On Being A Blessing

The marketplace can be harsh. Because people can be harsh. Are you being a blessing?

Turns out they can’t pay the bill anymore? Shame on them for not planning ahead, bless them with a path forward. Neither you nor they will benefit from metaphorically ‘putting them in the ground’ over a grievance. Yet everyone benefits when you equip them with ways to earn beyond their debts.

Someone is taking from you or your cause unjustly? Shame on them, bless them with their newfound spoils and pursue the difference you wish to make with evermore adamance. Resources can be stolen, but your cause – and those you pursue it alongside – cannot. In fact, such situations often nurture fervor and camaraderie.

They’re changing their mind on what they want? Shame on them for not reading the contract, bless them with a solution they’ll thank you for. While not always possible, the generous act of helping make good out of a bad situation will – if communicated correctly – far outweigh in social capital anything that you actually created on the project itself.

The first thought is often to hold on, to get what’s rightly yours. The second thought can be to lead up, to do what’s best for them.

We can choose which is ours – which of these mindsets would you turn back to again and again were you in their shoes?