Part 2 of the WITCHCRAFT: My secret formula for business series.
I have a number of deal-breakers. You’ll establish your own as part of working through the book.
Your deal-breakers are based on your values. A lot of my deal-breakers—the reasons why I’ll walk away from a deal or a business—are to do with ethical reasons.
I’ll walk away if the other party is bullying, or degrading women, or refusing to honour my mandate (like not supporting Buy1Give1 as an entrenched cost of business).
Unfortunately, when you stand for your values and stick to your deal-breakers, you can expect people to lash out.
As the saying goes, ‘assume nothing, expect the worst and take what comes’. There are some ‘standard practices’, well-known and still widely used to get back at anyone who doesn’t conform.
The ways they’ll try to break you I’ve experienced these firsthand and they’re not pretty.
One is called ‘death by legal’. A lot of companies have in-house legal which costs them nothing compared to what you’ll have to pay to fight stuff that’s simply untruthful noise.
The second is ‘make it personal and unsafe’—and I won’t even go into what this entails, but it’s pretty bad.
Lastly, there’s “drag ‘em through the mud”; in the media.
Sure, it’s not fair—but every time my values get challenged by others, there is a lesson in that. My personal lessons were about boundary-crossings, and what happened when I didn’t act quickly enough in response.
When it happens to you.
This is not the time to quit, but the time to look for support.
In these moments we need courage, we need to be true to ourselves and we need to put our focus and energy into other opportunities that are worthy of our time.
And there are endless opportunities out there when we stay focused on what matters.
Bullies will always be out there. They aren’t capable of creating what passionate, creative people can.
The really sad fact is that I have seen too many people who are unsupported in these moments get defeated, lose focus, quit and retreat. This is a huge loss—and the bullies think they’re winning! We’ve got to get in the habit of supporting our community.
We magic-makers are extremely strong, but it’s harder when we are outnumbered.
Standing together is the key.
It’s all about:
• Supporting like-minded entrepreneurs
• Creating mastermind groups for magic-makers
• Seeking out to your tribe
• Pressing forward.
Finding your tribe.
Luckily the self-made magic makers are alive and thriving. They honour agreements, stand for values, don’t compromise on boundaries and believe in abundance.
With technology and travel (two more kinds of magic!) you can connect with your tribe wherever you are in the world. You can start right now by joining our tribe of blenders. And you can spread your magic by inspiring the people around you to stand up for their deal-breakers too.
We have to stand together, support each other, and invite more wholehearted, passionate people to join our way of doing business and life.
This is how we’ll win.
This is how we’ll make Magic a recognised strategy for business of the future.
Because Magic works!
