Phun Pfacts

I'm going to start a little list of Horseface Steve's Fun Facts of Recovery.


Today's Fun Fact is that it's my responsibility to treat people well. This is actually more of a Fun Suggestion than a Fact. Maybe if I flog the idea around for a while I can come up with a fact that has something to do with trying to improve my personal relationships. Probably not. That goat with a ukulele will start playing "Three Blind Mice" and I'll be too distracted to continue. Anyway, the point is that if you treat people well -- with respect and honesty -- your relationships will improve dramatically. Things will work out in the long run.


I remember the first time I became aware of the concept of treating someone well without any guarantee that they weren't going to take advantage of me. The idea floored me. "What if I'm nice and everything and then someone screws me and I don't get to take my just revenge?" I asked. It was bad enough that I had to treat other people well -- I didn't see what was in it for me. It was an absolute nightmare scenario to think that I could behave properly and then get hosed by some other self-seeking individual, which wasn't unlikely as I tended to surround myself with people just like me.

Take my job, for instance. I sell things to industrial customers. I don't think I ever got up in the morning and decided to take advantage of someone. I tried not to lie or misrepresent myself or my product. But, really, all I did was pay lip service to honesty. I tried to get a prospect to buy as much stuff as possible. I didn't think things through from their point of view. I didn't care if they couldn't afford it or they didn't really need the more expensive thing or my competitor had a better solution. The more they bought, the more I got paid.

Today I'm brutally honest with people. I recommend the most appropriate solution even when that may put less money in my pocket. If someone asks, I tell them about the competition, trying to point out the differences in our products without badmouthing anyone. I think what happens is that a lot of customers are so taken aback by this honesty that they don't even look at the competition. This is the exact opposite of what I expected would happen.

The result, as you may expect, is that I sell three times as much stuff as I ever did in my best year when I was drinking. People know when you are trying to bullshit them. They can feel it when someone is trying to take advantage of them. Remember when you tried to spin your first sponsor and you thought you were fooling him? You were so magnificently transparent he could barely keep a straight face.

Today I'm going to at least try not to act like an ass.