Sunday, February 19, 2012

Different kinds of people

Today's Business Lessons






Different kinds of people
 
By Francis J. Kong (The Philippine Star) 
Updated February 19, 2012 


From an anonymous source comes this material:

Some people are like wheels – they don’t work unless they’re pushed.

Some people are like trailers – they have to be pulled.

Some people are like kites – always up in the air, and if you don’t keep a string on them, they fly away.

Some people are like canoes – they have to be paddled.

Some people are like footballs – you never know which way they are going to bounce next.

Some people are like balloons – always puffed up, and you never know when they are going to blow up.

Some people are like flat tires – they have to be jacked up.

Some people are like good watches – pure gold, open-faced, always on time, dependable, quietly busy and just full of good works.

Given a specific place, there’ll be different people with different characters and personalities who have to coexist with one another. These differences are the reason why people often don’t get along well with each other. So how do we effectively deal with the differences and with different people?

Here are a few suggestions. This material is an oldie, but it still resonates very sound advice:

People can be unreasonable, illogical and self-centered. Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.

The biggest people with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest people with the smallest minds. 

Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for some underdogs anyway. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.

Whether you like it or not, doing business comes with dealing with people. So does building a career and raising a family. It’s because life is all about people.

During a break in one of my seminars, one pretty young lady came up to me and said, “But Francis I just don’t like people, so what should I do?”

I smiled back and told her, “Then you’ve got to get another life. Maybe work in a cemetery or something. 

This way your customers never complain.” The pretty lady laughed at that. She realized that she should start getting used to dealing with people.

Life is a grindstone. Whether it grinds you down or polishes you up depends upon what you are made of.

I’ve realized that I haven’t exactly been the perfect worker in the work place. I have made life difficult for a lot of people, caused trouble for some and been a source of others’ disappointments. At one point or another, I’ve been like a wheel, a trailer, a kite, a canoe, a football a balloon and a flat tire. With all these, I‘ve learned a lot of things.

I have learned that people will fail me as I have failed them. I have learned that while every person changes through the years, we need to make sure that we change for the better, not the worst. I have learned that learning to deal with people we must, because you and I are not the center of the universe.

Living the successful life is simple. Just love God and love your neighbor. It’s easy too –with a generous helping of God’s grace, that is.

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