For the past year or so I've been having a problem with a business competitor of mine. For sake of anonymity, the actual business doesn't matter, nor do the names. I'm really more interested in the way things played out than the specific details. After all, we're talking about karma here. Karma doesn't care if your rich or poor, black or white, an executive or a private business owner. What you put out to the world comes back and that's just how it goes.
When I first saw this person, I shuddered in horror when I saw her. She looked hauntingly like a woman who had been friendly with me at first, but turned around to stab me in the back when I wouldn't play at things her way. She nearly ruined my business for a while, but I thankfully recovered when other people noticed the same behavior happening to them. I decided I wouldn't judge this woman by the actions of someone else I had known not that long before. That had been done to me before and I just wasn't going to do that to someone else. I know how that feels and it's not nice. I'd give her a fair chance. Besides, we'd exchanged e-mails before and she seemed pretty nice, so what was the harm?
It wasn't long before this woman had weaseled her way into the local business territory. The other local business woman and I went from being the only real people working with this particular company to having someone else push her way in. What was worse was the way she tried to promote herself as some authority, using her research to try and push us around instead of letting us follow our contracted arrangement. We tolerated it because she did it with a smile on her face and all in the guise of helping, but the truth was it really burned us up. It felt like we were there first and should have seniority, but this new pup was pushing in and trying to take over.
It wasn't that much later that her true colors ended up losing us all our contracts with that company. That whole aspect of our businesses had been run dry and we were now going to have to look for another suitable arrangement. It was too bad because it was really good for all of us. Unfortunately, when one person promotes herself as speaking for all the local business people of an area and is misrepresenting us all, it can build a bad name for the business as a whole.
Well, as life would have it, I ended up having to scale down my business and this other business woman was pushed to the point where she just quit. This new woman got exactly what she wanted. She was the dominating influence in the area. All of the business came though her and she got some positively rave reviews for it, though those of us who knew how to spot quality could see she really didn't have it. She even did everything she could to make the biggest name for herself over everyone else, taking the most desirable web domain for the business and everything.
Unfortunately, this was now not only pushing me out of the business, but also giving a bad taste for the business myself. I didn't know it at the time, but she as having a hard time finding places to hold contracts. Her customers were dissatisfied with her services and her negative attitude, so they stopped working with her. She discouraged people from seeking out my business when they wanted a bit of variety, which made some of her customers rather uncomfortable. Even when offered an opportunity for nearly free advertising and publicity for her business, she in turn upset the person offering it so much that it ended a work relationship and a friendship.
This woman has really come to show her true colors, not just to me, but to everyone. She's cutting herself off from the very people she really needs to build her client base. People don't want to pay for your services if you're not going to be someone they're going to enjoy doing business with. It doesn't matter whether you offer the best services and goods in the world, if you're a holier-than-thou, stuck up snob, people are going to see that and they're going to respond accordingly.
So how does this play out with karma? Thankfully the tide has finally turned, though it's taken two and a half years. One of her customers contacted me and expressed an interest with continuing her business with me instead. It seems some of the other customers who walked away from her a while back might just be coming my way too. My business, which I had just about given up on, is now starting to come together without me even really needing to make much effort to rebuild it!
All of that time I've been frustrated, thinking I should just speak my mind about her and her business practices, but now I'm glad I haven't. I've recommended students to her when I was unavailable to do business at a time or place that was convenient for them. I did give them the warning to make sure their personalities meshed before becoming a regular customer of the service she provided, but I simply said it was because she occasionally rubs people the wrong way because she has very strong opinions and comes off a bit bold at times. I bit back my urge to criticize everything about her and instead just said, "Well, she's a lot different than I am, so you might find you can get something with her that you can't get with me." In the end, keeping that friendly nature really paid off.
But, I have to admit, it was really hard not to say how I really felt. A part of me wanted to tell everyone how she tried to run me out of business and got that one client to cancel services with all three of the providers there because she came across to them as our spokesperson. I wanted to make it public how she's vile, spiteful, and more than a little bit mean. I want to warn everyone against her negativity and her superior attitude, but the longer I bit my tongue, the less I wanted to say those things.
The most surprising day was when I realized that I didn't really care what she was doing. My business was going under so I decided to take some time off for a well-earned break. I needed some time to reassess what I really wanted in life, whether this business was really for me or if I was just doing it because it's what I thought I wanted. I wasn't expecting to get back into the business until fall if I'd decided to keep up with it, but then I had this phone call and before I knew it I was back in business sooner than I'd planned. I didn't even stop to think whether or not it was what I wanted. It was as natural as breathing. I'd never expected releasing my attachment to the outcome would create such a dynamic change in my life!
Sometime after all of this a very angry and kind of spiteful person that I walked away from had some very hateful things to say. He said that he was fate (whatever that's supposed to mean) and he hopes we get what we have coming to us. After that phone call earlier in the day, I couldn't help but smile and think, "Yes, actually, I think we finally are." While I always thought the new year was about starting over fresh, I'd started to doubt in the laws of karma and all of that, but it seems it would be more accurate to say I was shaking out all of last year's dust to make room for a bright new future. It may have taken a month to do so, but at least I know that things are starting to look up.
Because of all of this, I have a renewed faith in karma. Keep it coming! I have a feeling that if I can just keep this mentality of staying positive and not stooping to the level of those that try to get in the way of my life, things are just going to keep on looking up. I'm taking it one day at a time, but let me tell you, it's starting to feel better and better with every day!
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