You get what you give

5th May 2011

Last week I met a lovely man, but a struggling businessman. His business has almost halved in turnover over the past year or so, and he was at a stage where he was seriously wondering whether to continue with his enterprise, or close it down and walk away.

Now of course my business is based on my knowledge, experience, training and coaching skills, so to give away ideas and tips for nothing should not really be considered good practice, however I found myself offering help and advice to a man who clearly needed a bit of a lift in life. He was extremely grateful, but also a little surprised. “How can you afford to give away this advice?” he asked, to which I probably replied something about giving him something in our short time together, so he could see how much he could potentially learn from me , if he were to use my services over a longer term.

In reality, however, there is little chance he will take me on, as he is highly unlikely to be able to create enough positive cash flow to pay me, along with his other creditors. So whilst I was kidding myself that I was investing my time, so I would get a good return in due course, in fact in my heart of hearts, I knew I was giving something away that just might genuinely help someone, without any apparent benefit to myself.

On reflection, however, I thought that whatever the outcome of our meeting hopefully it gave him something positive to work with, and I was glad that I had acted in this way. I am an absolute believer that you will always get out of life what you put in, and I know that somewhere in the future I will get my return on investment

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