The New 3 R's in Life and Business: Building Relationships, Protecting Reputation, and Embracing Risk for Growth

In school, we were taught the 3 R’s.

Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic

Apparently, spelling was not one of the 3 R’s. LOL

In business, and life in general, there is a different set of 3 R’s that are important for growth.

Relationships, Reputation, and Risk

**

You’ve probably heard the cliché ‘It’s who you know, not what you know.’ That’s a little simplistic.

What you know is certainly important, but who you know will amplify what you can do with that knowledge.

It takes time to build meaningful relationships.

However, strong relationships will allow you to do things that your competitors may not be able to do.

Relationships open doors that are sometimes closed to others.

**

Just like strong relationships, a good reputation will open opportunities. People will give you the benefit-of-the-doubt.

Reputation applies not only to an individual’s character but also it applies to the character and image of a company and a brand.

A good reputation takes a long time to develop and is a never-ending process.

But, beware.

As the cliché states, it only takes one bad deed to ruin a reputation.

Unfortunately, this cliché is true.

The corporate graveyard is littered with examples where one misstep ruined a company or a brand.

The same is true for individuals.

Protect your reputation. It’s extremely difficult to change a bad one to a good one.

**

Risk, or better stated, risk management, is often ignored.

Most people think of risk as a negative, as in ‘risky.’

The thesaurus gives mostly negative synonyms for risk – danger, peril, exposure, liability.

There are entire books written on the downside of risk and how to manage it.

But, don’t forget the positive side of risk.

That same thesaurus that was filled with negative synonyms also gave two positive ones.

Opportunity and possibility.

If you want to grow in life, start a business, earn more money, meet your future partner… You need risk.

You need to take a risk.

Not foolish optimism, but a calculated risk. Compare the positive to the negative.

If you don’t take a risk, what exactly are you doing?

Well, that same thesaurus says the opposite of risk is safety, security, and certainty.

How many have stayed in a bad job or a bad marriage because of the security of the known and the fear of the unknown?

If you are mostly focused on the negative side of risk, maybe it’s time to calculate the upside. Risk is the only way to grow.

**

I use the three R’s that we learned in school daily.

I also use the three R’s of growth daily.

If you can incorporate the three R’s of growth into your daily life, you will grow in life and in business.

Happy Investing!