How not to be miserable

Hey everybody, welcome to our weekly broadcast. I want to thank you for being here with us and stopping back by. Just a quick reminder: if you like, subscribe, make a comment, or ask a question. It helps us with our broadcast.

Our goal here is simply to help you become more successful. Our podcast is called "Business, Money, and Christianity." We're a financial podcast from a faith perspective, meaning we look at the Word of God and base our advice on biblical principles.

Sometimes I talk about the Bible and Christianity directly, sometimes I don't, but it all comes from a biblical lifestyle.

Today, I have a topic with a maybe funny, or even negative-sounding title: "How to Be Miserable." You know, there are a lot of miserable people, and they often work hard at being miserable. Now, I'm pretty sure they're not trying to, but the things they're doing cause it. This can happen a lot in a business setting. As we're pursuing entrepreneurship and trying to make life work, we can get so focused on certain things that we end up making our own lives miserable.

We all have an identity. A lot of people, especially here in the United States, if you ask them, "Tell me who you are," will answer with their profession. We often assign our identity to our profession. If we're working toward being successful in business, we might end up focusing on the negative elements we're fighting against, and we develop a negative identity. Then, we fight to keep that negative identity.

We should be focusing on the positive and what we're going to accomplish, but it seems natural in the course of everyday living to fight the battles of the day. And those battles always seem to be there. If you're not careful, you'll take on the negative side of your business and end up with a bad identity—a negative identity, which equates to a negative personality.

You're going to relay this to your clients and the people you're trying to serve. I've come into businesses before where they don't even acknowledge that you're there. They're so caught up in the problem of the moment that a paying customer comes in, and they don't even consider that this could be a return client.

I was actually in the Chicago airport yesterday, at the time of this recording, and I was wanting something sweet. I was craving an ice cream cone, though I probably shouldn't eat one. I was walking around looking for a place and saw a Jamba Juice. If you're not familiar, they make healthy drinks and fruit smoothies (which probably have too much sugar anyway). I thought, "Oh, that'll be good. It'll satisfy my sweet tooth and probably isn't as bad as ice cream."

I went in, and I wasn't really paying attention until after I ordered: the place was filthy. Had I noticed before I ordered, I would have walked out. I ordered, the lady told me the price, and I had my hand out with the cash. I was paying with cash, not a card. I'm just standing there, and she doesn't take my money. Finally, another worker says something in another language. Based on her reaction, I assume he said something like, "Hey, the guy's trying to pay you." She looked at it and got it, but what she was doing was more important than me standing there. Then I got to looking around and thought, "This place is filthy. I wish I hadn't already ordered and paid."

Their operation was so focused on what they were doing. I was the only customer in there, and they gave really bad service based on how their day was going. They weren't taking time to clean up. Most food places here in the United States maintain a pretty good standard of cleanliness because of our health departments, but when we get caught up in the day-to-day, it can start taking hold of our personality.

What ends up happening is we won't let reality interfere with the negative identity of our choices. I would imagine when I left, they probably viewed me as an inconvenience.

Let me tell you another story from the same trip. I was in Ohio on the first leg of my flight home last night. I walked up to the United Airlines counter, and there was nobody there. I've got to give this guy a high five. There were three people standing around talking. Visually, as I walked up, I thought, "You guys look like you're not interested in business."

I said something that spoke to that. I said, "Well, which one of you should I bother?" And the guy's answer was great. He said, "Man, come bother me! I'm here to help you." That was a great comeback. He demonstrated, "I am here to serve you." There was nobody else around; they were just chitchatting. He didn't say it, but his attitude was, "We were chitchatting, but as soon as you came up, our customer, I want to serve you."

There's a real difference. The other person I talked about had something in her hand—I don't know if it had to do with the cash register or what—but she could care less about me. I was an interruption to her day.

If we're not careful, we will assume an identity that focuses on the problems of the day, and we end up portraying that to the very people we say we want to serve. Then what happens is the problems of the day—and there are problems every day—become our negative identity. We deny that we've taken on this identity. We say, "It's really not me, it's what I'm dealing with." But all of us deal with stuff. We ought to step back and take a look at how we appear to our potential customer.

Why does our customer want to do business with us?

I was in a restaurant with three other people—my wife and another couple. There were only one or two other tables; it wasn't busy. The hostess said, "Your server will be with you in just a few minutes." They never came. They were walking around doing things, but they never came to us. We got up and left. They lost business. I don't know the value of a four-person order to that restaurant, but I would think you'd want people to stay. I've never been back. Why? Because their service was horrible.

What do people see when they see us? Whether we're in a service business or a product business, we want people to like us. Instead, we start blaming things and separating the problems we're going through from how we're behaving. But the person we're serving doesn't see that separation; they're just experiencing us.

The Bible says, "To him that has friends, must show himself friendly." I think we could extrapolate that and say, "He that has a thriving business will show himself beneficial to his clients."

People interact with us. While they may want the product or service we're selling, we are part of that package. They may need the product or service so much that they'll pay for it once, but then think, "I'm never coming back to you again." We want people to want to do business with us.

If this continues in our lives, we start looking for the problem of the day, which takes our focus off the objective of the day: "What do I need to do today to get to the next step in my business?" I play a very big part in that, and I should pay attention to how things are affecting me.

When I was in finance, one of my job assignments was collections—what we called "collecting debts." When people didn't pay their monthly payment, we had to call and collect it. So many times—I didn't realize this was happening to me while I worked there—but on delinquent accounts, I'm calling to get you to make your payment. A high percentage of those people would lie. "Oh, yeah, yeah, I just overlooked that. I'll put it in the mail today, you should have it by Friday." Three or four days go by, you call them back. "Yeah, you know, I was going to send that out, but I didn't get around to it. Let me come by your office today." They don't. "Oh, I ended up not going down there, but I'll be there tomorrow." They're just lying to get you off their back.

The interesting thing is, I didn't realize this was happening, but I started viewing people as liars. It wasn't until I got out of that business that I realized I had developed a negative attitude toward people because, in that role, people always lied to me. I had to readjust my interaction with people. Not everybody is a liar, and I can't approach them as one. Not everybody is an inconvenience. Not everybody is a problem. Not everybody is messing up my day.

When we go into business, we're trying to help people. The people are our livelihood. They pay us to do what we're doing, and we need to value them for that. Because if they decide there's another person down the street who does the same thing, they're making a choice: "Do I go to him, or do I go to them?" If I'm not at the top of their list, they'll go to somebody else.

It's amazing to me that here in the United States, we have two big companies that sell soda pop: Coca-Cola and Pepsi. They're constantly paying for advertisement. I doubt there's a single American citizen who does not know Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Yet, they spend millions of dollars on advertising to keep their product in front of us. Why? Because they know they have competition. Pepsi knows Coca-Cola is out there and wants you thinking "Pepsi." Coca-Cola knows Pepsi is out there and wants you thinking "Coca-Cola," so that when we go to buy, their brand is on our mind.

We should think the same way. Our presence creates an advertisement that speaks volumes to our clients about whether they will come back and do business with us again.

I want to encourage you today. You and I have an identity. Is our identity centered around the problems we face, or is it centered around the customers we serve? It's the customers who pay the bills and create our income. The problems will come and go; every single day there's a new one. But I can't allow them to define my personality.

I need to remember: the person standing in front of me is the person who creates my income.

So, hey, thank you for coming by again. Check your personality. Are you burdened down with the problems of the day, trying to get everything resolved, while customers walk in and out experiencing your bad attitude? Don't let it happen, because we want to be successful in life.

Thank you for stopping by. Again, we are "Business, Money, and Christianity," a financial podcast from a faith perspective. Please like, ask a question, make a comment, or share it on other social media platforms. We appreciate you coming by. I'll see you again next week.