Be Selfless to be Selfish

Excerpt from The Man Who Was Too Lazy to Fail

Excerpt from The Man Who Was Too Lazy to Fail

If I didn’t prepare documents for my clients so they’re easy to understand, I would have to take the time to explain later.

If I let my business partner work hard to establish relationships with clients, if our partnership ends, guess who those clients will turn to?

If I micromanage my employees, they’ll become lazy or simply walk out the door, and I’d have to work more to find new workers.

If I didn’t treat my parents with respect, how should I expect them to treat me when they’re planning their living wills?

If I fed my cat cheap food and didn’t scoop her litter daily, guess what would happen to my house?

There is a shortsighted tendency to isolate the meaning of “customer” only to those who would pay us for services. But it doesn’t stop at money.

If you want something from someone, whether it’s money, consideration, an exchange/barter, or simply their best effort working FOR YOU, you have to put in the effort to help make their lives easier.

“People think I’m selfless when actually it’s the opposite. I am selfish in wanting to surround myself in happiness, and so I do my best to make everyone around me happy.” -Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama

Baseball Mud and the Delaware River

Split screen of baseball field

Split screen of baseball field

Wanna write some original content?

Log out of social media and do some gardening.

Get your grocery shopping done.

Go outside and play some baseball.

Stare at a 400-year old painting face to face.

See a movie in a real theater, with real people around you.

You’ll notice the nuts and bolts of life, how less saturated with color reality is.

How a VERY small percentage of people you talk to actually know what SMH stands for.

Listen to what they say, what really matters to them.

Listen to their lives, what they’re worried about, how they still can’t figure out that rattling noise under the hood of their car, and how they’re holding off going to the mechanic until after they pay their mortgage this month.

Sooner or later, someone will tell you something you didn’t know that has nothing to do with clickfunnels or viral marketing or influencers.

Did you know that before every game, umpires rub six dozen baseballs with mud from the Delaware River to roughen them up so pitchers can grip them more easily?

I caught a foul ball once. It wasn’t shiny or new looking.

My hand was numb for ten minutes.

I didn’t care about my smartphone at that moment.