When the mighty fall, they fall hard. I am not trying to kick a
person while he is down, or poke fun, but the lack of humility that one has
demonstrated while at the top is one reason there is little sympathy. You can
always get back up and dust yourself off, but the journey back will be even
harder than it was before and twice as hard to maintain. You have attention, all eyes on you. That is, after all, what you craved isn't it? But those eyes are
anxiously waiting for you to fall again so they can stand tall over you.
I always felt humility will take you so
far in life, farther than any dollar will ever take you. You could lose it all, but if you were humble and the people that supported you remembered that, you
will thrive. You might not be as rich but the strength and love you
are getting from your fans will more than make up for that.
Many business owners have the fortune but
lack the humility. They are treading on thin ice. With regulations becoming
tighter, one slip up and the gates to negative publicity will open. And you
won't get one thread of sympathy from anyone.
But, I’ll lay off the big wigs for a bit
and scale it down to the smaller owners. These are the smaller owners who have dreams of
making it big and can. However, they lack simplicity and that will cost them. When you are in this stage of your career, it is important to know that aside from your hard work it's the customers who keep you going. They allow
you to continue to operate by giving you their business in exchange for your
services.
While it is only natural for you to get
bigger and expand, you cannot forget those that helped you get there. More often
than not you hear about small businesses that have become huge conglomerates, but they are in the press for all the wrong reasons. This included being sued by former partners and dealing with ethics violations, just to name a few. It is headlines like this that people
remember. When you fall, you're going to be up against a wall and you're going
to be looking for support from those same customers that you shunned.
Humility will allow you to live on
forever. Even after you are gone, if your company is still around the image of
it will be one of much humility.