Lessons on Business from Jacob Marley’s Ghost
Thursday, December 20th, 2007Ebenezer Scrooge: “But you were always a good man of business, Jacob.”
Marley’s Ghost: “BUSINESS! Mankind was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance and benevolence were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”
These few lines from Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol” always affected me. It was a reminder that our work is not all that there is to our lives. And it also makes me think about how I go about my work.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating that a business has to be a give away charity or “nanny state” to its employees. The employee/employer relationship has to be a two-way relationship. After all, if business goes too long without having a positive cash flow and profitable sales, it will fail and be of no service to its employees, customers or suppliers.
What I am advocating is to think about how we go about developing that cash flow and earning our profits. Are we going to do it in a way that pushes people down or in a way that lifts people up?
