Speak Your Fellow Co-Contributor's Mind

One of my friends made it in business. He had all his wishes fulfilled except one. He wanted his son to join him in his business. To the contrary, his son was not ready for it. This issue was bothering my friend.

In one of our casual walks, inside a shopping mall, we were talking about leaving a legacy for our children. Our conversation moved towards creating the right environment to inspire them to do business. Initially, we thought of getting them involved in our business but eventually we concluded to let them do what they wanted. Instead of convincing them, let them convince us to do business.

We had no clear solution but we were moving in the right direction. We were brainstorming different issues on the same topic. Basically, we were solution-oriented instead of complaint-centric. As a result, new ideas kept on coming up in our conversation.

After much back and forth, our conversation moved towards trying to understand our children's ambitions and aspirations. We agreed that we should let them propose a business to us instead of imposing our ideas to them. Our conversation centered around understanding what our children wants and what wakes them up in the morning.

In order to understand our children better, we got my friend's son involved in our conversations. His son joined us in one of our breakfast meetings and during the meeting and while brainstorming he told us that he "loves construction." Whereas his father is in retail business.

This was a golden prize for my friend. Within a couple of months, he came to an understanding with an established real estate development company. He acquired a land for development and got his son involved in the business.

As a Co-Contributor, we have to speak our fellow Co-Contributor's mind. We have to understand them and try to propose solutions based on their desires, ambitions, and aspirations; not ours. This gesture is purely out of the generosity of our heart, looking to contribute to our fellow Co-Contributor's solution. Speak their heart and mind without being obvious about it, seamlessly.