— July 22, 2010 —
By Tobin Harris
There’s something incredibly powerful and rewarding about giving. You get a lot from making people feel good, for example:
- Helping people get closer to their dreams.
- Giving people more than they expected in a world where little comes for free.
- Seeing someone excited by what you’re offering.
- Doing your best and seeing it appreciated and even reciprocated.
- Standing by someone when it’s easier to blow the deal.
If you want to be someone who gives, why limit that to your personal life? Business and pleasure are seldom separate things, we’re the same people in and out of work.
Sometimes we need to wear different hats; we need to take a harder attitude in work. This is sad. Why should we use different rules in and out of work? Why maintain different codes of conduct? Our work should let us be ourselves.
Building relationships is mostly about giving. For me, giving is actually harder than taking. Giving requires being smart, listening closely and finding opportunities to help people. It’s a skill that you have to practice.
At Engine Room Apps, I think our small team has a giving culture. We want to help people. We want to work with clients who help us in return. We want to make the 6-12 hours a day we all spend in our offices more enjoyable and lucrative for everyone.
