To achieve success one must first alter his mindset because mental transformation is more important than physical transformation. Notwithstanding years of toiling, many are baffled by their lack of success. Numerous coaches claim to know the strategy for success but few are willing, to tell the truth. Success becomes quite easy once people rid themselves of toxic beliefs that are clothed in the garb of wisdom. Most people are guided by seemingly innocent cliches that trapped them in a regressive environment. But the following is particularly dangerous: “It’s nice to be important but it’s more important to be nice.”
I have never encountered a more vacuous statement. Whereas the meaning of important is quite explicit, niceness is context-specific. But before we critique the emptiness of niceness we are going to explain why being important allows you to create more value as a nice person. Naturally, in our interactions, we should be civil when dealing with other people, so acting nice is just a basic protocol that doesn’t need justification. On the other hand, accumulating some level of importance due to one’s accomplishments will enable nice people to leverage their brand to access resources that aid in the furtherance of their projects. Creating value makes you important and importance brings influence.
People should improve themselves before thinking about assisting others. When you are better equipped to assist others then you will make a greater impact. Celebrities and other admired figures are in a position to raise more money for charity than average Joes because their success gives them credibility. Ordinary people use resources inefficiently when they overextend themselves to do good and in the long-term winners are not created. Average people are made worse off by engaging in charity and the recipients of their benevolence only record short-term gains.
Now if do-gooders were deploying resources to scalable entrepreneurial projects, then they would have the resources to finance high-impact programs that not only offer money but also teach people how to create wealth. Foundations that coach micro-entrepreneurs and provide business development grants will do more to ameliorate the living conditions of the poor than short-term charity. Thinking that niceness is a virtue only succeeds in clouding one’s judgment and a litany of value-depleting projects.
Rather than being nice people should focus on value-creation as this will give them the reputational capital to access the resources of important people and reach more individuals. When you are important people will feel compelled to be nice even when they hate your guts. And if we are honest some people don’t even care that you are nice since for them human relations are transactional. There is no guarantee that people will reward you for being nice. Now if you are inspired to do good, do not be thwarted by naysayers, but never do good expecting people or the universe to return the favor.
Some get angry when people repose confidence in religions, yet strangely they think the universe has a spiritual monitor rewarding people for doing good. Good things happen to bad people and horrible things happen to good people, it’s obvious that the universe has no power to reward do-gooders. In several instances, being nice is indicative of emotional impairment.
Usually, after getting a windfall even serious people think that they should share their newfound wealth with friends and relatives, however, we can’t blame them when it’s evident that they are paralyzed by emotional reasoning. You can always save and invest money to get more wealth so that you can have more money to give, but when you choose to lavish money on friends and relatives who engage in conspicuous consumption, all parties will end up poorer.
When can also talk about naive employers who think that they are being nice by paying workers more than what they are worth. Madeline Pendleton is a business owner, who is infuriated by pay disparities, so to combat pay inequality she has decided to pay all workers including herself $73,000. Pendleton operates a store so the employees could be equally talented, however with expansion, Pendleton will require superior expertise, and because quality expertise is scarce, Pendleton will have to pay new employees more than average employees to compensate for their human capital.
More troubling is that despite the praises, Pendleton’s experiment is sending the wrong messages to employees. By paying them $73,000 a year, Pendleton is overcompensating her workers by suggesting that people ought to be paid more than their market value. Moreover, offering equal remuneration suggests that people should not be rewarded for their skills and work ethic.
Feeling good can never substitute for economic thinking. In the long run, the desire to feel good will only saddle entrepreneurs and individuals with liabilities. Nice thinking should be replaced with value thinking. We lack clear metrics to judge the performance of nice actions, so before deciding to be nice, we should assess the potential of our decisions to maximize value.
Another pitfall inherent in nice thinking is that it inhibits individual progress by deterring ambition. Some people are so invested in being nice that they will sacrifice success to prove that they are nice people. Recently, an investor expressed interest in obtaining equity in a micro-business and this investor was also willing to provide the entrepreneur with a lucrative network. Logical people would have seized this opportunity, but instead, this entrepreneur had the audacity to tell the investor that their personalities are incompatible because he is profit-oriented and she is people-oriented and empathetic.
In business, your partner needs expertise and integrity, the fact that you like people and he wants to make money is irrelevant. People who care about social issues and charities should go and start non-governmental organizations because they don’t belong in business. If you are serious about success get rid of nice thinking and replace it with the value approach. You might enjoy being nice, but feeling good cannot substitute for success.
Jesus Christ was nice but he was still crucified.
Lipton Matthews is a researcher, business analyst, and Youtuber. He writes for many conservative publications and has no time for stupid people. He is looking for equity in micro-businesses and doesn’t want anybody to tell him nonsense about being people-oriented. lo_matthews@yahoo.com
HOW TO START WINNING BY DUMPING USELESS CLICHES
Love this essay..