I don’t pretend to know a lot about how to “do business,” but like most people, I have heard the phrase it’s not personal, it’s just business more than once.
Being a sensitive, creative, energetic, and loyal type of person, I have never really understood how to separate what is business from what is personal. Not only that, but if those things SHOULD be separated, how do you separate them?
I’m a very personal businessperson
I have been doing my best to learn marketing and generally good business practices from the likes of Naomi Dunford and Dave Navarro, with great results so far (or at least I think so!). The more I learn from them about how to approach people, how to value relationships, and how to create mutually beneficial partnerships, the more I understand just how personal business really is.
How not to get your feelings (too) hurt
If you are the kind of person who takes business very personally, that means that your failures in business – just like failures in life – are going to seriously bring you down. You are going to feel sad. You might even dive into a pan of brownies for a while (if that’s your thing). So how do you get past this kind of connection to your work? How do you cope if you take business personally?
Short answer: you don’t get past it.
Long answer: you don’t get past it, but you can shape your way of communicating and understanding so that it doesn’t actively hurt your feelings when things don’t work out, when there’s a misunderstanding, or when personalities or expectations just don’t mesh.
That sounds an awful lot like RELATIONSHIP ADVICE to me!
That’s because it is relationship advice – because every business relationship, just like every personal relationship, is based on people. Not on faceless entities, not on two or three websites hitting it off and becoming internet BFFs.
Business is personal because it’s about people. It’s about connections. It’s about relationships.
So go ahead – be vulnerable. Take that risk. Your business will be better for it.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh Rachael! I’m sending big virtual hugs to my “Feeler” friend. We only go up from here, yes? ((((hugs))))
That’s what I’m hoping! :) Thanks for the comment, my awesome friend.