I always say: business and life are all about relationships. When your relationships are going well, everything else takes care of itself.
So what is the key to relationships?
What is the one thing you can do to make sure your relationships are strong, and mutually beneficial?
Allow me to answer with a quick story:
A man wakes up one morning and something tells him it’s his “time.”
He thinks, “Am I really about to die?”
Just then, an angel comes through the window.
“It’s your time,” the angels says. “Do you want to go to heaven, or hell?”
It sounds like a trick question to the man. The angel reads his reticence, and informs him that he can take him to see both.
They go to hell first. There are people sitting at these long tables with tons of the best food the man has ever seen - lobster and steaks and cakes and souffles and all the rest of it.
Yet, all these people are skinny as a bone. They're so thin and weak they're slumping in their chairs.
The angel says to the man, "These people are always withering away because they can't bend their arms. They're unable to feed themselves. That's hell."
Then they go to heaven.
It's a similar scene: the same long tables, with tons of the best food. The finest delicacies. Except these people are fit, joyous and happy.
Yet - they can't bend their arms either.
"How can this be?" the man says to the angel. "These people can't move their arms either. How are they thriving?"
"These people have learned to feed the person next to them, since they cant feed themselves," the angel replies. "That's heaven."
The moral is:
Take care of the people around you, and you will be taken care of. Think only of yourself and your own wants and needs, and you imprison yourself in hell.
Of course it's more complicated than that, but if you always remember that selflessness is THE key to relationships, I think you'll do pretty well!
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Quote of the Day: "I'm kind of comfortable with getting older because it's better then the other option, which is being dead. So I'll take getting older” – George Clooney
Song of the Day: "Truth Hurts" by Lizzo
*My latest book; "Living on Purpose: Stories about Faith, Fortune and Fitness that will lead you to an Extraordinary Life", is available for order - Click here*
