A New Definition

This is not to say we hadn’t always cared about people. But now we had a different definition for caring. We had defined caring as sympathy or empathy. When people had troubles, we felt badly for them. I always get extra napkins at the movies because JoAnn and I always cry at the end. I used to complain that one of the reasons we had no money was because we kept giving it away to the kids.

We cared about doing a good job. We felt badly when we made mistakes, and we always resolved to improve ourselves.

We had goals and dreams and wanted to fulfill them. We had wants and needs and worked hard to satisfy them.

But now caring had a new definition. If we were to put our Clients First, then we had to care only about them. Their goals and dreams had to become ours. What they wanted or needed became what we wanted or needed. To care about clients was to share their aspirations.

When you put Clients First, the conversation is all about them. Everything about you is what you can do for them. The client becomes your obsession. You are the client.

When you are the client, you have strength. When you are the client, and the client misleads him- or herself, you have the strength to say so. When you are the client, you know what is best and you say so. When you are the client, you fight for yourself. Today, we do everything for our clients. We have only one level of service. Clients First demands it. Now, some clients will initially say they want less fuss, but they seldom say ...

Get Clients First: The Two Word Miracle now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.