Close friends you can trust is a key part of success life & business. Very lucky to have made some amazing life-long friends at 4Networking (taken at our end of year Christmas Party at Liverpool, Sydney).
With full thanks to Martha Arifin for writing this great article on the “Best of Times & The Worst of Times”. It got me really reflecting on what True Friendship is, how important it is to business & marketing success.
Not just during 2013, but previous years – I can trace back a lot of bad experiences coming from being burnt by working with the wrong people. I recall being a Marketing Manager at top Motoring & Services Association and it was honestly the most challenging and toxic job of my life. I was surrounded by people that just had it in for me and if anything – enjoyed and relished at the fact that I suffered and quote (this was actually said to me) “Take me down a few pegs”.
Not that long ago, I had a long term client that I did long hours for, did everything for, helped them make lots of money and then they kicked me out and didn’t pay me what was owing – rewarding me for my loyalty. I had someone I knew for many years, helped them make tons of money – and then you guessed it, because they didn’t agree with one of my decisions to help someone else – they were out of there, defaming me and being hostile towards me.
The good news is that these stories are actually quite minor in the scheme of things in that I have way more awesome friends today that people doing the wrong thing against me. I find when you are especially an Entrepreneur, in say your own Small Business and working hard on your Sales & Marketing all the time – you really really need to be surrounded by awesome friends. Business can be tough, we all need great support and of course talking more referrals – you need people that you trust who are actively speaking positively of your services around town.
Inspired by Martha Arifin to write this one (who is one awesome woman), I have learnt that in business, you got to be “Trusting” and at times you will be done over. The trick is spotting the signs as quickly as possible. My own Top 7 Warning Signs are:
1) People who take, take, take and just never give back.
2) People who gossip and attack others all the time (wait till your turn).
3) People who are emotional, swing quickly and unstable.
4) People who are superficial and are obsessed with money (don’t get me wrong, I love making money – but I would never put someone’s life before money as these characters would).
5) People who give you a bad or dangerous vibe.
6) People who don’t have many “Long Term” friends (can be a warning sign).
7) People who start biting you (usually they start attacking you before they make their big move).
So for me, watch out for these nasty times of people. They are out there, they can do tons of damage but fortunately – there aren’t too many of them which is just great! Thank you for taking the time to read this article and I hope you have a great day or night out there.
With Gratitude from Edward Zia!
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