--- title: "Newsletter: An Excerpt of the Book \"Empty Abundance - (You Can’t Teach an Empty Bag to Stand Up Straight)\"" description: "Newsletter: An Excerpt of the Book \"Empty Abundance - (You Can’t Teach an Empty Bag to Stand Up Straight)\"" --- [![Main-Logo-01-1](https://blog.thebusinessofgood.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Main-Logo-01-1.png?width=250&height=43&name=Main-Logo-01-1.png "Main-Logo-01-1")](https://www.thebusinessofgood.org) # Tim McCarthy and the Business of Good ## [Newsletter: An Excerpt of the Book "Empty Abundance - (You Can’t Teach an Empty Bag to Stand Up Straight)"](https://blog.thebusinessofgood.org/articles/newsletter-an-excerpt-of-the-book-empty-abundance-you-cant-teach-an-empty-bag-to-stand-up-straight) ** Jul 6, 2014 7:32:00 PM / by [Tim McCarthy](https://blog.thebusinessofgood.org/author/tim-mccarthy) As I was starting my business, I read a small Ken Blanchard and Norman Vincent Peale book titled *The Power of Ethical Management*. The lesson I remember most from the book is to treat each associate as if they are a bank account, that is, to consider each interaction with that other person as either a deposit or a withdrawal. Find them doing something right, you’re making a deposit in their self-esteem bank. Deal with them respectfully even while correcting a mistake, another deposit. Listen patiently when something is bothering them, another deposit. Conversely of course, if you dress them down in front of others, are too busy to listen to their concerns, and forget to praise, these are all withdrawals. And as in our bank accounts, if we make more deposits than withdrawals there are “savings” to draw from. So, when I make a hurtful mistake or need extra effort or time from my associate, there is something in their “self-esteem bank” for me to draw from. But if we continually make more withdrawals than deposits, there is nothing in reserve when we need forgiveness or extra effort. Sounds obvious, huh? So why do so many employers make so many withdrawals from the bank of our spirits? Having bought into the Blanchard/Peale theory, I decided that the only mission statement we would ever have in my first business was the Golden Rule: “Treat others as you wish to be treated.” We chose to avoid long-winded and unattainable mission statements about putting our people, stakeholders, and customers first. Instead, we chose the above eight words that truly tested our commitment to our people, customers, and vendors. Training to such a simple, compelling mission statement was tricky at first. The statement is so strong that it is hard to “hide behind.” The danger of making such a statement is you must be able to teach it and live it. To train to our mission, we posed various difficult, hypothetical situations involving customers, fellow workers, bosses, and vendors to our employees. After each case in point, we’d ask them to come up with a solution using “treat others as you would like to be treated.” Let’s say it was a vendor who had screwed up. Should you yell at the vendor, fire them, or ask them what they’d be willing to do to make things right? Maybe someone who worked for you had made a mistake on the same issue for the second time. Should you belittle them or find a new method to train them and incent them to not make the mistake again? It is a difficult mission to uphold but treating others as we wish to be treated can become more than a hope or an ideal, it can help build the foundation for a successful organization. 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