{"id":5673,"date":"2024-07-11T10:00:49","date_gmt":"2024-07-11T17:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/?p=5673"},"modified":"2024-07-12T07:38:27","modified_gmt":"2024-07-12T14:38:27","slug":"are-you-a-business-good-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/?p=5673","title":{"rendered":"Can you be liked while being tough?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>People argue over whether an entrepreneur with a sense of fairness, a desire for collegiality, a want to share the profits can succeed in the long run within a business world full of lions and tigers that eat timid entrepreneurs for lunch.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Does a \u201cgood heart\u201d diminish the chances of success?<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-5678\" src=\"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/aPPLAUSE1-300x171.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"171\" srcset=\"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/aPPLAUSE1-300x171.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/aPPLAUSE1-1024x585.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/aPPLAUSE1-768x439.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/aPPLAUSE1-1536x878.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/aPPLAUSE1.jpeg 1792w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>First, let\u2019s separate the \u201cgood heart\u201d from the issue of whether an entrepreneur is driven to succeed.\u00a0 A sense of values that allows for sharing and fairness is not at odds with a \u2018type A\u2019 entrepreneur driven for success.<\/p>\n<p>What is important is that stakeholders (people working for and with the entrepreneur) accept the entrepreneur for his or her good intentions, sense of fairness and willingness to listen.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Stories of the selfish entrepreneur<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I have had numerous experiences during my business career where businesspeople I dealt with took advantage of the moment selfishly because they could, not because they should.\u00a0 I recall an executive who kept a large deposit but canceled a contract, refusing to negotiate, because the next payment due was a few days late.\u00a0 Or another who sued over a gray area issue, refusing to listen or negotiate. \u00a0(He lost the suit and paid both sides\u2019 fees.)<\/p>\n<p><strong>My unscientific conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><em>[Email readers, continue here&#8230;]\u00a0<\/em> <\/span>\u00a0 And I have come to conclude that \u201cgood guys\u201d (men and women) do finish first.\u00a0 There is no scientific proof, no metric to measure the full <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-5677\" src=\"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Applause2-300x171.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"171\" srcset=\"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Applause2-300x171.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Applause2-1024x585.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Applause2-768x439.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Applause2-1536x878.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Applause2.jpeg 1792w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>meaning of \u201cgood.\u201d and no special acknowledgement from any \u201cgood-watching\u201d organization.\u00a0 Even without these, I am sure of this.<\/p>\n<p>Surely the ruthless more often win in the short run.\u00a0 But early successes, built upon the broken backs of adversaries, are rarely followed by long- term wins for the tyrant or for the tyrant\u2019s company.<\/p>\n<p><em>Be of good heart.<\/em>\u00a0 You will enjoy your entrepreneurial or managerial ride much more, and your stakeholders will follow you through the flames as well as cheer your successes.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #999999;\"><em>Images created with MS Designer using prompt: A realistic photo image of a casually dressed female businessperson standing as her six direct reports applaud her recent action. White background, No text.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>People argue over whether an entrepreneur with a sense of fairness, a desire for collegiality, a want to share the profits can succeed in the long run within a business world full of lions and tigers that eat timid entrepreneurs &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/?p=5673\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-positioning","category-surrounding-yourself-with-talent"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5673\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}