A very, very sad day for us today as one of our extended "family members", Pixie, our daughters' beloved pure bred mini fox terrier of the past 19 1/2 years took her final, one-way trip to the vet late this afternoon.
So you may well question why am I writing this article and what relevance does it have for a business social networking site.
At first glance, perhaps not much, after all, she's just a dog many may say with a degree of dismissiveness!
However, when reflecting on the time Pixie was part of our family environment, there were many lessons and benefits which are analogous to the world of business.
•Trust - She placed her absolute trust in us to feed, love and care for her at all times
•Relationships - She understood and appreciated her position within the family hierarchy, was always prepared to constructively interact with everyone and offered her unqualified love to all of us
•Loyalty - She embodied the very definition of loyalty by duly considering any attempts for outsiders to lure her to their camp but ultimately declined their offers and always came home because she thought we still had the best value-proposition for her
•Listening - She was always prepared to listen to whatever we had to say, regardless of our emotional states, stress levels or anything else at the time
•Empathy and Support - She was uncannily intuitive in how she seemed to know when all was not wonderful with any of us by appearing of her own volition apparently just looking for a pat and then hung around until we felt better.
When you reflect on what may successfully position you and your business as either, or preferably both, suppliers and/or employers of choice, these five points of "Trust, Relationships, Loyalty, Listening, Empathy and Support" stand out as some of the essential elements contributing to that potential success.
The lesson here is that every part of your environment must always be duly considered to appreciate the true value it adds to your overall life and business.
So "Vale Pixie" and thank you for all the lessons and the benefits you provided to both me and my family during your invaluable time with us.