial was moving and was a salutary lesson to us all. It was an invitation to remember that success in business can (and should) be built on:

Friendship

Humility

Kindness

Warmth

A bad attitude makes for bad business. We all have stress in our lives and yet we can all carry ourselves with dignity, just as my friend Sara did.

We can all leave behind a healthy legacy, even though death is such a sad affair.

Be at peace Sara.

You are missed.

Next week: A Stunning Question