Giving Without Expectation
I was sitting in a meeting the other day with the leader of a prominent non-profit in the Philadelphia area. This is a man that I have gotten to know over the past few years. To be honest, there is not a ton that I have to offer him. Yet he continues to meet with me and help me any way he can. Every time I meet with him be provides 2-3 quality introductions and some new perspective on how I should be running my business. There isn’t a better example for my topic this week: Giving without expectation.
A Bent Culture
It seems that in today’s world everyone lives by the mantra “what’s in it for me?” Now, this may be harder to identify, as people are very good at pretending it isn’t about what they can get. If you are in the business world, I am sure you see this all the time. Let me also preface this by saying that not everyone operates this way. It just seems like most people are only focused on themselves in our “me first” society. There are plenty of people at the top who do business for others, we just don’t shine the light on them, for whatever reason.
Motive
Truly giving without expectation boils down to motive. Is your motive to simply help someone or are you giving something in hopes of something in return? Many times this is extremely hard to determine. I have found that all you can control is your own actions.
I am sure at this point you are asking yourself why does this even matter? And that’s a important question! I believe that people who are truly willing to help others with no expectation of return will not only have the most business success but will also have the most personal success of knowing peace and happiness. Keeping “score” of who owes you is a draining and exhausting way to live.
More Than Just Business
One of the main reasons I write this blog is to help people. I don’t expect to get new clients from this or notoriety. I simply want to share things that I have learned so it may help someone else. I do enjoy meeting new people so I hope that can be a byproduct of this blog. However, if people just read what I write and use it to benefit themselves in some way, that is more than enough for me.
What is something you can do next week to really help someone without a thought of getting something in return?
Develop practices that teach you how to give, without expectation.
