Chicago Business Community – Biz Family of Choice
You don’t pick your family but you do pick your business community – and they are a second family of choice. Surround yourself with good people and they will up your game, watch your back and genuinely help you succeed. Good people will talk about what is tough and noodle how to get through it. Good people have one face – not two – and they are, who they are, when you meet them.
Good people are good at what they do and at knowing what they don’t do and admitting it. Good people are the people you want to collaborate with, the ones you genuinely like and respect – the ones that follow your lead as readily as offer their own.
Good people will cut their best deal and teach you how to do it too. They have clear boundaries they allow you to bend – as long as they know you recognize it.
Good people send you good new connections not long shots – because they value your time like their own.
A good business family will literally raise you and in return you will reciprocate.
You can use the words love, trust, friendship, support, respect and authenticity in a family and a business family. One family may put you through college – the other will help you repay the loans.
One family will hug and embrace you – the other will nudge you up and out the door.
I love my Chicago business community. Their contributions to my life and to the Big Ooga have been immeasurable. Minda, Kate, Jan, Gary, Steven, Eric, Emily, Glenn, Greg, Leah, Avery, Jean, Dante, Carter, Derek, Rebbecca, Melissa, Rich, Elene, Bobbie, Dahlia, Larry, Karen, Will, Carol, Phil, Paul, Dianne, Nancy, Stephanie, Sam, Craig, Shannon and so many others, Thank you!
Welcome to the Big Ooga™ We are a quickly evolving community of accomplished entrepreneurs and professionals dedicated to keeping each other working, mastering new skills, building prosperous relationships and promoting our member companies.
Hi Lennie, It’s an apt analogy to compare a network of close business associates with a family. To extend the comparison further, a business community, much like a family, is there for you, supporting you through thick and thin. That’s important, because there are very few businesses that move steadily upward and onward. Most of the time, we experience highs and lows – especially in a recession like this one. Having that family for support makes the highs higher and the lows higher as well!
I do pick you & the Big Ooga family. I do! I do!
Today I had lunch with another part of the family, Brent Ohlmann. What a guy! Thanks for the introduction, Lennie. Like all the others, he’s quality material.
Brad,
Thank you for stopping by, Brad – brother of mine in business. It is the silence behind the scenes that makes it even more difficult. As a business owner, I am left with my own observations and experiences. As a business family member – I can share them with my business family and they have either been there and know what to do OR they are going through the same thing and we figure it out together. The irony is the rhetoric in the bigger conversations, with people wearing the “Other Face” and telling me it is warm when I know it is cold – telling me I will be a HUGE success if I follow their methods – when I know success is built step by step and person by person. It is having comfort and inspiration – and sharing knowledge that hinges on making good decisions. Together we are SO MUCH SMARTER!!!
Jan – yes, Brent Ohlmann was my pick. He is the man behind the legal for Big Ooga. Smart, dedicated, real and patient. Another Big Ooga success story! You go girl! You got the right guy in your corner!