I was kind of surprised today as I received a phone call from a person whom I’ve worked with in the past when it came to an event. For the most part I did it for fun and enjoyed what I was doing. Interestingly enough, apparently he needed help for a new project and expressed how he immediately contacted me as based on past experiences he felt this would be an ideal fit.

That made me think and re-affirm where many times if you are looking for opportunities in whatever it may be then just being active in the industry and making sure that you are giving your best will usually result in more opportunities in the future. Even if say the pay isn’t necessarily that great, just getting your name out there can go a long way. I can think of many times too where I know friends who simply volunteered their time in various events to then have people contacting them and asking if they would want to work with them.

What would you do if you were 100% certain that this one person who was talking to you acted like he was interested in say buying your product or service but you knew for sure that he would never actually buy anything from you? At the same time there was say a lineup of people who may be interested in doing business with you. Would you just brush him off and at minimum just say like a simple hello or would you actually take the time with them just like every other potential person?

That was a topic of debate I was hearing today as it seemed like most people simply said don’t waste time with people like that as they are simply taking up your time. That is kind of tricky too in some ways as you never know like in this case as while this person may never directly do business with you maybe in the future by establishing a good relationship they will refer people that they know who may benefit in working with you.

I have often observed too that the funny thing is if people mistreat a person who wouldn’t have done business with you anyways they will more than likely go out of their way to try and sabotage you in a different way. Example, if you are in some kind of a service industry they will actually go around trying to convince people you are bad. It’s stuff like this which is why I would say you would still have to acknowledge everyone to a certain extent. I guess like working in say a retail store you just have to be polite in informing the person that other people are waiting as well.

I thought this was kind of a fascinating topic to debate about when it comes to business. In a lot of cases people would say all companies care about is money. It doesn’t matter if one guy hates the other for personal reason. Essentially, if they each feel that they can make money or benefit from each other then they would do a deal. However, on the flip side people were saying that is so false as businesses have grudges with each other all the time which can often be a key influence as to whether or not they would cooperate.

For me I tend to think a business primarily deals with people and the transactions that happen because of the relationship that the two parties have with each other. So in that sense I don’t see why one would think just because two people can make say a lot of money together that they would if they despise each other deeply whether it be their values or history. Some other funny examples were how a creator of a product actually gave certain vendors inferior versions of its products for example simply for the sake of politics. That way they can say they tried to work with them and that it is their fault the product isn’t selling as it is with everyone else.

Would you still do business with someone if you knew for example you could easily make $100,000 with them but knowing that this same person is someone that scammed your friends or family into bankruptcy for example? Like in that type of scenario I have personally yet to see anyone not hold a grudge and just go on with business so to speak.

What a small world I thought today as I was doing a project with what I thought were people that I didn’t know. Essentially, we got together and introduced each other to see what our skill-sets were. It wasn’t until we started to talk about companies that we have been involved with in the past until things started to get interesting. Turn out, many of us actually did work together before except everyone just looks a bit different.

I was just thinking too, what a small world as if you work in a particular field most likely you will always bump into the people whom you have worked with in the past again and again. That kind of reminded me of the importance of never burning your bridges and trying to be professional as possible as you never really know when you may have to cooperate with the same people again if you decide to stay in the same industry or field.

This was kind of interesting as I saw a debate how there was this organization that for years have pretty much dominated a particular industry to the point that they had no competition and would appear that they could care less if say that mom and pop store went bankrupt. Interestingly enough they all of a sudden started to be a little more generous to people and the funny thing was everyone took that as a negative as they suspected there was an anterior motive for it.

It turned out that the industry they were in was slowing down globally and so they were trying to expand into different things which meant they were not necessarily the biggest anymore in regards to these new areas. So naturally it’s one of those situations where they want to get on the good side of those who do have the power. It would seem too that if they even attempt to do anything nice at this rate, regardless if it was genuine, people will automatically assume the worst in terms of intent based on their history.

I guess I can see how difficult it can be for people who have say the wealth and power where they easily forget that eventually you will need help from others again and so it isn’t a good idea to only be nice to people when you want something from them. At the same time this is like one of those thing that can be true when it comes to everything and that you have learned as a child I say. Of course there is a difference in terms of being generous and a sucker I guess you can say where it can easily be the other way around where when you have money people will just act nice to you to get what they want. Like always that is where due diligence and all comes in.