The Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do to you is one of those gems we all learn in childhood. It may come back to us again and again throughout life but we generally think of it in terms of our personal relationships—not necessarily our business activities. In fact, many of us have been taught that the business world is dog-eat-dog—we have to stick it to the other guy before they stick it to us. This is the exact opposite of that Golden Rule. I do believe, however, that we can use the old wisdom as a guideline for how we operate our home businesses too.
The truth is, we are not going to be able to control what other people do anyway and all we can do is control our own behavior and actions. I know that part of running a business is that we make plans and we try to influence our customers and/or clients to make purchases and do business with us—but we cannot make them. By imagining how we would like to be treated as a customer or client, we may be able to make better choices about how to proceed.
Of course, everyone has different standards and expectations—but by letting the Golden Rule be a overriding guide for us, we can at least be making an effort to treat others in our business dealings with respect, honesty, integrity, etc.—all of those ways that we would like a salesperson, client, colleague or business contact to treat us. Instead of assuming that we have to be on guard all the time or be the type of cut-throat business person we see in movies, the Golden Rule can help us create a different mode of operating for our home businesses.