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It’s Only Common Sense: 16 Simple Rules of Business and Life

No matter what anyone tells you, business is not hard. Being a good businessperson is not hard. Being a person who is respected and even esteemed is not that difficult. Being someone who others turn to in their time of need is easy. Being that person who is respected, even when others don’t always agree with that they say or do is something that everyone can afford. It does not cost a lot of money to be a good guy.

Now you may be shaking your head and asking, “What the heck is this guy talking about? What is he trying to tell me here? I sure hope he is not about to start preaching to me about doing good because I hate do-gooders.” (When did that term become a sneer and insult, by the way? I am not sure, but relax, I’m not going there today.)

Instead, here are 16 easy things you can do to be considered a good person in general and a very good businessperson. Are you ready? (Don’t worry there’s nothing you can’t handle.)

1. Treat everyone you meet with the respect you feel you deserve. Treat them well.
2. Be polite and courteous, say please and thank you, make room for others in this world space.
3. Don’t worry so much about who wins and who loses, but rather find solutions where everyone wins, at least a little bit.
4. Return phone calls as promptly as you can. Everyone is guilty of messing this one up occasionally but try your best.
5. Speaking of which, always try your best so that at the end of the day you can tell yourself you did the very best you could do. As the athletes like to say, “At the end of the game make sure you left everything out there.”
6. Return emails promptly. This is another one that is not that easy to do, but you’ve got it; just do your best.
7. Listen to others when they are talking to you. Look them in the eye and focus on what they are telling you. This is for your own good as well as the person talking. It is amazing how much you miss when you are not really listening. Ask your spouse or partner.
8. When you decide you hate a certain group of people, whatever that group might be (there’s a lot to go around), think about how you will react. Be honest when you meet one person from that group. It is much harder to hate one individual at a time than it is to hate an entire group.
9. Find ways to help people—your customers, suppliers, and bosses, the people you work with and those you work for. Whatever their job is, try to help them do it better.
10. Along those same lines, always leave people better than when you found them. Look for ways to make their lives better for having met you, either for the first time or the first time that day.
11. Be inspirational. No, you don’t have to give them a Knute Rockne rah-rah pep talk, but you can inspire them to take that next step in whatever they are doing. Show them that what they are doing is important, and they are the better for doing it.
12. Be generous. I like to say, “Allow me to be generous” when I work with people. By that, I mean that if we work together and we are not concerned about who does what because we’re confident we will succeed together, then we will have a true win/win partnership. Remember that adage, “It’s amazing what we can do when we don’t care who gets the credit.”
13. Always tell the truth no matter how much it hurts. If you are selling something and it is going to be late, then tell them as soon as you know. Remember those words of wisdom, “The Godfather insists on hearing bad news immediately.” Deliver both bad news and good news but deliver the bad news “more quickly.”
14. Take the heat if you have done something wrong. Stand up and take it on the chin, then start fixing it as quickly as possible.
15. Listen to other people’s ideas. Don’t be so stuck in your ways that you are not willing to hear what others think, especially those people who are not from your own generation. It’s amazing how much you can learn when you open your mind to other ideas.
16. Finally, here is my personal favorite: Always help those who may have done you wrong at one time or another. It’s the right thing to do, and it’s fun. The best part is that it freaks them out.

It’s only common sense.

Dan Beaulieu is president of D.B. Management Group.