In business and life both, it's very easy to mix business and personal issues. In fact, I would argue that most people don't understand how to separate the two. There has been a long standing stereotype with IT professionals being very "one man islands" where their way is the only way and if you do anything different than the way they know, you must not know what you're doing. This month, I've been in technology for roughly 25 years. I've worked with companies around the world with startups, multi-million dollar businesses and even Fortune 500 companies. If I have learned anything in tech, I've learned that there are 1,000 different ways to do the same thing. There is no one true set standard. With that knowledge, I'm always open to new ways of doing things. Someone else's way may be more efficient, more streamlined, or more cost effective; if so, bring it on, I want to learn so we can improve our processes!
Other people in my industry do not feel the same way. Recently I've had the pleasure to assist a solopreneur (there's nothing wrong with this, MyGeek started that way as well) in setting up something for a mutual client. Instead of working together, Mr. Solopreneur decided that instead of discussing what the need was, that our way of doing things is wrong and that their way was the right way. There was many flaws in their plan but there was no talking sense to them.
With the tech part aside, the attitude that this other company showed towards us has really left a bad taste in our mouth and unfortunately I've seen this quite a few times. Enough times that I felt the need to write this blog post about it. When you burn bridges, you'll never get anywhere. You'll be stuck right where you are. There's plenty of room in any market for competition and cohesive working relationships. In fact, some of my best partners in my market are competitors, we pass business back and forth as we know each others strong suites. An open mind and an open business will go so much farther in business than being the lonely island that you think you are.
So the next time you feel the need to talk down to a competitor or burn a bridge, keep in mind that you may have to work with them again in the future.