SURROUND YOURSELF WITH GOOD PEOPLE

People Who Are Ethical, Compassionate, Trustworthy & Smart

You hear stories all the time of people being taken advantage of, cheated or misled in business.  The best way to avoid and, yes, even sometimes deal with these situations is to surround yourself with good people.

Sometimes it’s easy to focus on the bad ones.  Last month, one of my best “good people” passed away.  I decided maybe it was time to stop and honor him and all the other good people in my life and business.

One of the first things I did with my business was to create a “Values Statement.” Conflict in business often happens when values are not in alignment.

It’s not that I haven’t had my share of people with conflicting values, I’ve had plenty.  Each time, we get better at dealing with situations like theft, cheating, and dishonesty.  I’m not saying it’s pleasant, but we live through it and somehow take away the lesson from it and grow stronger with integrity.

YOUR “GOOD PEOPLE” ARE TREASURE

My friend who passed away was my attorney.  I’ve known him for 23 years. It doesn’t seem like it was that long.  I was introduced to him by one of my other “good people,” another attorney.  He was brilliant and ethical and, the beautiful thing was, we shared the same values.  He helped me through some tight spots several times where I came out smelling like a rose.  He would talk to me for as long as it took, and strategize with me and made me feel safe and good about all my decisions and my moves. It’s because he was honest and solid.

Since then, we had other connections, through our kids’ school and friendship and new businesses and, well, the last thing I told him was that he saved my skin with some smart advice. I went to him with a new complex business situation, and we met, I thought we were finished. Then he called me a couple of weeks later and warned me, told me I needed to take care of it.  Your good people save you from suffering a loss by advance planning.

He never charged me enough.  He cared about the law and his people, and now, I just feel sorry that I didn’t do more for him.  That’s one of the hardest lessons.  So, my advice to you, do more for your ‘good people”. Let them know they are treasures with clear words and actions.

Your good people tell you the truth.  I went to him with situations, and he’d say “you don’t want to get into that kind of business, do you?” and he was right.  I didn’t have any desire to do what needed to be done in that type of business. Good people save you from making mistakes. 

WHAT’S MORE…

Good people encourage you to be better.  They tell you if you’re wrong and need to be a someone else’s “good person”. I’m going to miss him.

I still have a lot of good people in my life and business.  Look at my business —->  Ashlie, Amanda, Shianne, Sylvie.  My business is made up of “good people”.  It’s worth the time and effort to find those good people.  How do you do that?  Trust your intuition.  When you find out people don’t share your values, let them go.  Don’t try to hold onto them, it just makes it worse. 

My customers are good people.  I’m to a point where I gladly release customers who don’t share the same values.  Same story, don’t hold on, it only makes it worse.  It just leaves more room for more “good people”.  Some of you know from the last Beta we did, I interviewed the people who bought into the membership beta.  Life is too short to surround ourselves with the wrong people.  You as health coaches need to be especially careful since you work so closely with your clients.

If you look in real life, it is very hard to describe people as good people, bad people, heroes or villains. People aren’t bad people. They all have their justifications. Lennie James

The number one secret I have for you that will enable you to surround yourself with more “good people”; you must be Good. Be the best “Good Person” you can be.  Then when you think you can’t be any better, be better.

The number two secret is there a very few bad people.  They just don’t share your values.  Don’t try to be good for them.  Be good for you. Don’t try to change their values, but do know better than to work with them.

The number three secret is once you find your “good people,” hang onto them.