Want to Get Ahead in Business? Be Helpful

My schedule is always full. Starting a business is no small feat, it isn’t uncommon for me to put in 12-hour days, six or seven days a week – I sleep the eighth day of the week.

Eighth day?

Despite my hectic life, when complete strangers call me up and ask for help, I make the time to listen, and do what I can, if possible.

Be it a fellow entrepreneur, looking for guidance, an unemployed person looking for work, a recent university graduate looking for their big break, I’ve been approached by and helped many people, in many different situations.

Karma may be real, or some idea invented by a creative genius that just needed a word for the phrase: “what goes around comes around,” but that phrase does have truth embedded within.

Over my years as a print and broadcast journalist I saw all too often how what goes around comes around. Eager, young, fellow journalists, that stepped on and over others to climb to the top. Now, many of those people are out of work, struggling put food on their table.

When I was in the corporate world, I also saw how what goes around comes around too.

People kissing up to their bosses, or their boss’ boss, always looking for an opportunity to put others down so they appeared to be the only light in a dark room. They’ll probably die in a dark room, alone, because in the end, what goes around does come around.

All throughout my journalism career and my time in the corporate world, I was always very helpful.

I helped others track down sources, secure interviews with hard to reach people, or even just bounce story ideas off of – regardless of my own deadlines. I’d help PhotoShop images even though they had nothing to do with my project, I’d take on mundane tasks to assist an over-worked colleague, I’d even just listen to someone vent if they had a bad day.

My colleagues and teams all loved me, because no matter how dim their day was looking, they knew they could come to me, and I’d do whatever I could, no matter how busy I was.

And on occasion, when I needed an ear to listen, or an extra set of hands to help out, I could always count on someone to be there for me.

Because what goes around really does come around.

Not that I’d intentionally do things to reduce my workload. I think it’s part of being a good person to just be helpful whenever someone is in need.

If you’re walking out of a building, and you see someone walking toward you to enter that building, arms loaded with packages, do you not hold the door so they don’t stumble and drop their armful?

Maybe you don’t.

Sadly, in our ever increasingly busy world, I’ve noticed our society has become less compassionate and caring over the years.

Twenty years ago, it wasn’t uncommon for someone to hold the door for others behind them, to let others into their lane of traffic when their lane was about to end, to help a frail senior citizen across the street.

These days, people walk through doors as if they are the only ones that matter, they rush up practically scraping the bumper of the car in front to intentionally block anyone from cutting in front of them, and that frail senior gets honked at by drivers frustrated that they are still crossing the street, despite the light changing color.

We certainly live in less helpful times, which is really too bad.

Because what goes around comes around.

This is especially true when you’re building a business.

No one can build a business alone. You need a lot of help. You are the new person in the big bold world of business.

If you’ve been strutting through doorways letting the door slam behind you, you may prematurely end your business, before it even has a shot of existing.

No one likes someone that constantly ignores others, puts their self-interests ahead of anyone else’s, and barricades themselves in their office tower, ignoring calls from anyone they feel beneath them.

One day, the phone will stop ringing from those you ignore – they’ll get the message. And so too, will others who talk to those who you’ve ignored, pissed-off, upset, stabbed in the back, or in any other way been unkind too.

And one day, when you reach out to someone because you need a hand, and we all do eventually, your phone calls will be ignored.

Because what goes around does come around.

Karma really is a bitch. But she’s a fair and bright one at that.

Even direct competitive giants in the tech world, founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates and Apple’s founder, Steve Jobs, returned each other’s calls.

And we’ve all seen how successful Microsoft and Apple have become.

Being helpful shouldn’t be a second thought.

Always be helpful, no matter what.

Because what goes around, comes around.