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Could evil corporate America actually be helping us?

When it comes to business most of us take one side of the other: Business owners are either viewed as helpful visionaries or evil devils. The evil view feels that the heads of major corporations exist to fleece our pockets and take our money. They*d roll us in the alley given the chance. If you*re looking for a bad guy, few compare to the faceless evil of corporate America so often portrayed in today's media. The evil corporation is out to get your money!

If you ever bother to take a second look with the good light turned on, you will have to admit that successful businesses are there helping us fulfill our needs and desires at every turn in ways we could never achieve without them. Are they being good and helpful, or are they evil and opportunistic?

Well here's the low down. Are they in it for themselves? Absolutely! Are they also in it for you? Absolutely! Fundamentally successful businesses are started for two reasons.

1. To help themselves (selfish devils)
2. To help others (kind-hearted angels)

Is it possible they could do both? Yes, they can do both. In fact they need to do both to remain useful to themselves and to remain useful to others.

Think about your favourite store, maybe it's a stereo shop, a clothing store, or even a grocery store. What happens if they raise their prices so high, or hire such rude sales people that you and your friends stop going there? They start losing money and go out of business. You probably wouldn*t care, but they would no longer be able to help themselves, at least not with that business.

Now what happens if that same business hires lots and lots of really nice people to spend extra time with you, and then lower their prices so you get everything at near cost? They start losing money and go out of business. The only difference is this time you care, because now you can*t go back to that friendly store. Now you can*t return that item you didn*t want, or get it fixed under warranty. Because they didn*t help themselves enough, they can*t help you any more either.

So what do businesses do? Simple, they help themselves by helping you. Or they help you by helping you. It doesn*t really matter. In a rare twist of fate, evil corporations with all their worst intentions are forced into doing good and helping others to stay alive.

The business that figures out how to help others the most becomes the leader. It makes no difference whether the owner's motivation is evil desire, or helping others. The only way to achieve long term success is to help others. There is no other reason for people to patronize a business, other than to get something they either need or want. If a business doesn*t help you get that as much as their competitor up the street then they go out of business. If a business helps you so much they can*t make a profit, they also go out of business and are not much help to you in the long run. Every successful business helps itself by helping others.

Who says the world is evil. Score one for the good guys.