Our conversation quickly slipped into the challenges of the rising numbers of young people joining the workforce and what’s coming in the next ten years.  While none of us can predict what those challenges will be, there’s no doubt that a new generation gap is already here and getting bigger.

Here are 10 things to think about:

1) Generation gaps are convenient dichotomies for writers, social commentators and consultants who make a living from singling out problems. People are still people. While many unique attributes are ascribed to people under 30 years old, young people still act and react in very similar ways as others. Their ranks include workers and slackers, poets and pirates. While many of the ways they choose to act, dress, and communicate are different, different isn’t bad or good. It’s just different. Isn’t it a much more interesting place to live when people are different?

2) There are many shifting societal changes happening right now, and we are in the midst of a transition from one generation to another. It is big and it’s happening. It isn’t as obvious as a comet and you can’t stop it by shooting at it. It will happen whether anyone likes it or not.

3) The Boomer generation needs to accept that there is another youth movement going on. While the over 50 set may be able to claim the moral high ground on peace, love and rock-n-roll, we are seeing another large, vital generation that wants to do things their way. It might or might not be the same way Boomers did it. Get over it!

4) There has never been a time when there was more overlap between generations in one way:  music. Parents and kids are listening to the same things. When you go to an “old folks” concert (The Doobie Brothers or Eagles comes to mind), you see just as many kids as you do parents. Next time you have the chance, compare the contents of each generations’ playlists on iTunes. Yep, pretty much the same content.

5) I overheard this statement the other day in a conversation between a twenty-something and a forty-something: “The difference between us is you still use the phone to talk.” Each successive generation is more comfortable with technology and is more reliant on it. Each group will have to learn to adapt.

6) There is a tremendous opportunity to work together, as long as the Boomers don’t get too parental. While a command and control management style may been a good industrial/manufacturing strategy, it’s not for those under 35. Words like “should,” “must” and “because I said so,” might be better left out of daily conversation. I don’t think the Boomers wanted to be told what to do; why does anyone think that kids of Boomers want to either?

7) For the younger set: Be open to learning from everyone, but decide for yourself. You have to frame your decisions with the information and background you have. Know when to seek out the pieces to the puzzle you don’t yet have. Context matters.

8) For the older set: Be relevant. Be open to learning from everyone, and challenge the assumptions of a lifetime. People, places and things are evolving all the time. Are you?

9) For all ages, remember one word: congruence.  The more actions and words match up, the more trust is built. While true for any age, it’s especially true for the arriving generations.

10)  Finally, nothing ever stays the same. Let’s focus on the good!

My flight from Phoenix was interesting: my seatmate and I were sitting in chairs in the sky, participating in the miracle of human flight, having a nice lunch and a conversation. How great is that?

Chip Scholz is the Head Coach of Scholz and Associates, Inc. He is an internationally recognized executive coach, public speaker and author. He is a Certified Business Coach and works with CEO’s and their teams across North America.  Chip blogs frequently on business  leadership topics within his blog Leadersnips,  He is co-author of Masterminds Unleashed: Selling for Geniuses and the recently released Do Eagles Just Wing It?

Chip can be reached at 704-827-4474 (EST) or visit his website Scholz and Associates. Additionally you may connect with Chip through these social media sites:

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Many of the sales training coaching programs focus on bad sales talents or sales skills (what people do not do well) instead of good talents (what people do well). Part of the reason for these misdirected actions are due to the lack of using a proven performance appraisal diagnostic assessment focusing on talents, on assessing actual awareness of each salesperson. The other part is due to the inherent negative conditioning already embedded within each salesperson.

For example, what are the first three (3) words most babies speak?

1. Mom
2. Dad
3. No

Then the Nos turn into the Don’ts such as:

• Don’t write on the wall
• Don’t speak to strangers
• Don’t go where you are not invited or asked

As the child grows consequences are added to the Don’ts and the now young person is Can’t conditioned.  Add all the other negative conditioning actions from failed answers in school, red pencil marks to peer pressure and no wonder negative conditioning is alive and thriving in most people. Sales Training Coaching Tip:  Reluctance toward cold calling or the fear of cold calling  is far more due to negative conditioning than any other reason.

Another reason for the emphasis on bad sales talents within sales training coaching programs is it is much easier to construct a curriculum around known weaknesses or bad sales talents than around the individual good talents.

If we accept the premise that winning teams win because of their strengths, their combined top good talents, then this emphasis on bad sales talent  is quite ridiculous.

What I know to be true after working with professional sales people, small business owners and even C Suite executives, is that 95% of these individuals do not know their top talents, but that same percentage know their worst talents.  Then what happens the focus is on attempting to improve what they do not do well as the expense of what they do well.  They may even abandoned their natural sales skills because of this focus on bad sales talents. Also within this process, they may actually turn non-talents into weaknesses because of all this negative conditioning.

Effective sales training coaching requires a strong foundation based upon confirmed awareness within each individual.  When individuals have the personal Ah Ha moment then they are more open to change because What’s In It For Me (WIIFM) has been activated because now all of a sudden the emphasis is on Me and not on the organization.

Credit www.sxc.hu

For when we ask where does the sales process really start what we are actually asking is where does sales success start?

Answer:  Between your ears!

Unless the salesperson has authentic self confidence through genuine self awareness, sales success will always be quite elusive.  Within that space between your ears, rests the reason for your desire to be successful, your motivation to reach further as an individual, to achieve more every day. Sales Training Coaching Tip: The majority of individuals know what they do not do well with far greater accuracy than knowing what they do well.

Understanding what you value, what motivates you, is incredible support you as you move forward to increase sales.  One of the better experts on human motivation, Abrahan Maslow, wrote about this subject and connected human motivation to emotional intelligence.  Unfortunately, many people truly do not know themselves nor truly understand emotional intelligence and consequently start the actual beginning of the sales process with bad or missing information.

Today, I saw a headline for a blog that suggested this writer, coach and consultant could build self esteem, self confidence quickly and easily. Well I beg to differ because unless you are building a house of cards, there is no quick fix solution to self confidence or self esteem. Acquiring true self confidence, being authentic from your head to your toes takes time and is an ongoing process. This is supported by research that suggests emotional intelligence deepens and grows with maturity for most individuals. In other words, the process of individual growth never stops.

If we look at some key indicators in society, we can quickly ascertain that self esteem in spite of nearly 40  plus years of public schools attempting to build self esteem has been for the most part a disaster. I know this to be true not only through my own observations but through one assessment, the Attribute Index, which looks at how people make decisions both externally and internally along with 78 key attributes or talents.

Socrates wrote that we as individuals must first know ourselves.  Then the next step as suggested by Kierkegaard is to choose who we want to be.  Finally we then can create the person we wish to be (Mirandolla). These three actions work in tandem to support us as we construct the life we deserve through clarity of thought.

Our sales success, the ability to increase sales, to build a business is no exception to this process that starts between the ears. So if you wish to understand where does the sales process really starts, then look inward and begin to understand how you make decisions, what motivates you and your key attributes or talents.  Through this ongoing self reflection process you will increase sales and your efforts will be far more sustainable than the quick fix promises within many self improvement books or even sales training coaching programs.

P.S. If you wish to take advantage and begin to truly know yourself, then take advantage of the Attribute Index along with a personal 90 minute debriefing.  This is probably the best investment of time and dollars you will ever make.

Credit www.sxc.hu

This week I attended 3 different business to business networking  events and upon reflection I began to further evaluate each event specific to my own marketing goals as well as to the bigger picture.

In working through this reflective and critical thinking skill process, I realized there existed before, during and after criterion in all events.

Before Criterion

Notice:  Was the event properly advertised with date, time, location, purpose of the event along with any cost to attend?

Interest:  Did the marketing of the event encourage additional interest as a “must attend event?”

Followup:  Was there a follow-up process to ensure registration was received and processed?

During Criterion

Edibles:  If food was present, was it tasty, appetizing, etc.?

Engagement:  Were those in attendance engaging with others?

Energy: Was the energy level high, medium and low?

Environment: Was the environment enjoyable specific to temperature, seating, place to hang coats if necessary, etc.?

After Criterion

Event Impression:  How would you evaluate the overall event specific to your goals?

Event Response:  For those you met, did they respond to your follow-up calls?

Not all business to business networking success can be evaluated by how many new sales leads (think business cards) were collected.  In some cases, attending these events can be for new knowledge, exploration of a new industry to even just supporting a business colleague or friend.

Yet having some evaluating process in place beyond the new sales leads I believe is necessary so that you can determine in the future if you wish to attend this business to business networking event or that one?

Now upon further reflection I realized business to business networking success can be evaluated using additional criterion. What I now have s a quick assessment for each event I attend.  In the past my only criterion was how many new sales leads I wished to secure usually from zero if the event was one of support to five new business contacts. As the old expression goes, if you cannot measure it you cannot manage it.

I cannot count the number of times I have shared this sales observation with clients and even on some of my social media postings. Of course giving credit where credit is due, my father told me this many, many years ago.

In sales as much as things change, they do indeed remain the same.

Yet the remnants from product based marketing (think price based) or traditional marketing still rampage their way through advertising to email blasts to those frequently and high traffic business to business networking events to social media postings. Yesterday was no exception.

In between sales coaching calls and returning phone calls, I scanned my Facebook feed. There was a posting about Pinterest, a new social media site that has been getting a lot of press and play the last few months. The posting said “check out our new guide” with a link. So I clinked on the link and then discovered the guide cost $17.  However since I have never bought anything from this firm and truly have not read anything so far that has prompted me to want to read more about this business, I could have care less if the price was $.07 or $700.

Like many others, I have been burned by buying a low threshold price product.  In many of those instances, I knew as much as not more than the authors and I actually was a far better writer. In this case, I knew nothing about the subject and could not find out anything about the authors.

For me the value was not the price but the expertise of the authors, the writing quality and the overall relevance of this social media site to my marketing action plan.  Since this eBook was being published by an organization, I had no way of knowing the level of expertise or the quality of the writing.  However, the association offering the eBook quipped back with “It’s only 17 for 4 how to guides.”

Further down my email in box was a quick article about how this site, Pinterest, was geared more to women than to men. Given my ideal customer demographics lean more toward men by 3 to 1, I quickly realized investing any free time on this site at this time would probably not deliver me new sales leads.  Better stick with LinkedIn and already planned  marketing activities.

Then in speaking with my most recent sales coaching client I attempted to illustrate an example of how today’s salespersons must look to the value from the buyer’s perspective and how selling on value not price will increase sales.

Imagine you are a Ford salesperson selling a Ford Focus to a new customer who happens to be Rush Limbaugh.  Now does Rush really care more if the car gets 40 mpg or he is more concerned about the technology and being able to sync his mobile devices? Anyway who listens to Rush knows he is a fan of high tech especially the Apple iPad and the technology aspect of a Ford Focus or any car is probably where he places a lot of value. Given his income, he is probably not as concerned about mpg as someone who may have a more limited financial budget.  Yes this may be an extreme example, but it illustrates the perception of value.

What many sales people do is to walk into that first time sales meeting with their perception of value tied to price and ignore what the potential customer, prospect or sales lead is saying.  Then they may even think they are selling on value not price and wonder why they cannot increase sales. Remember,

People buy on value unique to them.

The value within your solutions even those identified by past customers may not be the value perception or need from your newest sales lead.  To attempt to sell on price based upon your value perception such as in my first illustration of “It’s only $17 for 4 guides” will leave you pocket poor and provide fodder for a blog posting.

How to get clients all depends on what you say, and how you say it when someone first meets you, or reads something about you, or something you wrote. But most give a really weak, ineffective, first message.

What do you say when someone asks, “What do you do?:”

The Worst Message of All

The worst marketing message, the response to that question,  is the one I hear the most often . . . “I am a _______”, a label.

Why is this so weak and lame?

Because it doesn’t tell anyone what would literally compel him to beg you to help him which is . . . the results he’d get from working with you, and the value of that outcome.

No one cares what you call yourself.

Doesn’t tell him anything of value.

And it’s about YOU and not about THEM.

There are two key things that have to happen when they first hear what you do.

1. What you say has to get their attention. If you don’t get their attention with the first words . . . they don’t hear anything beyond that.
2. You’ll grab their attention when you tell them something they want and something that is a huge value.  So, give them results . . . and the value of those results. That grabs attention if the value is high enough.

By the way, when you say “I am a ______” where’s the value?  Where’s the result?

You may assume that they can figure it out, but no one really knows how valuable you are until you tell them or they experience it.  Don’t assume they should know!

Let’s take a look at an example that will leap out at you. In this case it’s an oncologist, a cancer doctor.  Compare what you say to what this oncologist says at each level of the development of his marketing message.

Start at the bottom where he says, “I am a doctor” and work your way up. Each step becomes more powerful, more attention getting IF you are one of his target patients that has cancer? Especially, the one who might be dying of cancer.

Keep in mind that a marketing message has to be targeted on a specific market to be powerful. A marketing message targeting the whole world won’t work.

Each step becomes more powerful, more attention getting.  IF you are one of his target patients that has cancer? Especially one that might be dying of cancer.

Start with the bottom message, the weakest message, is “I am a _____”, a label,  which is, what most business owners say.

Don’t be like everyone else!

Have them lining up to get what you sell instead!. Most people do.

This one fails because it doesn’t tell anything about results, or the value of those results.

The next more powerful message is one that’s a little more specific, and will gain a little more attention. “I am an oncologist.” This one is narrowing in on a niche, but tells “no results” nor “value.”

But both messages 1 and 2, at the bottom have another weakness. They are talking about the person giving the marketing message, not about the results they deliver to the target market. The prospect only wants to know what it’ll do for him, not what you do.

If you want to have people leaping into your lap to buy from you, it requires that you let them know something they are interested in. That would be something about them, their business, and some kind of result they’d get.

The bottom two messages are about the person giving the message, not the person who asked, “So what do you do?”

Move up to message number 3. “I work with cancer patients.” It’s still about the person giving the message. It does have a little information that his target market is a cancer patient. Nothing about results. This is just a little more powerful than number 2.

In this case, if you were hearing this message and are a cancer patient it’s likely that this one is starting to get your attention, but still not enough.

Is message #4 different? Can you imaging that if you were a cancer patient, and one that’s been told you might not survive, would this absolutely grab you and pull you in?

Wouldn’t it pull you in even if you are already being treated by someone else?

It does because

1. It clearly calls out the target audience by name
2. It clearly states what the problem is
3. It talks about results, and puts a measurable value on it, 80% walk out cured in 3 months.

If you had the problem wouldn’t that simple message have you leaping into their arms begging them to help you? It would me.

If someone that had cancer heard “I am a doctor”, the first message, how would they respond in comparison?

So how do we do that for your business?

Alan Boyer is a business coach/marketing coach who helps businesses reach another $100K to $250K every 3-6 months . . . and to stop playing at building a business.  Have you been playing in the kiddie pool (not on purpose of course) and not seriously, rapidly, growing your business?

Alan can also be reached by calling 816.415.8878 or through these websites as well:

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Of course these same small business owners to C Suite executives talk about how “they value their employees” and “how their employees are their greatest asset.”  Yet examining their C Suite Board of Executive, very rarely will you find a Chief People Officer (CPO) sitting at the table with the CEO, COO, CIO, CTO, CFO, etc. And the reason for this is because employees are viewed as a cost, an expense, a liability and not as an investment.

Part of the rationale for this mindset is that in many organizations when examining the budget look to their greatest expenditures usually employees’ salaries, employees benefits and in some cases marketing. By cutting this large percentage of the overall expenditures creates a false belief in reducing costs and improving profitability. The sales force is not viewed as human capital or an asset, but rather a liability to be controlled and reduced.

Another explanation is the value behind training or upgrading the sales skills.  Machines to buildings can be upgraded and that upgrade may last at least a decade if not longer expect for technology.  People may require continual upgrading (learning, training and development) to specific sales skills as they are the individuals dealing with all the changes in the marketplace from compliance to market changes to customers.  The expansion into the global marketplace only adds more change into the mix.

A third explanation goes to the organizational misalignment between strategy, structure, processes, rewards and people.  Sales people are continually asked to be responsible for gaps in the organization that start at the top and cascade down.

The inability to increase sales is usually a symptom not the real problem.

Blaming the sales force is much easier than investigating the real problem for lack luster sales, customer turnover, etc. In many cases, this disconnect or gap happens between the job description, the performance appraisal and inconsistent behaviors by sales management to small business owners.

However, the deeper explanation is truly the lack of value specific to learning and development.  If leadership in sales management, at the C Suite truly valued learning, then investing in their sales teams would be as they say a “No Brainer.”  Most of the sales training coaching focuses on specific sales skills instead of the attitudes within the sales force.

Possibly the fear of identifying those attitudes might be a reflection upon sales management to executive leadership? 

In other words, the “I’m okay, You’re the problem” syndrome.

The sales force training should always be viewed as an investment instead of a cost or an expense.  When sales management embraces this belief or attitude, then they will probably begin to realize business success, increase sales and even reduced expenditures.

Remember, people buy from people and not from upgraded technology, newest software or the best looking building.

So here is a listing of as many LinkedIn mistakes I have discovered. Please feel free to add yours and I will update this list with your contribution and name.

1. Incomplete profile
2. Poor headline
3. Executive summary that is a resume
4. No recommendations
5. No giving of recommendations
6. Not thanking those who give you recommendations
7. No professional photograph (head shot)
8. Using Logo instead of professional head shot
9. Failure to include keyword in headline
10. Failure to include keyword in summary
11. Failure to include keyword in specialties
12. Failure to include keyword in skills
13. No results in executive summary
14. Grammar and spelling mistakes in entire profile
15. Failure to list website and other URLs
16. Failure to include your Blog along with Slideshow
17. No groups listed
18. No interested listed
19. Groups listed, but no active participation in groups
20. Participation in groups is posting your own blog as a discussion
21. Lack of professionalism when participating in groups specific to marking promotions as promotions, job opportunities as jobs instead of marking them as discussions
22. Participation in groups is 100% self promotion always referring to your blog, your solutions, your website, little to no value is added
23. Collecting names like business cards
24. Collecting names without a goal
25. Being dis-respectful in discussions because you are always right
26. Being confrontational in discussions because you are always right
27. Being the Know It All in discussions
28. Disrespecting the viewpoints of others within discussions
29. Not being personal; focus is always on selling
30. Not providing value as focus is always on you
31. Asking for recommendations from people who truly do not know you or know enough about you in you current role
32. Not reaching out to your contacts proactively to learn how you can support them
33. Not sharing or commenting on others’ updates
34. Not being active regarding the update feed
35. Expecting by being a member people will connect with you
36. Not doing research using LinkedIn to find quality connections and sales leads
37. No process in place as how to proceed after receiving an invitation or giving an invitation to connect

Please feel free to add your top LinkedIn mistakes and maybe this list can grow to 50 or more.  Learning research suggests 70% of all learning is informal meaning we learn best from each other than from some instructor or teacher.

P.S. I may also add to these LinkedIn mistakes as well as I uncover more.

The challenge is achieving that measurable end result while not throwing the other goals off the cliff and upsetting the work life balance.

Louie Armstrong is quoted as a “goal is a dream with an ending.”  Dreams do not have tangible endings until some action is taken.  The move the Bucket List is a great illustration of turning dreams into goals and enjoying the measurable results.

Years ago I was exposed to the concept of the Life Wheel.  In doing my own research for my book, Be the Red Jacket, I discovered that Buddha was one of the first who wrote and discussed this concept of work life balance. His Life Wheel had six (6) areas.

Additionally, I recognized that many people had not invested the time to truly understand their purpose in life. One of the better books to explain purpose is The On Purpose Person by Kevin McCarthy.

Through my own experiences and observing the experiences of others, I also determined that within the Life Wheel there existed a counter balance effect. When one was ill physically, then one’s mental acuity suffered or too much focus on family may create a pull on social relationships.  Goals then became the counter balance weights to ensure overall balance.

Having a work life balance is essential in that being off balance creates poor results and in many cases unintended and costly results. Of course, this does require an investment of time along with the understanding how to set and achieve the desired end and measurable results 0r goals.

What is so ironic is people will invest more time on the everyday grocery list than putting together an action plan for the rest of their lives.

Goal for some appears to be a 4 letter dirty word along with plan and “DoIt.” Yet how often have we heard “failure to plan is planning to fail?”

I am reading the book Critical Thinking (Kindle edition) and the authors make some great points about the lack of critical thinking.  This inability to critically think has created reactive, short term, non-sustainable results or the quick fix mentality syndrome that appears to be so prevalent in our culture and  the cultures of other countries.Written goals when constructed within an action plan counter that quick fix mentality and subsequent quick fix behaviors not to mention quick fix results.

Consistently setting and achieving goals reflects a disciplined mind set and equally important the ability to critically think.

If you truly want those future, desired measurable results whatever they might be, then invest the time to write down your goals, unite them so that you can achieve work life balance.  For you believe a written grocery list has value, doesn’t your future even have more value?

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“To give or not to give” may become as famous as Shakespeare’s “To be or not to be that is the question” quotation. For crazy busy small business owners to sales professionals to even C Suite executives who truly want to consistently demonstrate high business ethics, yet find themselves at the crossroads of “Giving” and “Being Used” to give or not to give is a daily dilemma.

After just completing my second read of the Go Giver, conducting a small experiment using LinkedIn recommendations and investing in some time to consistently reflect at the conclusion of each day as recommended by Harry Kraemer in his book From Values to Action,  I find myself personally struggling with this issue, to give or not to give, now more so than ever before. Let me explain.

First, almost 6 years ago I abandoned my rather scattered marketing plan called Pray and Spray and adopted an education based marketing approach focusing strongly on article marketing.  Adoption of an education based marketing approach is fundamentally about giving your knowledge or expertise to others.

Then I restructured my small business coaching schedule and fees to reflect current market trends of less time and budget constraints.

Finally through my book, Be the Red jacket, I established this sales blog to reflect how to increase sales along with always wearing a red Jacket at business to business networking events or speaking engagements.

Through this process there have been many “giving conversations” to “giving actions” without any expectations to receive something back. Incredible relationships have been developed and strengthened.  And yes, in some cases, this has lead to increase sales.

My personal challenge and probably one face by others is when to stop giving.  Human nature being what human nature is there are people who take advantage of those who give. With the economy for many in the doldrums, this desire to receive, to be the “to give” recipient appears to be more prominent than even before.  When we add into this mix, any religious convictions, this personal challenge can become quite enormous.

For example, several years ago after listening to a local social media expert in the Chicago area give an excellent presentation, I connected with him on LinkedIn and then wrote a recommendation because he deserved it.  When we first  met, I gave him my book, Be the Red jacket. I did asked him when he had time to read it and if  he found it of value, to write a positive recommendation over at Amazon.  We have connected several times since then and he still hasn’t found the time to read the book, but he has found the time to regularly ask me to promote his event here or there or even himself. Hmm

Locally, another social media expert was attempting to get known and I connected her with numerous people some of which actually hired her. She still has made ongoing requests to help her without any return giving of her own.  The biggest challenge is her lack of follow through and that affects my local credibility.  I no longer made recommendations specific to this person and now make recommendations to another local social media expert who is more responsive.

I remember another colleague who asked for a LinkedIn recommendation to complete his profile as three recommendations are required. Within several hours I honored his request. However he did not say thank you.

Then there are your business colleagues, business to business networking connections who will pick your brain over lunch, coffee or even a telephone conversation.  In most cases, they appear to be grateful of the giving. Over in a LinkedIn discussion group, the topic of free (giving) was intensely discussed with a variety of opinions.

To gather greater clarity around this to give or not to give, I conducted my own experiment using LinkedIn and actually determining the authenticity of colleagues’ business ethics. I gave  seven (7) LinkedIn recommendations to people who share the foll0wing criteria:

1. Known them for over two years
2. Interacted with them at least once a month
3. All personally expressed to me they had high business ethics
4. None had recommended me (to avoid quid pro quo)

All seven accepted the LinkedIn recommendations within 48 hours. One person sent an email and called me within 24 hours after receiving the LinkedIn recommendation and another emailed me within 96 hours. The other five even after several weeks have passed failed to acknowledge the LinkedIn recommendations.  Hmmm

High business ethics in my opinion suggest or even require a “giving mindset” as my giving colleague Dan Waldschmidt discusses in his EDGY conversations.  Dan is one of those folks who regularly gives. In our conversations he indicated this lack of a giving mindset is just as prevalent in larger organizations as it appears to be in small businesses.He further believes it is an obstacle to individual success, business success or organizational success call it what you will.

Maybe everyone is to be busy. Yet I am reminded of the giving attitude of one of my coaches and colleagues, David Herdlinger. When my book was first published, I sent out copies to friends and colleagues. David called me upon receiving the book, wrote a great review over at Amazon.com, all without being asked.

Now David is a very busy person with an extremely active and dynamic executive coaching practice along with being involved in a coaching academy. So my little brain goes if David can find the time to be giving, why is it so hard for others who tell me they have high business ethics and are “giving” individual?  Hmmm

After rereading the words I have shared with you, I am no closer to reconciling this personal dilemma to give or not to give.  My sense is I will continue to give while staying away from those business people and other individuals who consistently do not give and expect to be the recipients of a “giving mindset.”

Please feel free to share your thoughts below. Do you feel that you have been continually used?  Do you feel business referrals or recommendations appear to be a one way street?  What have been your experiences?