Values and Vulnerabilities

Introduction:

Over the years of working with lots of companies, from publicly held companies, to small boutique firms, I’m surprised how many of  my expectations were flat-wrong. Smaller companies don’t necessarily maintain stronger ethics.  Large Corporations do not necessarily operate  without morals.

(For instance, who would have imagined that one of the country’s largest collection Bureau’s (FNCB) is also one of the most moral, ethical companies that I have ever worked with).

So, as I formally launch my newest venture, myDataExpert.com, I’ve been thinking a lot.  A lot about  values that I want to project.  A lot about the clients that I want to attract.  About my own shortcomings as a vendor, and what challenges people have working with me.  And benefits.

Sure, I want to only attract those clients who are most similarly aligned with my own core values, and with that, only work with the most effective practitioners in the industry, but I want to keep my mind open to the possibility that people will surprise me if I give them the chance –

Additionally:

In each blog I am going to mention one or two people who are important to me, and explain why they are important to me and what they taught me, and what values I recognized, or learned from them.

Values and Vulnerabilities:

Whether I am living my life equitably, and in equality with other people around me  is a huge deal to me.  In business, or in family life, I have been putting a lot of thought into the core values that I follow and commit myself to.   Not just following, but proactively asserting through demonstration in the way that I live and act.    But what are those values?

I know that it’s extremely important to listen to people, and take their thoughts into consideration, getting to know their needs before asserting our own ideas, etc.  Treating people with respect, and providing them with the experience of being totally understood.   But we all know that —  that’s the simple stuff…,

And frankly, that’s not what I am talking about here.  I’m talking about the ability to approach people with full acceptance of their true situation, without pre-judging them, and giving them the chance to show their true selves.  Through  their assertion of themselves toward us, they will show their true motives and ambitions, if we allow them.

Through allowing ourselves to be vulnerable, to the possibility that they will not take advantage, and not try to exploit the chance that we give them, is what I’m talking about.  To leave ourselves open to the possibility that they will do the right thing, provided the chance, despite our negative experiences in the past with the same situation.

I’m really thinking about this.  I don’t have nearly all the answers yet, but I think that it’s really an important thing, and something that I strive to achieve every day, which is full acceptance of other people and full acceptance of myself.

Intention:

The intention of this segment of my Blog will be to explain how I overcome the challenges of not being vulnerable, and how it affects my business decisions.  I’m going to take you on this journey with me, through the process, as business affects personal life, and as personal life affects business.

Dedicated:

This blog is dedicated to all the good people who have been mentors and teachers to me, and brought me through this process.

This blog (and my life) is dedicated to My wife, Ivana, who graciously spends time with the family while I travel afar, and makes our home lovely and a place that I look forward to coming home to, and never want to leave from.

This blog is dedicated o my partner Jerry Merkt, for whom I would otherwise not be in business today had it not been for;

This blog is dedicated to a lot of additional people, who I will talk more about in future entries.