Giving, sharing or altruism in business and the advantages of positive thinking

David McMullan of the McMullan Group and I entered a philosophical mode as we retired to the Jolly Brewer in Milton for a quick lunch inbetween discussions on newsletter and other designs.

We both shared an enjoyment of meeting with others from different business backgrounds and were happy to share our experience and advice if asked. But why did we do it unpaid a lot of the time? Our conclusion was that there were benefits in the longer term: The building of trust and relationships that in turn often lead to new opportunities where we would benefit in a Win Win situation. David had impressed me previously by the open way that he had welcomed Graham, a potential competitor in the fleet management area, to our our networking meetings at HBN and offered assistance. A closer business relationship has grown with an added synergy due to the different skill set the two bring to it.

The key though is not to expect a return or consciously work towards it with particular objectives in mind- that would be more on the manipulative side. The objective is to share (without getting into the realm of business incompetence), preferably across a spectrum of contacts and be pleasantly surprised at the opportunities that do arise at a point in the future, without one necessarly knowing what form they may take. That's how Milton Contact entered self publishing or learnt about blogging!

Our second mutual experience was that thinking positively about setting and achieveing an objective was far more successful than worrying about all the potential hurdles in the way; the latter more likely to lead to giving up trying before even beginning to go down a new path.

Hunger stilled and mind stimulated, we returned to battle with the more mundane realities of Spreadsheets.