Must you be cutthroat<\/span> to succeed in business?
<\/strong><\/p>\nMark Ford<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cI come from a poor family. I want to start a business and make money to help them. But when I see successful businesspeople depicted on TV and in the movies, it seems like lying and cheating and screwing people is the way to go. I\u2019m worried. Is that what I\u2019m going to have to do?\u201dThis question was posed just after I had given a presentation on entrepreneurship to a group of MBA candidates at Florida Atlantic University. I was momentarily startled by the question. I was sure I hadn\u2019t said anything that suggested success in business required a cutthroat approach.
<\/p>\nStill, the question was understandable. When Hollywood depicts business and businesspeople, it is more often than not in a negative light. And when Wall Street, the banking community, and the insurance industry screw their clients\u2014as they\u2019ve done so notoriously lately\u2014how could any young person think any differently?
<\/p>\nSo I told the young people in my audience what I\u2019m about to tell you today.
<\/p>\nIt is definitely not necessary to be bad<\/em> to be good<\/em> in business.<\/strong> [Including the bail bonds business.]<\/em>\u00a0But the path to business success\u2014and this is especially true for small businesses\u2014is booby-trapped with temptations to do the wrong thing.
<\/p>\nI have been starting and growing businesses ever since I was a teenager, and was never tempted to violate my conscience until I went to work for a South Florida direct-marketing company when I was in my early 30s.<\/p>\n
During my time there, I accomplished a lot that I am still proud of. But I also got involved with a few marketing schemes that were misleading. These got me into regulatory trouble and cost me a lot of money.
<\/p>\nLooking back at it now, I feel foolish to have allowed myself to act that way. The projects that made the most money in the long run were the good ones. The flim-flam stuff was good only for short-term money. I could have done better had I walked a narrower line.
<\/p>\nMost of the successful businesspeople I know are honest men and women<\/strong> who treat their colleagues, vendors, and customers as they would like to be treated themselves. But there are a good number who do cut corners now and then. And there are a few who are bad\u2014who seem to derive pleasure from causing others harm.
<\/p>\nI\u2019ve known direct-mail marketers who bargained with their printers and letter shops to provide service at below cost simply because they knew these guys needed to keep their staffs employed.
<\/p>\nI\u2019ve known owners of profitable businesses who paid lower-level employees minimum wage simply because they could get away with it.
<\/p>\nI once worked with a man who refused to pay me my equity in a business when I wanted to get out simply because he knew I wouldn\u2019t sue him.
<\/p>\nI once worked with a consultant who slandered my client on the Internet as a way to generate business for himself\u2014then had the nerve to teach his dirty trick to people who bought his largely plagiarized marketing program.<\/p>\n
The list is endless…
<\/p>\nThese rotten apples prove<\/em> that you can become successful by being ruthless. But if you look at their lives, you can see that their path is not easier, faster, or emotionally satisfying in the end. When you grow your business by being devious, your character is tainted by your actions. You become jealous of your competitors, distrustful of your employees, and suspicious of almost everyone you deal with because you assume they think the way you think. As time goes by, you find yourself spending most of your time fighting to stay in business. It\u2019s a miserable way to get rich.
<\/p>\nMy experience tells me that ruthlessness is not an essential component of entrepreneurial success. Success is always a product of…<\/p>\n
\n
- \u2022 Hard work<\/li>\n
- \u2022 Long hours<\/li>\n
- \u2022 The ability to focus<\/li>\n
- \u2022 Marketing know-how<\/li>\n
- \u2022 The will to carry on when faced with any obstacle.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Wise business people understand that the trust and loyalty they\u2019ve earned will pave golden paths of opportunity.<\/strong> With each passing year, every dollar will come more easily because of all the relationships they have developed along the way.
<\/p>\nMachiavellian business tactics are self-defeating. All those people you suckered will remember you. In their own quiet but powerful ways, they will do whatever they can to see you punished. That may mean anything from ignoring your next sales effort to denouncing you on the Internet to reporting you to the authorities\u2014even to blowing your head off.
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The dozens of \u201cgood\u201d businesspeople I work with these days are open and honest in their dealings, generous with their time and knowledge, and always willing to share in areas of mutual interest.
<\/p>\n. . .
<\/p>\nA few years ago, I loaned one of my jiu jitsu instructors $5,000. He was embarrassed when he asked for it, but he needed the money\u2014and I really wanted to help him out. He paid me back every dollar, insisting on paying me interest, too. So when he came to me recently and asked for advice on a business he wanted to start, I was happy to give it to him\u2014and to invest a considerable amount of money in the business as well.
<\/p>\nDonald Trump presents himself as a very tough businessman. And I\u2019m sure he drives a hard bargain. But I don\u2019t think he\u2019s ruthless. I\u2019ve heard from people who\u2019ve worked with him that his deals are generally fair\u2014and although he can be a bit pompous, his business demeanor is usually measured and respectful.
<\/p>\nI have written about Bill Bonner before. Of all the clients I\u2019ve had, he is one of the most impressive in terms of the way he treats people. In more than 14 years of working with him, I\u2019ve never heard him say a bad word about anyone. And I\u2019ve never heard anyone say a bad word about him.
<\/p>\nTreating people fairly is like putting money in the bank and collecting compound interest. As the years go by, your account will grow gradually larger and then, suddenly, it will get huge. When that happens, you can enjoy continued success without working very hard because you will have banked so much good will.
<\/p>\nOne caveat: Treating people well and fairly works for 95% of those you come in contact with. As for the other 5%\u2014well, there\u2019s not much you can do except try to avoid them in the first place.
<\/p>\nSo, before you go into business with anyone (an employee, a colleague, a vendor\u2014anyone), get to know him on a personal basis. Meet him. Ask questions. Ask for references. Check them. If you feel at all concerned that you might be dealing with one of the rotten few, take a pass.
<\/p>\nOver the years, I\u2019ve become a better businessman because I\u2019ve been influenced by people of good character who were kind enough to give me lots of good advice.
<\/p>\nAmong the things I\u2019ve learned, I recommend the following \u201ccommandments\u201d to you:<\/p>\n
The 10 Commandments of Doing \u201cGood\u201d in Business . . .<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Do you have to be cutthroat to be a successful bail bondsman? While the bail bonds industry does not have the most respected reputation, most of the bail bondsmen that I know are good decent businessmen. I liked the article from\u00a0Mark Ford, editor of\u00a0Creating Wealth so much, I thought I would post some of the best excepts from it here.\u2026 Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[44],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bailbondscompanydirectory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4739"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bailbondscompanydirectory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bailbondscompanydirectory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bailbondscompanydirectory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bailbondscompanydirectory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4739"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.bailbondscompanydirectory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4749,"href":"https:\/\/www.bailbondscompanydirectory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4739\/revisions\/4749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bailbondscompanydirectory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bailbondscompanydirectory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bailbondscompanydirectory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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