I don’t care that you are off for a “well earned break” – cue pictures of your view. I don’t care that you got an intimate rash that’s a little hard to shift – although that is quite amusing. And I certainly don’t care about your dog’s achievements.
So why oh why, do so many people feel the insufferable need to share completely non business related content in a purely business setting?
Now before you immediately think I am a totally heartless ogre – consider this.
As a species we are profoundly lost. At our core we are social creatures, we thrive on deep, meaningful connections. This is why so many cultures are centred around eating together, drinking together and sharing stories.
It’s why we invented pubs. Which, as everyone knows, are excellent.
By coming together, we foster genuine connections, build rapport and over time, create relationships with true depth.
The franchising industry is amazing for that and I for one am privileged to know so many incredible souls.
But guess what, none of them feel the need to air their laundry out in public. Their stories and scars are the fruits of taking the time and genuine effort to find out. It’s a rewarding process that takes time, effort and willing from both sides.
These days, there are far too many people spouting off about things that have no relevance to business. Things that are purely personal.
What winds me up is that if you were to judge an industry based on this, you’d think they were the only ones, but they’re not.
I know numerous people in our industry who have been through real hardship and suffering. They only chose to share it in an intimate private conversation. The fact they felt they could was a privilege and built a level of depth that I cherish. A true, genuine business friendship.
It’s those people I call when I need a fresh perspective on a challenge, and I know they feel the same. And I’m going to go further. This applies to industry awards.
I don’t know a single human being that hasn’t been affected by either loss, extreme hardship, abuse, a victim of serious crime or a terrifying health condition.
We are not the X Factor, so why in a business context does someone who chooses to share a non-business-related matter start getting paraded as a success story?
We should celebrate businesses and organisations for being excellent and achieving. Not they did well because…*insert personal trauma here*.
Because there are plenty of people who enter who choose to keep tales of personal loss and trauma just that, personal. Because it’s nothing to do with business.
If you’ve got this far you probably now really dislike me. And that’s ok, I can see why you would.
But here is my point, in these challenging turbulent times, we need to champion innovation, brinkmanship and raw, naked success. Entrepreneurship and innovation are needed now more than ever to help us solve the many problems we face.
Our industry is full of extraordinary people doing things we all should admire and look up to.
I worry they don’t get a look-in because they took the perfectly rational view that no one cares that their favourite cat, Mr. Snuffles, licked a toaster, immediately went up in flames, and snuffed it.
They rightly decided no one would care.
I will say one last time, no one cares.
