Priceless

Often the things we find priceless in life are given away freely.

It is difficult to be corrupt when our interaction is based on mutual respect, sharing and love.

The commercial world is not interested in this kind of interaction. It is concerned with the five golden rules of business:

1. What's
2. In
3. It
4. For
5. Me

Robert Ringer in his famous work "Winning Through Intimidation" identified three types of people in the business world.

Type number 1's: Those people who will tell you straight from the outset that they are there to grab as many chips off the table as they can and it is your lookout to do the same. He says these people are not great in number, but in terms of business ethics (of being 'straightforward') they are 'honest' - what you see is what you get.

Type number 2's: These people say that they hope you get everything you deserve out of the deal, but then try to do everything they can to grab your and their chips off the table.

Type number 3's: These are similar to type number 2's except that they genuinely mean what they say. They really do hope you will succeed. But through chance or accident, they end up removing as many of your chips as they can from the table in the end.

Type number 4's: These are the exception. These are the people who stand directly to gain from you succeeding in life or business.

But he did not discuss this fourth type of person in any detail. One of the reasons is that you don't usually find them in the world of business.

It is not in the commercial world's interest to allow you to take time. "Buy now!", "Hurry while stocks last!", "Time-limited offer!"

But the important things, the priceless things. . . they tend to be personal, individual, to take time - the kind of things a 'type number 4 person' will give you. And in creating these priceless things people add something incredible. When you get something from someone which they have created from deep down, you're getting some of their feelings. You can see that you have something special.

You're having the time of their life.