“It’s not my job!” and why caring is so difficult

A lot of people are self proclaimed somethings. The only self-proclaimed thing I am is an amazing prankster. The rest? I let my actions do the talking.

I’ve masterminded many hilarious pranks. So much so that one of my best friends didn’t talk to me for a few days. Even thinking about it now I almost fall of my chair laughing.

When my friend who I swore I would never prank again was seriously mad at me, (who gets mad at someone for pranking them?) I told him, “It’s because I care. I care enough about you, to spend time plotting and executing this prank for you! You’re my boy. I wouldn’t prank someone, I didn’t care about.”

Eventually, he calmed down and appreciated it. I believe my rationale does make sense and although he had a slight heart attack, he lived to be mad at me right? And everyone else had an amazing laugh and so did he…eventually. It wasn’t that bad. It really wasn’t.

Caring is really a very important word though. If the guy who painted these lines cared about his job, he wouldn’t have done this. It takes a lot for someone to care a lot about something (or someone) though. But hey, “That’s not my job! I don’t get paid to move tree branches!”

The reason caring must be so difficult is that so few people do it.

“How was your dinner last night?”

Follow up. Not follow up to sell something, just to know. Just to ask.

The fancy restaurant knows my phone number. Why not have the owner call me the next day just to ask?

The dentist knows my number. Why not call a week later to see how the cleaning went?

The accountant knows my number. Why not check in to see if the taxes went out the door okay?

Do it in a gentle way, with no strings attached, no additional add-ons. If you really and truly care, why not ask? Not a form, not a survey. Just one caring person, asking. Not that hard, actually.

What is hard is finding people who care but once you do it makes all the difference in the world.

If YOU (the owner, the entrepreneur, the so called visionary) don’t care, how can you expect your employees, associates, or partners to care?

And if you could care less about what you’re doing whether you’re running a business or working for one, it’s time to move on. Life is too short not to care.

4 thoughts on ““It’s not my job!” and why caring is so difficult”

  1. I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you.

    Chris Moran

  2. Another great post Adam. The truth of it is, I think most people DON’T care. They wrap themselves up in irrelevant minutia that they think will make them happy or that they feel is “important”, and quite frankly they don’t care if someone had a good dinner or whether I liked the way my taxes were done. They think that you should be happy that they did your taxes at all and that you were lucky to work with them…when it’s really the other way around. Funny thing is, they’d be more happy/satisfied if they adopted the self-serving, other-centric attitude you’re talking about.

    Anyway, it’s pretty obvious that you’re not that guy, and that’s why MyBodyTutor is better than any other comparable program.

  3. Adam,

    Thanks for your thoughtful comment and I couldn’t agree more with you. It’s the same old advice over and over but if you don’t do what you love, you won’t care.

    And one of the main ingredients to creating a successful business or any career for that matter is to just simply care!

    That’s the hard part though. Finding something you truly care about where you’re willing to put your blood, sweat and tears on the line.

    -Adam

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