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The Ming Vase – A Symbol of Rarity and Value

Imagine I give each of you, as a business owner, a priceless, one-of-a-kind, Ming Vase…

At first, you are speechless. You marvel at its rarity, its delicacy, its beauty.

You treat it carefully, tenderly. You show it off to your friends and family.

It becomes the centrepiece in your living room.

Gradual Neglect – Losing Sight of What Matters

Then, gradually, imperceptibly, over time something happens.

You notice it less and less.

You no longer see its rarity and pricelessness.

You find a new home for it – your daughter’s bedroom. She uses it as an umbrella stand.

It never gets cleaned. If you look closely, it has a small cobweb or two,

The Ming Vase – The Symbol of Your Business

So, what is my point?

This Ming Vase is a symbol of your culture.

Your business was never just a means to make money. It was a creation, a culture, that you built from nothing, and returns you money. It also returns you gratitude, love, respect, joy, purpose, and fulfillment.

Are You Treating Your Culture Like a Priceless Treasure?

Do you treat the culture in your business like a precious Ming Vase? If not, why not?

And here is the thing, a culture is as difficult to form, shape and build as a Ming Vase. And equally as delicate.

A takes a lot of work to build it. And nothing to destroy it.

How Cultures Break – Neglect and Compromise

We know how to break a Ming Vase. Stop caring for it. Drop it.

What about a culture?

The building block of culture is relationship. And how does relationship get built?

Words. The creative word.

The Power of Creative Words

Creative words communicate more than the time of your next meeting. Creative words edify, lift up, empower, inspire, and motivate.

Over time these powerful words build your business culture. They are the oil of relationships – with your customers, your Team, your suppliers – everyone.

And, as I have repeated many times, how you do one thing is how you do everything. You cannot build a culture saying kind words to your customers and then yelling at your Team. That does not work.

The Strength and Fragility of Culture

Over time your culture will be as strong as tensile steel and as delicate as a Ming Vase. It has both qualities. How so?

It has the strength of tensile steel over time because your words, and the words of your Team will become second nature. People stepping into the culture will act out the values of the culture. The culture becomes who they are, what they say, the actions they take. It becomes, as the cliché says, like water to a duck.

On the flip side, this precious culture can be destroyed with a few misplaced words, actions, or worse…

Compromise – The Silent Destroyer

Over time, you stopped seeing the preciousness of your culture (like the example above). You let spider webs creep in. You compromised the culture.

You took shortcuts. (It takes longer to write texts and emails using softeners to maintain your culture). Over time, you, and your Team stopped taking the time to write in this creative way. You saw that your customers, suppliers, and the general business community did not care about culture like you do.

So, you compromised, and over time a degradation seeped in.

And, one day you woke up and realized that your business was ordinary, like everyone else’s. It was no longer a thing of rarity, of preciousness. It was cracked…

Rebuilding a Broken Culture

What to do?

Simple.

Start again. Go back to the beginning and start using words wisely. Speak and write and think with softeners. (“I wonder if you would be so kind to…” … “Thank you for sending me those documents so quickly” ….” Kindly find attached your reports for the month”).

You can rebuild your culture and shape it according to your values.

And, remember this, it takes ongoing care, and awareness to keep your culture going.

Oh, and lastly, what does this have to do with creating a successful, profitable business?

Everything. Everything. Because you are not creating a money-making machine (that is the result). You are creating a magnificent life!

Thank you for reading….