{"id":576,"date":"2019-09-10T12:38:49","date_gmt":"2019-09-10T18:38:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.therobbinsgroup.com\/blog\/?p=576"},"modified":"2019-09-10T12:40:12","modified_gmt":"2019-09-10T18:40:12","slug":"its-not-personal-its-just-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.therobbinsgroup.com\/blog\/its-not-personal-its-just-business\/","title":{"rendered":"It&#8217;s Not Personal, it&#8217;s Just Business"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s not personal, it\u2019s just business. Everyone knows that phrase, made even more famous in the movie <u>You\u2019ve Got Mail.<\/u> Let\u2019s just really think about that phrase for a minute: <strong>It is not personal, it is just business<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0 A<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-577\" style=\"color: #333333; float: right; font-family: Georgia,&amp;quot; times new roman&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;bitstream charter&amp;quot;,times,serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; height: auto; letter-spacing: normal; max-width: 100%; orphans: 2; outline-color: #72777c; outline-style: solid; outline-width: 1px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0.5em 1em;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.therobbinsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/ottoberman-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Otto Berman\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/>s Meg Ryan said in the movie, what does that even mean? Well to begin with let\u2019s look at the origin of the phrase. Otto Berman\u00a0is the man who coined the term \u2018nothing personal, it\u2019s just business\u2019. As an accountant for the mob in the 1930\u2019s, he used the phrase regularly as he laid out the situation to those who came before him. The business that Berman was conducting made distancing yourself from the human impact a requirement. The phrase continued to be used throughout the twentieth century, usually in situations of layoffs, cutbacks or corporate screwing. So, that\u2019s where the phrase came from, but why do people still use it now?<\/p>\n<p>Some people still stand by the phrase stating instance after instance of why decisions they have made were not personal but was solely based on business concerns. Some people use the phrase to ease their conscience when they <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-578 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.therobbinsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1980sbusiness.jpg\" alt=\"Big Business\" width=\"296\" height=\"166\" \/>may or may not have done something questionable, but feel badly about it. Some people use it as a balm for those they step on as they build their empire or climb the corporate ladder. Perhaps in some cases it truly is just business and not personal at all. But the way that business is conducted in the 21<sup>st<\/sup> century would seem to indicate that it is time to put this phrase in past along with \u201ca pig in a poke\u201d and \u201csold down the river\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>For me, business is always personal. It always has been. For those of you familiar with DISC Assessment I am a high I, which means I want to help. When I work with a client their goals become my goals and we become a team working toward those goals together. So you see there is no distinction between business and personal, to me they are one and the same. I have written in the past about all business not being good business, and I guess that is as close as I come to using the phrase \u201cits not personal, its business\u201d. If I am unable to connect with someone on a p<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright wp-image-579 size-medium\" style=\"color: #333333; float: right; font-family: Georgia,&amp;quot; times new roman&amp;quot;,&amp;quot;bitstream charter&amp;quot;,times,serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; height: auto; letter-spacing: normal; max-width: 100%; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0.5em 1em;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.therobbinsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/brainstorm1-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Brain storm\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.therobbinsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/brainstorm1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.therobbinsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/brainstorm1.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>ersonal level, then I generally turn their business away, so actually in my case it would be \u201cit is personal, its not business\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>I have had to let some employee go in the past, and some have left of their own accord. But I never blamed the departures on business, and I still keep in touch with most of them. Sometimes things work and sometimes they don\u2019t simple as that. If I had invoked the phrase we have been discussing, then that would have been an injustice to the person and to myself. Each and every person who I have had the pleasure of working with was hired because I liked them and believed that they had something to offer our team. In almost all cases I still believe that and will call upon them on a per project basis if I think that it makes sense and they are available. The point is when you invoke that phrase you are attempting to absolve yourself of responsibility or ownership over what is happening, and that just doesn\u2019t fly.<\/p>\n<p>So I say all business should be personal and if it isn\u2019t, then find a place that it is. Because if you are conducting <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-580 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.therobbinsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/High5-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Successful partnerships\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.therobbinsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/High5-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.therobbinsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/High5.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>business with people who are not taking it personally, then they are not invested in you or what you are trying to achieve, and not much good can come from that. I like to think of initial meetings with perspective clients as a mutual interview we are BOTH seeing if we like each other and if we can work together. A solid marketing effort takes time and if you are not personally invested, then you are just wasting your and the client\u2019s time.<\/p>\n<p>It will always be personal first and business second for me, how about you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s not personal, it\u2019s just business. Everyone knows that phrase, made even more famous in the movie You\u2019ve Got Mail. Let\u2019s just really think about that phrase for a minute: It is not personal, it is just business.\u00a0\u00a0 As Meg Ryan said in the movie, what does that even mean? Well to begin with let\u2019s &#8230; <a title=\"It&#8217;s Not Personal, it&#8217;s Just Business\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.therobbinsgroup.com\/blog\/its-not-personal-its-just-business\/\">Read more<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">It&#8217;s Not Personal, it&#8217;s Just Business<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[55,34,46,39],"tags":[37,60,14,6,35],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therobbinsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therobbinsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therobbinsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therobbinsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therobbinsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.therobbinsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":583,"href":"https:\/\/www.therobbinsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576\/revisions\/583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therobbinsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therobbinsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therobbinsgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}