Some of my deepest experiences in the economy of communion over the years have been the relationships I've built with competitors. That's countercultural in America. That's not what you do. You bury your competitors. You um you don't share your secrets. You you find ways to take advantages. you it's in some ways the classical capitalist viewpoint you you you declare war you know and you you want to be the best you want to gain the market share um with the economy of communion it took me a little while to understand how I view competitors um but over time gradually I understood in practical ways how that is accomplished first of all one thing that EOCC taught me was that every relationship has value.
Uh competitors can make you better at what you do. So you have to have an appreciation for them. Um one of the first experiences I had was this. I was looking for a senior uh person in my firm to hire. And uh so I went to the trouble of collecting resumeumés and interviewing people and we only had one position open. So uh so when we decided on our position, we hired that person, but I had, you know, 15 other resumes of really good people.
And I thought, wow, what do I do with this with the economy of community? And I thought and I thought, well, maybe I have to help these people get a job. Maybe there are opportunities for them. So, I sent those resumes to five of my competitors and said, "You may find some people in this group. I think there's some good people. Consider it." So, anyway, I didn't hear back, but I got a call from one of the competitors and she said, "You know, John," and I knew her.
She said, "Uh, a few of these people look really good. by the way, thanks for sending me these resumes. Unsuspected, I went around the office and said, Mandel and Associates just sent us a bunch of people. Which I thought was kind of cool. Uh, but she said, "I've decided to hire one of them." And I said, "Well, I hope it works out." That person was one of her main senior persons for the next decade. That established a relationship with that particular u competitor that I'll follow up on.
Um, a couple things. One is I would say I get a call from her one day and this isn't because she's a woman, but she was crying and uh I said, "Deb, what's what's going on? What happened?" She goes, "Don't you just hate it when an employee quits? It's like it sucks your soul out of you, you know?" and she was just sharing how difficult it was from a personal standpoint. And by that time, I had lost a few employees and I I'd never, you know, you always put on that little bit of the brave face when you talk to your other employees, but inside down deep sometimes it hurts because it feels like they didn't like me or, you know, something you had done.
And so I listened to her and I commiserated and uh I and she said she ended up saying, you know, I thought of who can I share this with and I thought of you and you're the only person I feel I can share this with. I said, well, Deb, it really thank you so much because I feel like it this has benefited me too and I really I feel your pain. So, um, a few years later, that competitor died and I went to her funeral and she had two daughters and, uh, who didn't know me, but personally, but when I went up to them and told them about their mom and the the relationship we had, I could tell that they were really touched by what I had shared, that a competitor came to a funeral, you So uh so that's one that's one particular competitor.
