Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
Cheap and Selfish Me
Monday
December 22, 2008
Part of my new job as an independent business owner working with Aflac insurance to sell their product involves me contacting friends to see if they might be interested. It's a bit awkward to a degree to make that approach, but I've done so trying my best to make it clear that it's a no-pressure situation and that my feelings won't be hurt if they say no. You have to have thick skin to work in sales of any sort.
I figured that, along the way, there would be some people who might get a little stiff with me about it. But I really wasn't expecting this:
"your first message to me on facebook is a cheap selfish business ploy? love ya lou."
If it is perceived as cheap and selfish of me to make it known to a friend that there is insurance available to protect him from a catastrophic loss, then so be it. That person is entitled to his opinion. But let me be clear: my sympathy for the guy will be nil if he suffers a major accident or is diagnosed with cancer and doesn't have the money to cover the associated costs. I don't mean to sound glib about it, but those are the facts.
What's more, until today I had a link up to this guy's website in my links section, one that I'd had up there for several years. Apparently me sending website traffic his way didn't qualify as cheap and selfish. Understand this: I wasn't looking for a quid pro quo with the link. But if someone is going to disrespect me, then why should I keep a link to his site up on my page? The answer: I shouldn't. And I won't.
There is a fine line I suppose between someone being a friend and someone being "a person I went to high school with" or whatever title is more accurate. At times I probably presume too many people to be friends who are acquaintances or, even worse, sugar-coated poison pills. But, to be sure, if my job helps me to separate the positive from the negative from my casual friendships, then I'll be better off as a result.
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