Of course, you’re a good person, a nice person, you want to be meaningful and helpful to the people in your world.
And yes, you’re willing to make sacrifices in service of others, because the last thing you’d want, is to be some selfish bastard who only cares about themselves. I like you already.
But…
That doesn’t mean you get to be a martyr.
Because a martyr doesn’t just make sacrifices: a martyr sacrifices the self.
And while that might feel really noble and stuff, do please remember that if you have no self, or more realistically, if you don’t take care of your self, you aren’t able to actually help or serve anyone. Besides, you might be able to act like a martyr, but it’s very, very very unlikely that you’ll actually become one, and I doubt that you would want to, anyway.
This is why I make the distinction between being a nice person, and being a nice guy. It’s why I say nice guys need not apply, because I can’t help nice guys. I can help nice people, but not nice guys, or nice gals, because nice guys always end up self-sabotaging, and I have no solution for that.
Being a nice guy means you’re a people-pleaser, and that means you’re letting your own well-being suffer, which can put you under stress, lead to anxiety and depression, and it usually causes a business to underperform. (Ever noticed that? How people-pleasers tend to be broke? Exactly).
If you’re not doing well, how can you be the best you can be, to the people in your world, the people who need you?
If you’re under stress and struggling with money, how can you consistently deliver high quality work for your buyers?
If you don’t put on your oxygen mask first, and you end up passed out on the floor of the plane, how are you going to help others get their oxygen mask on?
If you want your business to work, and thrive, now and into the future, you need to protect the asset, so that your asset (meaning: YOU) actually gets to serve people.
So, don’t be a nice guy, but be a nice person, instead.
Or, as a friend of mine recently put it:
Get off the cross. We need the wood.