Why Being Nice is so Powerful

There is a very prevalent stereotype that to become rich and successful, one has to be ruthless and unfeeling in doing business.  That to really achieve one’s goals, we must crush the competition and take what we want with no mercy.  This has been the prevailing thought on the wealthy for many, many years.  It is also completely wrong. 

There are plenty of examples in history and the present day of ruthless businessmen and women who have stopped at nothing to get rich, but they are in the minority.  Most very successful people are actually quite generous with their time and resources, and that is what has made them so wealthy.  This is not to say that they do not consider their competition and make difficult decisions when required, but overall, they tend to be nice people with a strong drive for success.

The reality is that being cruel and heartless in business is an excuse for not being good at business.  Rather than lead with compassion and empathy, as these people struggle, they turn on their employees, partners and associates and try to pass the blame on to them, rather than taking responsibility themselves as the leader.

Truly successful people know that there are two ways to build a bigger building (or business):  you can try to tear down someone else’s OR you can use excellent leadership and business skills and build yours bigger.  They also realise that the size of someone else’s success does not in any way take away from theirs, so they do not spend large amounts of time thinking about others, rather they think about how to improve themselves and their business.

In the early days of the internet, bookstores were physical locations, but one entrepreneur was trying to sell books online.  As he gained more success the largest bookstores began to take notice.  They eventually began to approach publishers and asked them not to sell books to him.  Then, they threatened to cut them off from their stores is they continued to do business with him.  Luckily, the business was so successful that the publishers supported him and sold huge amounts of books. 

This is what occurred in the early days of Amazon, and much of the success of the company had to do with Jeff Bezos’ unwavering belief that selling on the internet was the future of book sales.  Rather than try to put him out of business, the other bookstores should have looked at the possibility of selling their books on the internet too.  They had a huge head start in the book selling business, but instead of building their businesses bigger, they attempted to knock down someone else’s.  Amazon gained success by giving its customers what they wanted:  good value and convenience. 

As we have mentioned before, successful businesspeople know that improving their business by being givers, to their employees, families, business associates and most importantly their clients, is the surest way to success.

The more you build a reputation for being nice and giving more value than you are paid for, the more successful you will be and people will like and trust you, which is what makes being nice so powerful.