The weekend of April 21 we attended our Rotary district’s annual conference. The keynote speaker was State Senator Rick Brinkley from Oklahoma. He was one of the best speakers I’ve ever heard; he was entertaining, funny and had a powerful message.
He made three points when it came to service and giving back to the community and those points also apply to business.
- Do good works (for others). In business, this translates to providing value so your customers realize they can’t live without you.
- Plant a lot of seeds and don’t worry if you don’t see them germinate right away. In business, this means your sales staff and you must always be generating new prospective customers, meeting people, developing referral relationships and anything else that can generate business now and in the future. Some seeds take longer to germinate than others and you have to keep the pipeline full.
- Pass the baton to others to keep those good deeds flowing. For business owners this is your exit plan. It pays to prepare your business and yourself for an eventual exit. You will get more money, your employees will keep their jobs, your customers will still get the value they want and your suppliers will retain a customer. All of this helps fuel the economy.
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou
