Photo by akseabirdDo not miss business with pleasure. Time and time again, this sentence has been repeated in movies, musical lyrics, newspapers; in fact, as we all know it is quite popular. However, whoever coined these words, really gave it a good thought.

Life in today’s business world is aggressive and harsh. Companies try to outwit one another. There still exist pockets of secret trade wars between Nations. Our offices are battlefields: no body joke with promotion opportunities. Secret coups to take over Corporations happen every day. People are smart; they are prepared to press the right buttons at the right time. In addition, co-workers are not always friends; they are literary rivals.

A lot of businesses fail because people tie business with pleasure. First, let’s make it clear that when we discourage people from mixing business with pleasure we are not talking about doing what you hate to do. You must love and enjoy what you are doing, however, refrain from allowing opportunities pass you by just because you would rather love to live close to your beautiful girlfriend or spouse instead of taking up that new appointment and relocate to a better city. Having said that, there are instances where a little of this may be required.

The fact is, if all businessmen and women mix their businesses with pleasure 24 hours of the day and 365 days per year, the world’s economy would be far worse than it is today. In principle, there is time for everything. One can truly make their job fun, however it must be between you and an inanimate object, and that’s your job.

Once I was away in Buenos Aires in a beautiful sea resort and there was this old man who came about that time with his dear wife. We started talking and he told me about his business principles. He believes everyone is a business rival, including his wife. “I don’t mix business with pleasure’’, he said.

One other secret I learnt from this grey beard Argentine man whose white hairs glinted gold was the fact that he sees his business empire like not his own. I mean he feels the business belongs to someone else and all he is doing is helping that person build the business. All business decisions he takes is for the prosperity of his business.

Thirdly, when it comes to business he doesn’t keep mutual friends but good business friends or partner. To put short, he doesn’t joke with business. Also he doesn’t allow sentiments to cloud his business judgement. Whichever business he does with a friend he expects to make the same level of profit as any other one, no special treatment. This is a good business principle to adopt. We can just go ahead and add sending a thank you card or gift thereafter.

Now, there’re many lessons we can learn from this Argentine friend of mine. It all goes to show that we must have timetable for everything; and also never mix business with pleasure. There is a difference between giving one a thank you gift and giving a discount of your product or services. To put bluntly, don’t ever mix business with pleasure.

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