The next three habits are about how we relate to and work with others. The first of them is to seek positive outcomes for all in all our daily interactivities, and the concept is to see life as cooperative, not competitive. My take on this is that in today’s “everyone-for-themselves” First World, this frame of mind the book espouses that sees us always seeking mutual benefit in all of our personal and ‘fun’ancial “making more monie” efforts is, well, not a good one.
Now before getting hate for this counsel, let me say that I’m not the one responsible for the state of things today; I’m only seeing it all as it unfortunately is. Fortunately for my Make More Monie mentees, I do see it and am also seeing a mutually beneficial arrangement for all on my platform between us, provided my words of hard-earned ‘n’ hard-learned wisdom are heeded.
Just as a mutually beneficial but unspoken agreement sees the two drivers of cars approaching each other avoid a head-on collision by staying in their lanes, “win-win” agreements of all kinds work solely because all parties “stay in their lanes” as well; providing agreed-upon benefits to each other’s services. Many don’t though, hence the world of contract law.
There’s a number of transactable scenarios this book highlights, from the elusive “win-win” negotiated outcome through to “lose-lose”, including both (or all) parties agreeing to simply walk away from the potential transaction altogether, like I wish I had from this boring and banal book.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People says that anyone approaching anything with a “win-win” attitude possesses integrity, maturity and generosity. Without getting into why the author chose these three traits and/or whether or not his definitions of them are accurate, I believe that the concept of “win-win” is a good one, and, if both sides in anything can win, then that’s great. Most interactions one takes part in are of this nature, such as when willingly purchasing a product or service, or in any social arrangements made with those in day-to-day life, like picking up someone this time for an event and then them doing the same for us next time, etc.
The way most people think, though, is “win-lose”. They may want the power that comes from coal, but do not want the strip mine in their backyard, so they do what they can to see to it that coal is extracted in the United States – or even further away, like Australia or Indonesia – and that it is also burned to generate power somewhere else. They may prefer nuclear power, but will also advocate for that power’s nuclear waste to be taken somewhere else – in fact, anywhere else – but nearby.
I have no doubt that the world’s negotiated-or-not transactional interaction results would look quite different if they were all based on “win-win” scenarios. Of course, the world may not even be recognizable if everything was decided on “win-lose” paradigms. In actuality, most of the done deals in life and in “making more monie” are somewhere on the spectrum of these two extremes. Sometimes, we negotiate with the common good in mind and other times we don’t.
Having said that, in most cases, we don’t – and in today’s First World, we shouldn’t. Everyone, from the politicians to the pastorpreneurs, from the social media influencers to the advertising media agencies that promote businesses big and small selling us everything under the sun, view us all as human ATMs. Relentlessly looking to access more of it, don’t let ‘em without making sure to get that monie’s worth!
Disclaimer: The information contained herein should not be construed or considered professional advice. Nonetheless, thanks for reading! If it resonates, there’s “plenty more where that came from” on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X ‘n’ YouTube.