• Know Your Friends, Know Your Tools

  Filed under Foo
  Mar 17

  In the past month, I’ve had my head down making sites, training my dog Sebastian, and learning a whole lot about SEO and human behavior.

  I have learned over the last week that is it important to know your friends and know your tools. A friend is someone who will tell you how it is, straight up, and will give back to you. A tool is a person or thing to be used for what you need. A friend will give back to you. A tool may or may not. If a tool does not give back to you, it is time to drop it and move on.

  Now, I know this sounds cold and cruel, but in fact, it is business. This methodology has always been in effect, but few people are actually willing to say it out loud. It is vital in business to know the difference between your tools and your friends. In fact, I didn’t really get this rule until recently.

  I have to say, I learn from Jenstar every day. Most of the time what I learn has nothing to do with Adsense. Jenstar knew early on that forums and the people who run them are tools to use to help her build her empire. She uses them brilliantly and if those forums and people stop giving back to her, she drops them and moves on. Why didn’t I think of that?

  I’ve also learned that in business, always do for yourself first. Sort of like if the airplane goes down, you put the mask on yourself first THEN help someone else. It seems so simple to most people, but for some reason, I had to learn that the hard way.

  The thing is, I’ve been a tool for other people most of my business life. I give a whole lot more than I’ll get back in return. But I’ve learned. I now look at business completely differently than I did before. The coolest thing about it is it has made my life simple.

  3 Comments

3 Responses to “Know Your Friends, Know Your Tools”

1. 

   webprofessor said on March 17th, 2006 at 1:08 pm

   Hey your alive !!

   I agree completely with this. Its a very tough lesson to learn for some people.. myself included..

   When it came to forums I always thought “communal” in the hippie sense of the term, boy did I get a suprise! lol

2. 

   Heather said on March 17th, 2006 at 1:39 pm

   Hey…someone other than me is reading my blog! *laugh* I’d better write something worthwhile!

3. 

   mivox said on March 17th, 2006 at 10:34 pm

   Before I do something, I try to always remember to ask myself, “If I never get a ‘payback’ for this, will I be happy to have done it?” If the answer is “no” then I either need to say “no” or I need to negotiate payment/paybacks up front.

   That goes equally for helping someone professionally as it does for calling that friend who never seems to call you back. If the satisfaction from the doing itself is all you need to get out of it, then do it. Otherwise, make sure there’s something else making it worth your while.

Leave a Reply