“I’m going to treat you like a good friend and I want to become what you need in a good friend. I want to feel like you and I can talk about anything at any time and figure stuff out together.”
THAT… was what I heard my mentor suggest he was going to relay (in person) to a business associate.
Then he turned to me and said, “I am SO blessed that almost all of the folks I work with are some of my best friends in the world. I can call any of them at any time (and they do the same with me) and it feels like we’re brothers (and sister(s).)”
“EXCEPT… for this one guy.”
And that’s the business associate he was thinking about when he started his chat with me.
It reminded me of when I saw two business partners embroiled in a lawsuit against each other sit in front of a judge who asked them both…
“When did you guys start emailing more than you talked?”
You can see where this is going, right?
They both agreed that things started falling apart at about the same time that communication started being more through email and less and less verbal communication.
Then the judge said… “I’ve seen this SO many times. The common denominator is when folks stop verbally talking things out… things start to go bad.
And I think my mentor somehow inherently knew that.
Then he said something profound.
He said when he sees this business associate next month he’s going to pull him aside (and get him one-on-one) and tell him exactly what he mentioned before.
“I’m going to treat you like a good friend and I want to become what you need in a good friend. I want to feel like you and I can talk about anything at any time and figure stuff out together.”
Can you imagine?
No wonder so many of the people he works with are good friends.
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