It turns out, the “nice” guy (ahem, or lady or person) actually finishes first, and being heart-centered and caring deeply for your clients makes you THRIVE (and make more money).
I know there’s a narrative (and programs that teach) that you have to be a “shark” in business to succeed and make bank; that “nice” people are weak, can’t sell, and sure as hell can’t make money (at least not a lot of it) doing what they love.
Let me just call some bullshit and tell you how NOT true and damaging that noise is for the long-term of your business income and impact.
This isn’t only my coming from my personal experience as an unapologetically “nice” and heart-centered business woman who’s built a very successful and profitable business and also witnessed client after client build, grow, and scale their businesses putting their people and service first, this is also something that’s backed by research.
Adam Grant talks about this in Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success and shares the studies to back up this nice-sounding theory.
It turns out “nice” business owners finish FIRST and last, and in the long-run, us “nice guys” come out ahead.
And, really, doesn’t this make practical sense when you think about what drives sales and money-generating results in your business? -> You know, the depth of your relationships, the quality and care of your work, and the service you deliver?
So, if you’ve been told you’re “too nice” (I feel ya) and that you need to “toughen up” or “grow a thicker skin” if you want to make it and make bank in business, let this be evidence that you CAN be kind, care about your people, AND be a damn smart business person who makes a fuck ton of money.
Those qualities aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, those qualities go hand-in-hand and will only help you make more money long term, not less.
Then, you can break your “niceness” for a moment and tell anyone giving you a hard time to shut it (us nice folks still have boundaries and a back bone, right?!) and go back to building and scaling your kind AND profitable empire.
I’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment below and let me know if you’re with me that you can bring the heart, be “nice”, and also build, grow, and scale a wildly profitable business you love.
Wishing you your version of success.