Not all relationships are made to last. Some need severe pruning or outright chopping down. It’s not easy to do either.
On Facebook today I saw a graphic that said “It’s OK for you to believe what you believe. It’s not OK, however, that you insist that everyone believe the same as you.” Accordingly, I just unfriended an old high school friend on Facebook due to his incendiary remarks about race, guns and politics. His opinions are not mine. He is entitled but not to that rash an extent. That graphic struck me with reference to my high school friend’s recurring remarks. I acted.
Right now I have an e-payments client whose recent change of administration has brought in a group of people who just will not accept my professional advice: not completely savvy in all aspects of e-payments, they are asking me to do something potentially dangerous and could cause them, and me, a lot of extra work and expense if the inevitable happens. That’s what I am guarding them against. I published an article about this threat and sent it to them. No effect. I rarely have had to fire a client in my near 15 years of entrepreneurship. I have appealed their decision via email, so we have a record of all this, asking in the strongest professional terms for them to reconsider, that they should not proceed in this way. We shall see how this plays out…
And finally because news like this comes in 3’s I have another person working on a project on my behalf and it’s just not working well. No energy, weak follow-thru and little progress after months to accomplish what we agree has to be done.. Next on the chopping block.
Why am I telling you this? In social media (LinkedIn included) and business relationships (again, LinkedIn in my professional life plays a big part) sometimes you just have to maturely accept that it’s over. Cut and walk away.
I dread having to act in scenarios 2 and 3 above. It’s business, so I will do so professionally. People are amazingly intertwined. A rash act towards one person can backfire via others.It’s never comfortable but once in a while it is necessarily healthy.
So it goes in business and in personal relationships.
