Another Reason To Be Thankful On Thanksgiving
Love. It’s certainly one of the basic and meaningful hallmarks of mankind throughout the world, and throughout history. It’s the common thread between all people, cultures and societies. When people love one another it is truly a spiritual experience.
Think about it, love is one of the most powerful of all feelings, the greatest emotion of all. It’s a state that supersedes all else. Parental love for one’s children is unconditional, complete and absolute. There is marital love is the ultimate partnership. Brotherly love between all mankind is something we strive for and frequently both demonstrate and experience, beautiful beyond description.
Out of love comes forgiveness, the act of setting aside the transgressions of one another. I believe forgiveness is truly a great demonstration of love. After all, what could be more loving than to forgive for the blunders, attacks and errors of mind and heart? It requires compassion, pureness of intent, complete openness, unselfishness and vulnerability. Forgiveness is unselfish caring stemming from a loving attitude, a willingness to accept the imperfections we all exhibit. What a beautiful demonstration of love, when one forgives another for causing hurt, pain, suffering. Forgiveness cures many faults. It is a wonderful aspect of love.
We are told there is no emotion in business. Therefore, no love. Business is the brutal war of profit and loss. People are pawns, playing out their roles. Winning and losing is part of the business game and the scorecard is your balance sheet. Your level of success is usually measured by how much cash you can amass. There is little evidence of love in most businesses as there is little place for it, or so we are led to believe. I beg to differ.
I believe this is a huge misunderstanding and that it’s a deeply covered up reality that people are so loving and compassionate that even in the brutal wars of business, love flourishes. Who would believe this? Yet, here it is: Without the strength of statute or law, without the leverage of force, contrary to contractual agreements, despite massive breeches and horrendous losses, without lawyers, courts, or punishment, in the end the banks forgive millions of dollars of debt, rightly owed to them by defaulting business owner borrowers. Yes, forgiveness, in a business environment. Who would believe?
Our job at Second Wind is to broker forgiveness. We trade and exchange loving forgiveness. It may not always appear as such but how else can you describe a bank “forgiving” a defaulting borrower, allowing the borrower in default to never pay back the loan? Without force, without the law, without the courts… just because we know how to ask them. Who would ever believe this? Yet, it is true. In the end, when the chips are down and the cards are face up and the small business borrower cannot pay back the loans they took out, the banks are eventually willing to forgive and forget. I call this an act of love, understanding and brotherly compassion. What else could it be? There is no other real reason for such action. There is no material gain in an act of debt forgiveness. As we have already stated, forgiveness comes from love, even in a business environment.
I am not certain but I suspect debt forgiveness for defaulting borrowers is uniquely American and is not be found in any other culture, society or country that I am aware of. However, this should not be a surprise as our democracy is built on freedom, a very compassionate, loving way of life.
We have much to be thankful for. The fact that forgiveness is deeply embedded in our nature and reflected in our business community is a very important reality and something we should all recognize and be very thankful for. We are all very fortunate to be living in a culture so steeped in love and forgiveness that it even permeates our business world.
Happy Thanksgiving to all.
