Relationships matter

Relationships matter in personal, work and life in general. This may seem like the most obvious freakin’ saying on the planet, but yet I see people ignore this concept on daily basis. Quite often, this is due to people thinking short-term gain instead of nurturing those long-term relationships.

Sometimes it can be as silly as a young sales person being overly pushy due to a sales quota at month end. They are looking to close quota and may end up burning the relationship trying to force a customer to spend more money without solving any problems for them.

Even a lot of executives I work with need a good reminder that relationships matter. I was recently told to basically fuck off by an executive as we weren’t ready to invest and open an allocation for his company. He “kindly” told me that he’ll go with a competitor and will not be looking to work with us in the future.

I’m immune to these comments at this point as it’s part of the job and I understand people not being happy that we can’t invest right now. But truth is that quite often, they come back needing something from us in the future and I’m much less inclined to help someone who was a jerk to me earlier.

People don’t forget how you treated them in the past. Relationships matter.