By the Ocean
Mucho Rain 74 Degrees
5:18 a.m.
I’ve come a long way when it comes to working with clients.
But you’d never know it, because I don’t look any different or probably even sound too different.
All of the changes happened on the inside, and that affected everything on the outside.
If you’re insecure, scared and you are waiting for the world to realize how brilliant you are, DON’T GO INTO THE CLIENT BUSINESS…unless you already know that you’re entering an intensive self-rehabilitation program that can easily extend for a decade or two.
That’s how I started. Early on, I just wanted the world to notice. I just wanted them to say it.
No one did. Because that’s not their job. That’s my job.
What this extreme level of lack and need led to for me was RIGIDITY, ANNOYANCE, and even ANGER. It led to the “my way or the highway” approach when it came to working with others. It led to treating human beings like they were something else. Like they were things that needed to be managed and controlled.
This mindset is cancer. In my world, it created a never-ending experience of “he did, she didn’t, they can’t,” where I was always the poor victim. ALWAYS.
It makes me laugh…NOW. But I was not laughing then.
And then one day, far more recently than I care to admit in public, something changed. Something dropped away. Something got much softer and more…HUMAN.
I realized that all of those people on the “other side” were people just like me. We each have our way of being. We each have our hopes, dreams and fears. We each have the way we are that’s never going to change.
And instead of shoving that into a “system,” I made room for it. I made room for what it means to be human. I allowed it, including from myself. And that changed everything.
I became softer, I loosened the limits, I became more gentle.
You don’t read about this approach in business books. The Matrix wants you to think that business is some type of war.
I consider business more like getting paid to play with friends. And if that’s the case, then “friends” are people you treat really, really well…not because you HAVE TO, because YOU WANT TO.
When in doubt, choose human. That’s what we’re all here for. We are here to make each other’s lives better.
On Tuesday, I’m presenting my views about how to do this when it comes to writing. The masses are being told that A.I. can write. I don’t know the correct word for what it does, but I know it’s not writing. My heart can feel it.
No one is out to get you. So what if you “go first” and decide to show up in the lives of your customers and clients with the same level of focus, patience and caring that you would with friends?
Are we allowed to do that?