What if Business or Personal Gain Wasn’t a Concern? Would You Act Differently?

What if you didn’t care about making friends?  What if you didn’t care about developing relationships for  future business?  What if you didn’t care about losing current business?  How would you talk to people?  What if you were free to give your honest to goodness opinion without any concern for negative consequences?

Would you feel freed up to tell people the whole truth?  Would you still be polite and try not to hurt anyone’s feelings?

How much of what we say and do is tied up with our financial and personal self interest?  Are we nice to people because we want to hold open the possibility for some future gain for ourselves? 

How about the comments that we leave here at Active Rain?  Do we really say what needs to be said or do we say things for selfish reasons.  Maybe we should be saying things but don’t because we don’t want to offend someone who might be able to refer us some future business.  Maybe we kiss up to popular members and jump on a popular bandwagon in hopes of showing others that we fit in.

There was an episode in Star Trek where the aliens from an advanced culture were able to pick up your thoughts.  No need for talking.  No hiding what you really thought.  Would this create bitter resentment amongst each other or would it speed up the process of learning and improving oneself?

Parents usually are very frank with their young children.  They tell them when they are good and when they are bad.  They have no problem telling them their honest opinions.  Their purpose is to try to teach their children and protect them from doing the wrong thing.  If the child is smart, they’ll listen and progress through life with fewer setbacks.  Of course, experience is the best teacher but avoiding major setbacks can get you to your goals a lot faster. 

When we sugar coat the truth for our sellers about their home, are we really helping them?  When we smell a strong offensive cat odor, do we ignore it because the seller loves their little kitty and if you offend kitty, you in effect offend them?   Or do we have the courage to come out and say that something needs to be done about the cat odor in order to get the most for their home?

A little kid will flat out say that someone’s breath stinks of cigarettes or grandpa talks crazy after a few drinks.  They don’t do it to be mean.  They just tell it like they see it.  The truth might hurt at first but I bet things are done immediately to change the problems.  Is this not better than avoiding the truth and allowing the person to continue to unknowingly offend more people? 

The people who come out and speak their mind usually initially shock people.  It’s shocking because it is so rare.  I love it when someone speaks their mind.  I might not agree with them but at least I know where they stand. I can make a quick decision as to spend more time in the relationship or to quickly move on. 

Actually, I think people who don’t speak their mind are time wasters.  I’d rather have a client quickly tell me what’s on their mind than having to try to read between the lines and decipher their body language.   If they don’t want to continue the relationship, tell me why and let’s either fix it or move on. 

Jim Carey had a movie named Liar, Liar.  I didn’t watch all of it but the premise was that he could do nothing but tell the truth when he spoke.  It made for some really funny scenes. It made me wonder what life would be like if everyone was like that.

Real estate is known for agents who really stretch the truth and puff up properties.  Many agents are perceived as nothing but used car salespeople who will say anything to close a deal.  I’m trying a different approach.  I’m trying to:

• Be as open and innocent as a child because they have no fear and don’t know any better.
• Be as wise and straight forward as an “old fart” who doesn’t really care what you think about them.
• Be loving and courteous because it’s just the right thing to do.
• Be humorous and fun because life is but a dream.  We might as well enjoy the ride.

I’m not there yet but every day is an opportunity to get a little better at it.

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