It has long been my habit to ask CEOs, nearing the end of my half-day presentations, to rest a minute and think about nurturing things that they actually do for people;  like family, friends, employees, customers, centers of influence and even clients they would like to attract. I then invite an open, brief discussion asking those willing to share, to tell their own stories. Thankfully all were recorded and archived and someday perhaps will become the raison d’etra  for a mew book, tentatively entitled; “Natural Nurturers in Business and Ways they Nurtured”. Contributions gratefully accepted and appreciated with acknowledgement and an autographed, first edition copy by way of gratitude.

One member eagerly raised her hand, practically leaped from her seat and asked to go first. Wish granted, she explained how her father, who founded now her company, nurtured a young daughter about business. gave her and read aloud to her each evening, every word of Napoleon Hill’s famous book, “Think and Grow Rich”, a book first published in 1936, in the very depths of the great depression, at the personal and very-urgent requests from and endorsements of Mahatma Gandhi, Andrew Carnegie and then President Roosevelt, and Supreme Court Justices. She explained that his 24 year study of the personal success secrets of the then wealthiest and most successful men of the industrial revolution. All funded, carefully researched and catalogued, what were then the ultimate laws of success, and all of this when she was a just a green-freshman in high school.

One chapter in that old book especially struck her in a way that she said had literally changed her life forever. It was, “The Power of “Going the Extra Mile”. That simple secret, she avowed, had propelled her to honors status through high-school and in college. After college she joined and quickly grew through the ranks of her father’s company to become it’s President. It really demonstrated the true power to her of ‘extra-mile’ philosophies and strategies, she said.

To ensure that we walked our talk, we decided to arrange a personal visit with each new customer, about 90 days after delivery of a significant order, for a very unique and positive update and discussion, first about their relative satisfaction levels with the first order. Quickly diagnosing and restoring any glitches or accepting the usual, all-clear we took a break.

Following coffee, she said, the meeting shifted to her personal attempt to tangibly and memorably demonstrate their extra-mile philosophy in a meaningful and helpful manner. She intentionally brought her chief of engineering / design along and invited a comparable one from the visited firm.
Requesting a graphic overview of their full processes, she said, they usually discovered a few things that could make a real difference in the results and profits. Once in a while, she acknowledged, that they would collectively find several new applications for their solution.

Then she paused and smilingly asked of her group, “That nurturing enough for you folks?”

Have you, could you, will you adopt the idea of nurturing an extra-mile philosophy in all your ventures and all your interactions?
What might happen if you truly became an authentic, ‘helping customers succeed’, nurturing kind of company?

You can sometimes find the brightest inspirations and ideas from some of the astonishingly prescient business books and studies from the early nineteen- thirties, the early industrial revolution and reports such as “Think and Grow Rich.

Good Nurturing

JIm