December 2, 2004
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I just got out of a progress meeting at my office. It was regarding a project that we are working on where we discovered that the engineer forgot to specify about $5,000.00 of materials on a job that are going to be needed to make a particular system work. We were discussing options when someone came up with the idea of giving them a lesser quality item than what we sold them on another portion of the job in order to make up the monetary difference. This person went on to say, “They will never know the difference.”
When that much money is at stake, that’s a tempting thing to do, but I’m about to tell you why that can’t even enter the realm of possibility…
I’ve noticed on several blogs that folks are posting top ten lists. So for all of my son’s friends who are about to graduate and enter the work force, here is my top ten list of things I’ve learned about succeeding in business:
- While I believe in a fairly gray world, business ethics are pretty black and white. Always do the ethical thing because anything done in darkness is going to come to light. You may think you have it covered up, but it’s going to come back and bite you in the ass.
- Be content to do the right thing. It might not always bring the biggest paycheck but you can sleep at night
- A happy customer brings referrals; an unhappy customer will make your life a living hell.
- Show everyone at your place of business the same level of respect, you don’t know which one of them you might be working for later.
- Although you may be a genius, getting other people’s point of view can be very enlightening. You don’t know everything even if you think you do.
- Do more than you’re asked to do.
- Be creative.
- If you make a mistake, come up with a plan to rectify the problem and then admit the mistake immediately to your supervisor. Offer your suggestion about what to do, but then ask your supervisor what they would like for you to do.
- Take accolades with humility. Nobody likes a showboat.
- Don’t take yourself too seriously. Have fun, life is much to short not too.
These suggestions won’t make you rich and won’t appear in any motivational book. Donald Trump won’t read them on “The Apprentice” (even though he does have that spectacular comb-over!). Even though some of these were learned the hard way, they continue to serve me well.
- While I believe in a fairly gray world, business ethics are pretty black and white. Always do the ethical thing because anything done in darkness is going to come to light. You may think you have it covered up, but it’s going to come back and bite you in the ass.
