“Never push a loyal person to the point where they no longer care.”
- Unattributed
Loyalty—to a cause, certainly, and to people, perhaps most importantly — is an admirable trait. In relationships both close and tangential, loyalty (whether earned or given) is a cornerstone of a go-forward-in-peace life.
At its core, loyalty has to be to something we stand for, together. It might just be us, together. It might be a greater good or a principle. When all parties care about the inputs and outcomes, standing for something together isn’t a push or a pull. It’s effortless and energizing.
Expiration Dates
Milk has an expiration date, as does good beer. Contract offers and employment agreements also have expiration dates. Unprotected, loyalty also has an expiration date.
Thankfully, while milk and beer reach a point of no return on their expiration dates, business terms and personal loyalty can have renewal dates. “What can I / we do to renew the loyalty and trust that drove our relationship before this moment in time?”
Except in the most egregious cases, we ought to pursue renewal dates on loyal, trusting relationships that might have expired. The Client who left, the partner who took a different path, the employee who made a choice based on flawed inputs or perceptions (or difficult circumstances) —many of those relationships are worth refreshing, renewing, and re-investing.
For those with Faith, we’ve been given an extraordinary example of loyalty that has no expiration date, and is renewed in each moment. Even in the most egregious cases. If we can be that trusted, why can’t we be that trusting.
What Comes Next
Long-time subscribers know that Difference Makers focus on what comes next.
Whatever comes next ought to be steeped in some sense of purpose and vision. What comes next might well be an act of outreach, recovery, beginning, or re-committing — followed by a relentless pursuit of whatever it is, based on whomever we are.
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