Church of Our Saviour Australia

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Business Owners: Narrow-mind and selfish?

I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to operate a small consulting business. My goal was to assist other people with all areas of their own business by providing accounting, budgeting and management advice. But after 12 years I felt I had to get out of it before it affected the state of my mind and mental health. By the end I found it difficult to handle dealing with certain business owners after witnessing incidents of their narrow-minded and self-centred attitude. It shocked and annoyed me to see how these people expected the entire planet to revolve around their business and their success. They literally expected their employees, suppliers and even customers to live and breathe purely for the existence of their business.

Yes I realise that for business owners their business represents the achievement of a life dream and that its success is very close to their heart, but they need to realise that other people have their own goals in life and it’s wrong for any business owner to expect another person to sacrifice their lifestyle and dreams for the sole purpose of the business. Furthermore they also need to realise how wrong (and illegal) it is to subtly punish or discriminate against other people who don’t go beyond reasonable expectations to help with the business’ success.

There are two incidents that are still burnt heavily in my memory from my time spent assisting a retail business. Both involved people taking holidays, one a supplier who is a marketing consultant to the business and the other an employee of the business.

The Marketing Consultant was a middle-aged man who had worked hard with his consulting business over the last fifteen years. For the past seven of that he had provided an endless service to the retailer, often at times not charging them because of a developing friendship. Both the Consultant and his wife realised that time was passing by and they wanted to fulfil a dream of taking sometime to travel and see Europe.  Upon informing that he would not be available for approximately two months, I was shocked and astonished to see the selfish and angry reaction of the Retailer. All of a sudden, the Consultant who had provided seven years of committed service to the Retailer was criticised as “lazy, and that he no longer cares about his customers to do anything for them”. I couldn’t believe that the Retailer honestly expected the Consultant to give up on his own dream of travelling, just to focus on the Retailer’s business.

The incident with the employee was along similar lines. He was the ideal family man and he would take one week leave of his four week entitlement each school holidays just to spend time with his young children. Sadly because he was taking these regular holidays the Business Owner also criticised him as a “slack worker” and “not committed or interested in his job”. While there is no physical evidence of this, it was rumoured that the Employee’s lack of opportunities or promotion within the business was due to the Owner’s selfish attitude towards his taking of holidays. As you can see, in this case the Business Owner expected his Employee to sacrifice family time for the sole benefit of the business.

I’m sure somewhere out there are business owners who have the right attitude towards their venture, but unfortunately in my view the reputation of business owners has been tarnish by these type of incidents. I know it’s not the right attitude to have towards others but in my time I’ve seen more negative than positive behaviour involving business people than to think any different of them. They will always be narrow-minded and self-centred.

If you, the reader, are in business or thinking about setting up a business, my advice is “Yes go for it. Reach for your dreams”. Although please realise that life is for living and it’s about all of us living for our own dreams. We do not exist for the dreams of just one.

Do you agree or disagree? Have an opinion? Send your comments to feedback@oursaviour.org.au

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