Are you being bombarded with as many shrill, emergency sounding, requests for money from your own local politicians… as I am?
The “end of the world” is here… unless you send in at least $5… or in the VERY least… $1.
I don’t like it much and I suspect that most of you don’t either, no matter which side of the voting booth you are on.
This article is being written because all of us are affected by what is going on in our country today.
It is NOT a diatribe against one party or another… it is a simple statement that our nation has become not only unhappy and angry… but it has become a nation that does not trust any longer.
And it is not a matter of trusting one side or another… it is a matter of not trusting each other at all any longer.
We cannot even find the decency or even the strength to sit down with people that we disagree with and try to find a common ground.
Many of us cannot even see why this is necessary any longer.
Is it really because we are so far apart?
Or is it because we already accept that compromise and even discussion is useless even before we say the first sentence?
This makes me sad.
Because I come from a family, like most of you … of immigrants. And who have fought in wars against our country when our way of life was threatened.
I look at my sister who taught for nearly 40 years and two years ago she took early retirement… because … in her words… “my students simply didn’t respect me any longer.”
One of my daughters calls her mother and says “I don’t want to raise my son in a world where people with guns kill our children in our schools and gun down others for no reason at all.”
And my other daughter tells me that she takes antidepressants daily “just to get through the day.” Then she says that every single one of her friends do the same. Every one.
And it makes me sad that most of my neighbors don’t even acknowledge my waves when I see them. Or… that I don’t see their children playing games outside like they did when I was young.
Or that I can’t find a teenager to help me paint the house… and the other adults tell me “it’s just the way it is.”
I saw a small group of people demonstrating last week outside our local courthouse. And I know that the same scene is repeating itself all across the country.
But the next day, I read that a woman was struck in the head by a rock thrown by a passerby and she is in critical condition.
And no matter who is right or who is wrong… actions like that cannot be justified no matter how high tempers run.
I really don’t like becoming one of these guys that talks about “the good old days”… because most of my neighbors don’t have the same memories that I do and they look at me like I belong in a home somewhere “out of the way.”
But I do think about the past… and I fear for our future.
I think that all of us do.
But too many of us think that our answer is the right answer… the ONLY answer.
And we have become a nation that doesn’t trust any longer… whether it be our elected officials, our media, our law enforcement, our banks… the list goes on and on.
And sadly, no one has answers.
My fear is that we are coming to believe that we are “too far gone” and that we have “passed a point of no return.”
… and that suddenly our options seem almost nonexistent.
Much of my life centers around my work.
And I find the same sentiments and frustrations there as I do in my personal life.
Businesses are overwhelmingly saying that it has become almost impossible to get potential clients to even listen to their messages or … worse yet, to convert them to buyers and clients
.But that shouldn’t be surprising given the current pervading lack of trust that is almost everywhere.
But… is there an answer for them?
Or are we just “doing the best we can?”
I want to tell you something that I found almost by accident…
And it has allowed me to reach people and have my message heard… whereas before it was almost impossible.
It is called the “rule of reciprocity.”
This “rule” originally meant that if you give something to someone without expecting anything in return… you create a debt.
And that “debt” creates an obligation, which often translates into a return action… which, for a business, usually means a purchase or a desired action.
One of our best known anthropologists, Richard Leakey, called this “rule” one of the earliest indicators of humankind.
And when business adapted this rule… it had tremendous impact on business.
But unfortunately, like most new tactics and methods in today’s skeptical and mistrustful world… its novelty wore off quickly.
And we were back to “shiny objects”, pattern interrupts, and gimmicks and complicated systems to capture attention, which lasted only for a short time. And it became a chore to know what was working today and what would work tomorrow.
Can anything be done?
Does anything have value or substance any longer?
Yes.
… because the majority of us are seeking relationships… and we are seeking people that we can trust.
We are all looking for REAL and AUTHENTIC… instead of complicated systems and methods which do not last.
And because our world is so distrustful and so guarded… many of us cannot even articulate what we are looking for.
And that is where the “rule of reciprocity” comes in.
What can we give to people that don’t trust?… and that don’t even know exactly what they are looking for?
… that is real and authentic?
We start by sharing something of ourselves.
And that is how it all starts.
Sounds simple doesn’t it?
And many of you will say it sounds totally stupid.
But… it works.
Because it is real and authentic AND you are creating an obligation.
AND you are creating a dialogue and the beginning of a relationship.
And it works like nothing you have seen.
Start using the Rule of Reciprocity…
It IS simple…
But it works.
Here’s a quote from Gary Vaynerchuk, a guy that’s been around a long time and has never gone “out of style”:
“A stunning amount of people reading this article are not going to be successful in sales, because they’re not willing to work hard enough. They love the automation. They love all these tools, and bots, and auto-replies and apps and services and startups and CRM’s that they think are going to solve the problem. But the truth is, sales is about people. You have to build relationships first. You have to put yourself in your customer’s shoes and empathize with their position. No app is going to teach you that.”
If you’re tired of fighting and getting nowhere… and you’re depressed because you see no end in sight…
Remember the Rule of Reciprocity… and remember, it starts with you.
Thanks for reading…