It’s Time To See Life From The Perspective Of Eternity.

It’s Time To See Life From The Perspective Of Eternity.

It was a delight to get a call from a long term customer, one whom I have been serving for more than ten years.

From being a customer, he has become a friend and our interactions have gone beyond just professional matters.

We met at the business centre of the Grand Hyatt hotel and spent some time catching up on each other.

Finally, he turned to me and said what every entrepreneur would love to hear, “I have some money and I’m looking for a good investment.”

I shared with him what I believed to be the best investment.

In fact, I was even prepared to put my wallet where my mouth is by co-investing with him.

However, as a responsible salesperson, I gave him my usual disclaimers.

It went something like, “You don’t have to believe me.

“Let me work through the details with you.

“You can get your advisors to run through the numbers and see if they stacked up. We…”.

Before I could complete my usual pitch, he told me, “I don’t need the usual caveat from you.

“I have to try very hard not to trust you”.

That compliment brightened my day.

In fact, I felt elated until right now.

One of the most vital lessons to learn in the business world is, Never compromise with integrity.

Integrity is first and last, and be all and end all.

If customers do not trust you, they will never do business with you.

I have painstakingly done my very best to live by this principle. And there is a powerful driver for me to do it.

If you have been reading my blog, you would know I was an accidental entrepreneur.

My original plan was to be a social worker – to live a simple life so as to help others facing challenges in life.

By an usual twist of event, the manager who offered me a social worker job suddenly resigned.

It got me thinking at that point if I would be walking into a potential minefield.

After due consideration, I turned down the offer and decided to take my friends’ advice to become a salesperson.

I was adviced to chalk up real world experience and undergo pain and sorrow before “trying to change the world.”

On the other hand, there were other some well-intentioned friends who discouraged me.

They told me that I would have to lie and cheat as a salesperson.

That really freaked me out.

I did everything I could to prevent myself from doing anything that was wrong.

Script my sales presentation, literally word by word because I did not want to ignorantly or unintentionally say something wrong.

Check my soul constantly to make sure it was still intact.

Put in place other systems and procedures to ensure that I would not only stay on the straight and narrow, my team would also do the same too.

Let me give you an example.

At the trough of the Asian Crisis, real estate salespersons would resort to all kinds of underhanded ways to close a sale.

In fact, there were many who believed that more than 70% of deals were transacted in an unlawful way.

I am proud that I have never had to do any of such deals.

In fact, I put in black and white that our company would never be involved in any business that was illegal, unethical or dishonourable.

I told my people many a time, “I will personally drive you to the police station if I ever catch you breaking the law.

“I’ll personally lock you up and throw away the keys into the deep blue murky sea.”

You may not realize the gravity of my decision.

I was literally walking away from a large segment of the market, with no clue as to whether I could win any part of the remaining segment, let alone survive on it.

Obviously, my company and I suffered for it.

Have I ever regretted living by the principle of integrity? Not for a single moment.

If I have to sell my soul to earn money, my business is not only not worth running, my life will also not be worth living too.

At the end of the day, please realise that integrity may not necessarily benefit you in the short term.

However, in the longer term, integrity is a critical part of the foundation for success.

Integrity will help you earn loyalty, trust, respect and affection from your customers.

The experience I shared on this posting proved once again integrity will keep you on track to success.

More importantly, integrity will keep your soul intact and help you find more sustainable purpose, meaning and fulfillment.

Life should be seen from the perspective of eternity.

Go4It!

I hope this message will find a place in your heart.

By the way, I have also recorded other reflections.

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Life is FUNtastic!