Sympathy & Kindness

There are two things that can get a business person into trouble financially. 1. being overly sympathetic towards the customers and clients, 2. being overly kind. Buying and selling is a serious game to some people. Here, the object is to get something for nothing, or at least very little. One of the tactics customers use to extract extra consideration from business people is to "make their problems, your problems." For example, a customer walks into a donut shop and orders a dozen donuts. The amount owed is $9 but they only have $8. They "hem" and "haw" going through a wide spectrum of emotional utterances to elicit some sympathy from the seller. The shop owner is sympatric to the customers plight and lets the donuts go on the promise the dollar will be repaid. The customers problem is that they did not come prepared with money and they are attempting to make their money management problem the shop owner's problem. Now, collecting a debt, however small, is the problem of the seller. Experience shows that there are a significant number of default to be expected to conduct business on the basis of sympathy. The shopkeeper has a self-regarding duty to seek a reasonable profit for every donut sold. He or she may rationalize that giving away money is a form of advertising but they are setting their business up for failure if such give-away's continue. It is a fundamental business ethic that a "business person does business in a business like way." It is a fact of life that, more often than not, kindness and sympathy are taken for a sign of weakness. Weakness invites exploitation. The biological fitness of a business is determined by a shopkeeper's ability to stay distant from his or her customers problems.

Nice Girl, Nice Guy Syndrome.

Failure to recognize a balance between profits and social responsibility must be maintained. If there are to be nice people surviving in business they must take upon the responsibility of unpleasant tasks like making money. Making money makes some people ill, thus they tend to be overly nice and flounder as a business. In Darwinian terms people who obsess about being nice are the unfit. Although they are moral, they never gain enough success in society to make necessary changes. Thus, in theory, evil triumphs at the expense of good. All for the lack of attending to one's self-regarding duty to survive.

Kindhearted people tend to undervalue their work.
The problem with undervaluing is that it runs counter to one’s self-regarding duty to survive a business. If a business person repeatedly under values their work they run the risk of "burnout." A product or service has a certain value whether or not the business person thinks the price is excessive. Over many years, undervaluing will lead the business to fail. It will cease to flourish and perhaps go out of business. When growing a business in its initial stages, maximizing profits are essential to one's ultimate success. People grow old and lose much of their youthful vitality. If they have wasted their time giving away money they rob themselves of a future success. In short, misplaced sympathy and kindness is bad for business. The merchant must ask themselves “would the client they are benefiting feel so inclined to give them money if they were in a tight spot worthy of sympathy? No they would not be so inclined is the answer.

The fitness of a business it put at risk if the business owner involves themselves in ideology, politics, and religion. It is common for new business owners to take the ideological stance that capitalism is somehow wrong; that making a profit is bad. Growing a successful business (a professional ethic) depends on reaching a balance between the need to make a profit and a need to be a respectable and caring member of society. To this end ethical codes serve to be a guide to that balance.

• Business Chess
• Intimating
• Professional Ethic
• Self-Regarding Duty
• Doing Business in a Business like Way
• Under Valuing Work
• MSS "Misplaced Sympathy Syndrome"
• Targeting