This is not a Gerald Ratner style admission, for those not old enough to remember or not from the UK, well worth a read – Gerald Ratner’s quote.
Business is typically seen as this ‘make as much money as you can’ type of thing and sometimes at whatever human cost. In fact, the whole principle of capitalism is to always be increasing profit and once you have taken all the quality and cost out of your product or service, all that is left to do is squeeze the most costly asset, us, the humans.
So more money made = better at business.
I prefer to do something that I enjoy with people who I love as customers and as great people to collaborate and share my day with. Sure, I could make more money, but then that would be at the cost of relationships and things that matter to me.
What if we decided to abandon the pursuit of money and instead embraced the pursuit of humanity and relationships? What impact could that have on our lives? Would we have a more meaningful and caring society? Would we simply enjoy life more?
Once money is brought into any equation it often corrupts and poisons our thoughts and behaviour. We modify, we compromise, we change. We have all had that thought, ‘what would I do if money didn’t matter?’. Well, we can all chose not to allow money to matter.
So as most see business, I’m crap at it, thankfully.
Philip Dodson 