There is this opinion that to be in business you to be a first class jerk.  I don’t know about you but why would you want to think this way?  I really don’t think you need to be a jerk to survive in business.  I can tell you from personal experience that it can be a cut throat world out there… but remember if you live by the sword you will die by the sword.  There are many examples of how in the modern world people are not jerks and are doing well in business.  I will leave it up to you to find them.

We have to move forward from the greed inspired motives and bring back the heart to business.  What happened to businesses supporting local communities?  I know some do and I realise that what I am saying may be (unfortunately) generalised.  But it’s getting worse in my opinion.  We have this stupid image of business as harsh, tough and cutthroat.  Why?

It’s time for a change.  I hear read story after story of people who are willing to be a jerk in business and they say things like, ‘It’s business’.  I am arguing here for an embodiment of ethics not just a consideration of them.  It’s quite one thing to say you are business person with heart but another to be living and breathing it.  Why don’t you give it a go?

A few weeks ago my wife and I acquired a couple of watches from my father that he had been given for free. Our first thought was let’s take them to the local pawn shop to see if we can get some money back for them. I know… what can I say it’s the entrepreneur in me. When we got there we saw what I think is a blight on pawn shops. A lady who was white, shaking and clearly in need of a fix was standing at the counter with a pile of DVD’s. I looked around and it occurred to me… what kind of business profits off the failure of society more so than the pawn shop? That aside, I noticed something else. And yes, considering I am on dreams, the heart and so on at the moment (for some reason) I noticed that I was standing in the house of broken dreams.

When you travel into a store like the one I went to you notice the guitars, the drum kits, the stereo systems and the like on display. How did they get there? Drug users, failed musicians, trades people who can’t get work and so on put them there. Where do the desperate, the failures and the like go when there is nowhere else to go?

The pawn shop is a business that makes it’s profit on broken dreams

The world is a harsh place. For every success there are a hundred failures. If you don’t believe me take a trip to any major city and have a look at a pawn shop. It’s the place where the end of line has been reached for a lot of people. People who had dreams of their own, desires but somehow missed out. These are the ones that didn’t make it. When I went to the store it really struck me how heart wrenching it is when you have had a dream in your grasp and it was ripped out of your hands. You do get desperate. You do begin to think… what did I do to deserve this? The answer to that is beyond this post… sure I could reason it out… blame people, God, whoever. But at the end of the day the broken dream is still there isn’t it?

Should we blame the pawn shops for cashing in on broken dreams?

The question perhaps should be framed this way: Why do pawn shops exist? They exist because there is a demand for them. This stems from the need for people to sell something or offload something in exchange for something else. Eventually as a meditated on the situation I came to the point in my thinking where I reached a paradox. Here we have a business that takes away things in exchange for money because people have a need. The businesses like Cash Converters exist because someone is there to feed them. The need is the problem not the shop. Take away the need and you take away the shop. This raises another question:

Why are there so many broken dreams?

What happens to a life when it falls short of it’s potential? I don’t really know. I can say that I was reminded of it at Cash Converters the other day when I saw all of the lost hope in the eyes of the people there. The reality is why does a business decide to profit of broken dreams. I am not one of those people who believe that businesses can sell whatever they like. Greed is not good.

Businesses need to bring the heart back

Making money can be done in a way that society is improved and not devalued. I think establishments like Cash Converters elevate the status of the dollar above human worth. As Gordon Gecko says: ‘Greed is good’. A business that profits off broken dreams and people who do the same have lost their heart. Business can be conducted in a way that it profits both the owners and the customers without destroying lives. So, I hear you say: What about some examples?

Examples of businesses with heart

The first place that comes to mind for me, is Gloria Jeans coffee. On this page you can read about the things they are doing to build a better future in various communities. W.I.S.E is another example of what I am talking about and you can watch this video below to explain it better than I can:

This is social entrepreneurship. A more recent famous example can be found in Richard Branson’s decision to invest future profits in reducing global warming:

What about another example? Imagine taking over a company at a young age and running yourself into the ground with stress? That’s exactly what Ricardo Semler did. To combat that he set out to build a democratic workplace where people got to vote for their managers, negotiate their pay scales, choose their work hours and so on. If you are ever in the mood I would recommend reading the book called Maverick or the Seven Day Weekend. Recently the 7:30 report ran this story on him:

I could go on for hours citing examples of people who have changed their businesses by putting the heart first. For me, a business should be about building dreams not destroying them. It should be about letting those who make it help build something for those who can’t. It’s a two way street that goes beyond personal wealth into the area of social wealth where we build this world as well as success. I don’t think there can be anything wrong with that?

This post is the first in a number of posts on bringing the heart back to business. It’s the theme of the month at the moment!

Once I had great ambitions to be a successful businessman like Richard Branson, Ricardo Semler, Bill Gates or Steve Jobs… maybe. Yet, my two failed attempts so far have taught me that perhaps this path is not for me. I can say that I learned a lot from failing. In particular I learned how not to succeed. *Coughs* More specifically, I learned five things that if I knew at the time I would have changed the path I was on. It wasn’t until afterwards that I knew I was up the creek. By then it was too late.

Not listening to my guts

I can’t count the amount of times my intuition told me that I was doing something wrong. One event I can remember committing to a 12 month plus work cycle thinking in my head… oh yes this is great idea. Then as I sat down to start it my heart sank. Have you ever had that feeling? I just knew on the inside that it was a bad choice. But alas, I soldiered on to fail miserably in defeat.

Not taking feedback seriously

When you have a product that isn’t selling the first, no the VERY first thing you ask yourself is why. The next thing you ask what are people saying about my product. I read watched on shoemoney.com this week that to be a successful blogger you need an edge. But that edge needs to be understood by your customers and how will you know you have them talking about it unless you get feedback to check. Feedback is really from cybernetics… it means when the system takes an output, learns from it and acts accordingly. In my case (both times) I ignored what people were saying… more commonly known as THE BUZZ. Hence, my input never changed and so the cycle of debt increase kept going. Pay attention to feedback!

Not questioning my own ideas

Hitler, Stalin, Napoleon, Alexander the Great, Cleopatra all have something in common. What? They were megalomaniacs of course. They never really thought through some of their ideas and I would say didn’t have a good critique process in place. Sure, it’s nice to be smart, wonderful and dashing… however do your ideas suck? If they don’t who told you they don’t? Mum? Ask someone you know who will tell you the truth and then listen to them. It’s not personal it’s about a product. Sure, you put your heart into it… but constructive criticism and even mindless sledging can improve you. If it leads to cash… who’s going to complain?

Not listening to my family

I don’t know how many times I told my wife she was wrong. Well, she was right. So was my Dad and of course a few others. Even though your family can be very discouraging at times and painful … listen to them. They may just be right about something.

Trusting in a product that wasn’t market researched

Finally… don’t ever go to market to buy a fat pig without first knowing if you can sell that pig and make a profit. Business is not all about profit but to keep it going it sure helps. If you are thinking of launching a product make sure in advance that you are confident about the market for it. Don’t be like me and hope to God it will work because it has to. Things in society, become popular through social networking, word of mouth and trust. Research these things… find out what people will say, how your idea will spread (if it will) and so on. If your product is not going to at least make it’s money back and then some… forget it. As a Doctor market research friend of mine used to say, ‘research, research, research.’

I hope this helps you to avoid the 20k plus disaster I had in business. Have I learned… yes. Some would say I have become overcautious and now take a long time to make business decisions. Me, I will get back on my feet again but let me tell you… I won’t do the above five again. Not anytime soon anyway.

Imagine this: my two daughters were playing shops the other day when my eldest talked my youngest into buying a plastic vegetable from her imaginary mart for 20 cents.  I walked in as my daughter decided to hand over the real money for something she already owned and I wondered is this an early sign of a entrepreneurship?  In Richard Branson’s autobiography he notes that a schoolteacher said he would end up either in jail or in business.

Recognising Entrepreneurial Skills

In my daughters case you might say she is showing evil skills.  I beg to differ.  She is looking for a creative way to make money.  Albeit, an unethical one.  Sure with a little training and maybe some time in the school or hard knocks she will get there.  Actually, I think she wants to be a vet now.  Either way those entrepreneurial skills she has can be developed to help her be the best paid vet in Queensland.

How to nurture those entrepreneurial skills

One of the things you need to realise is that entrepreneurial skills is to find some activity that supplements their core personality.  Now at the risk of sounding corny I like what I saw on the girl scouts cookie page:

Many successful business women today say they got their start selling Girl Scout Cookies. Girls practice useful life skills like planning, decision-making, and customer service. During cookie activities, girls are members of a team working towards a common goal, with each girl striving to do her best. Every local troop/group is encouraged to set realistic goals, such as planning field trips and community service projects, to accomplish during the year. The money earned from cookie activities helps the troop/group achieve its goals.   So when your local Girl Scouts come calling with this year’s best-selling cookies, remember you’re saying hello to tomorrow’s business leaders.”

Of course selling girl scouts cookies is one way to train up your kid in the way the should go.  I am looking at such things and wondering now what can I do to facilitate those skills to give my children the best possible future.