Doing the Right Thing
Some decisions are more complicated than others.
Business decisions often involve numbers, contracts, expectations, timing, and return on investment. Personal decisions can involve relationships, emotions, and competing priorities. We spend a great deal of time weighing options and trying to determine the best path forward.
But occasionally, the answer is pretty simple.
A few months ago, a client and colleague asked me for some help. The work was outside the scope of what we were doing together, and it would take some additional time. Under normal circumstances, it would have been reasonable to define the project, discuss a fee, and send an invoice.
I did not do that.
They needed help. I was in a position to provide it. Helping them felt like the right thing to do.
There was no strategy behind the decision. I was not thinking about future business, calculating the value of the relationship, or wondering whether the favor might eventually lead to something else. I was not concerned about revenue or income. In that moment, the question was much simpler: what did they need, and could I help? The answer was yes.
About six months later, they came back. This time, they wanted additional work and made it clear that they expected to pay for it. I appreciated the opportunity, but that outcome had never been part of my original thinking. If they had never called again, I still would have felt good about helping them because the original decision stood on its own.
I have thought about that experience several times since then because it connects to something my wife and I have tried to teach our children for years.
Doing the right thing is usually not that difficult to recognize. Most of us know when someone has been treated unfairly. We know when we should tell the truth, apologize, help someone, keep a promise, return something that does not belong to us, or give someone else the credit they deserve. The challenge usually comes later. Knowing what is right and actually doing it are different things.
That is one of the lessons we have tried to reinforce with our kids. Doing the right thing can cost you something. It can cost time, money, convenience, an opportunity, or a little pride. It can mean admitting you were wrong when it would be easier to stay quiet. It can mean helping someone when there is no obvious benefit to you.
Those are often the moments when values become real.
As a parent, I have also learned that children watch far more closely than we sometimes realize. They hear what we tell them, but they also pay attention to how we live. If we tell them to be generous but constantly keep score, they notice. If we tell them to be honest but create exceptions whenever honesty becomes inconvenient, they notice that too.
My wife and I have never expected perfection from our children, and we certainly do not expect it from ourselves. But we have tried to make one principle clear: doing what is right should not depend on who is watching, what you might receive in return, or whether anyone ever gives you credit for it.
That same standard applies in business.
I run a business. I understand that work has value. Revenue matters. Time matters. Contracts and scope matter. A business cannot function if every decision ignores those realities. Still, every decision does not need to begin with a financial calculation. Sometimes a colleague needs help. Sometimes a client needs something beyond the technical boundaries of an agreement. Sometimes we have knowledge, experience, access, or time that can make a meaningful difference for someone else.
In those moments, I try to come back to a question my wife and I have asked our children many times over the years: What is the right thing to do?
Then do it.
Do it when someone is watching. Do it when nobody is watching. Do it when there is a benefit attached to it and do it when there is absolutely nothing coming back your way. And if, six months later, something good does come back around, appreciate it. Be grateful for it.
Just never make that the reason you chose to do the right thing in the first place.
