No Honor Among Thieves
February 11, 2009
Don your ten gallons and dust off (or de-mud) your favorite cowboy boots partner, cause we’ve got a song for you. I’m not actually brave enough to post an audio for a country music song on this blog, just the printed lyrics. My brother would harass me endlessly about being a “hilljack” if I resorted to country music, but I have to admit, some of the songs are true works of art, even if they are an aquired taste.
No Honor Among Thieves, by Toby Keith
This world’s a jungle there ain’t no justice
Laws of nature rule this land
Better hide your horses, bury your whiskey
Hold your woman any way you can
Cause there ain’t no right or wrong, nothing’s carved in stone
It ain’t cheating if you don’t get caught
Jokers laugh and losers grieve
Cause out here, there’s no honor among thieves
That woman you’ve been loving, she was another man’s
You stole her heart while his back was turned
On every corner there’s an outlaw waiting
Who wants to teach you what you never learned
Cause there ain’t no right or wrong, nothing’s carved in stone
It ain’t cheating if you don’t get caught
Jokers laugh and losers grieve
Cause out here there’s no honor among thieves
This world’s a jungle there ain’t no justice
Laws of nature rule this land
So don’t go crying when her love goes flying to
The thieving arms of another man
There ain’t no right or wrong, nothing’s carved in stone
It ain’t cheating if you don’t get caught
Love’s a deck of cards read them and weep
Cause out here there’s no honor among thieves
Yeah
There ain’t no right or wrong
Nothing’s carved in stone
“There ain’t no right or wrong, nothing’s carved in stone.” The only rule is there are no rules, all’s fair in love and war (and business), there’s no honor among thieves…. right? Life’s just a free ride, do whatever it takes, look out for number one, make your own dreams come true. It’s the American way.
I know, 50% of my home health patients were on Medicaid and loving it. (The poor suckers paying insurance premiums and copays generally didn’t qualify for home health, it’s too expensive.) I’ve seen people turn down paying jobs because it would interfere with their ability to collect welfare or disability. Working for a living didn’t line up with their current lifestyle of choice. Things were pretty cozy for them, there was no motivation for change- no reason to think about anyone but themselves.
Then, I would return to the nursing office where the company wanted to know where I’d been and why I wasn’t done sooner. “What do you mean you can’t change a five-layer compression dressing on bilateral legs, do a head to toe assessment, and fill a med tray in 30 minutes! You don’t need to actually care about the patient, don’t ask how they are doing! Just do the skills and get out! We don’t make money unless you see more patients in a day and chart every move you make, for Pete’s sake! What? Do you think healthcare is actually about caring? It’s about money, baby!”
So I quit. I wasn’t trained to treat “clients” like a herd of cattle, I was trained to treat “patients”. I’m not programmed that way and it felt dirty, wrong. I started freelancing after two months of catching up on sleep and family time. It felt good.
Out in the Cold, Cruel Online World
Contrary to popular belief, I’m not as naive as I look. I didn’t expect the Internet business world to be much different from corporate America. If anything, it’s worse. Don’t believe me? Let me illustrate:
- *Business professionals take your money and fail to keep their promises
- *Bloggers present an image online that doesn’t jive with their real-life personas
- *Clients fail to pay for work completed, and fail to answer the phone and emails
- *You pay for services, only to find that instead of booking an hour, you get 40 minutes and a promise to finish later (that never materializes)
- *Other bloggers steal your work, without asking, and don’t care if you find out, because what are you going to do? Tell his mom?
- *PLR writers scrape your posts (they “re-write” your original content to pass plagiarism checks, but fail to give the original author credit- or payment) and junk bloggs steal your hard work through automated feed aggregators
- *Your online friends and co-workers ignore you when there’s a Bigger Fish to talk to or a shiny bauble to chase, but never fail to ask when they need a favor
- *Branding becomes more important the relationships
- *Bloggers act like chickens fighting for a pecking order behind the scenes, but smile sweetly in the comment’s section of your favorite blog
- *Folks get on Twitter to self-promote, but never stop to read Tweets of their “friends and followers”. Plus they never fail to announce when they hit a new milestone in followers (as if anyone really cares when they don’t take time to build relationships)
- *Social media turns ugly over inflated egos and misunderstandings
- *Everyone and their brother wants to sell you the latest secret, the newest product, or the all-time best information product available- at a discounted price for the next
week,3 days, two hours.
The Internet is filled with outlaws and bandits hiding behind fluffy avatars and professionally designed headers. They’ll steal your money and your heart without a second thought. They’re only taking care of business.
But every once and awhile, a new kid moves into town. He mostly looks like everyone else, but there’s something different about him. He actually cares about what he does. He cares about his clients- and the little guy. He teaches others what he knows, with the knowledge that those protegees will someday steal his business. He gives away freebie services and goods for struggling businesses and long standing clients. He stays up late to answer just one more email from a fellow blogger.
Does he write any better than the average bear? Nope, but he writes with heart. His passion for helping others and producing a quality experience for his clients drives him to read one more book, write one more email, and pray for another five minutes to keep from feeling disenchanted with the failings of old friends.
You can be that new kid.
Online business is rough, it’s ruthless, and it will eat you alive if you let it. The difference between you and that other guy is honor, integrity, passion… caring. Money comes and goes, but a broken relationship will haunt you for the rest of your life. Don’t buy into the standards of the rest of the world. Create your own set of standards and make a difference. Honor among thieves exists if even one person cares enough to do business differently.
Are you that person?
Comments
-
Lance
-
Ryan
