I’ve been lucky to work and meet some really smart people in the business world. Some people who are really creative, innovative, intelligent, analytical, strategic etc etc etc. But there’s a real differentiator that some of them have which others don’t, being nice.
My definition of nice is polite, making time for people, thinking about people, following up, introducing people to other people, and generally being considerate and good.
I like to believe there’s no such thing as a zero sum game in life, because unless you kill something totally there’s a chance that someone related to/involved in that game will have another interaction. With people this is really the case, you’re associate today could be you’re Managing Director in a few years time. There was a great post on Rajesh Setty’s blog where he’s done some research to show that actually being nice is a key to success (hat tip to Guy Kawasaki). It’s not about winning a short term battle, it’s about long term success.
I get motivated by people who’ve jacked me in the business sense, when someone steps on me I take names and I have a pretty long memory.
However, when someone’s nice and goes out of their way to help make things happen for me I would bend over backwards to return the favour. I’ve had a phenomenal couple of months as I plan my next adventure and have met so many really smart NICE tech people that I’m pretty excited about the upcoming year. Which is why I like to think helping, being good, and being nice is a better long term strategy, it builds a positive energy and inertia that can be hard to stop.
