Relationships

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 03:01:36 GMT

I know I have talked about building relationships and how important they are not only to your personal life and your business. Before anyone calls the HIPPA Police, I have permission to use his name. Through my work as an ATS I have made many friends that have and will last a lifetime. I have spoken at some of my pediatric customers funerals and at some of my other customer funerals as well. Through our work Tammy and I have increased the size of our family by hundreds. We have adopted grandparents, brothers, sisters and children. We have brought some of our customers that are our son's ages to our home for the weekend and have had customer stay at our home during this winters power outages.

These are not just customers they are family. Over the last 6 or 7 months I have developed a relationship with a customer that has become a close and dear friend. Mike Finkelstein is a brother that has used a manual wheelchair for ambulation for 43 years and spent the last 15 years of his legal career as an attorney working on behalf of those with disabilities. He has one of the most brilliant legal minds I have ever met and love him like a brother.

Tammy is out of town working so the boys and I spent the evening with Mike at our home eating pizza and playing chess. Mike also has a brilliant mind for and a deep love for the game of chess. He is giving my boys lessons and we enjoy chess club on Wednesday nights at an area public school. Mike and I can spend hours enjoying each others company, talking politics and about current events, long discussions about the Bible and many other topics. We grill out together, go out to dinner together and call each other to just say hi and I love ya. It is through my relationship with Mike that I have come to understand that it's ok for grown me to say I love you to each other. I felt weird about that at first but as we became closer and closer friends, I began to let my guard down and we can talk about anything. Mike your a dear and perious friend and I love you and value your friendship.

Tammy and I also have grandparents that we adopted when one of my other close friends passed away. Dean was a customer who became a close and dear friend that passed away about 3 years ago. Dean was one of those guys that when you meet him you just had to love him. When I met Dean his health was is so so shape and he had been in bed for 6 months to heals wounds on his buttocks. His physician called and said his wounds had heal to the point he could start getting up some, but before he could get up I had to modifiy the chair he had recieved from another local provider. Dean and I met and became friends. During the last month he was alive his daugther couldn't get him to go to the hospital or doctors without calling me first. One night he was having some serious issues and they couldn't get him to go so I went and picked him up and took him. He told the emergency room staff that we were cousins and wanted me back there with him. On his death bed he waited for me to tell him it was okay to leave this world and that I would take care of his mom and dad, 15 minutes later, Dean was gone. Tammy and I still take care of grandma and grandpa and will as long as we live.

These relationships will mean more to you and to your life than anything else. The people you become friends with will become your family and will help you build your business because they love you and they are your personal fan club. Mike I love you, Dean I miss you and good luck building your relationships.

Chris

Chris' Blog: Smart Business

Relationships