Die Or Be Kilt?

Here's a question for the answering of:

Do you think small local business should be run on cut-throat lines, or benefit the community and with as much goodwill as possible?

Or should they not differ from the huge conglomerates, with toe-stomping being the accepted norm?

Is being as professional as possible in one's own small sphere enough, knowing that one is only a part of the whole, or should one be out to undercut and ruin the opposition in the name of self-promotion, profit and good business practise?

I guess you can guess where I stand on this one...live and let live. But I'm wondering whether I have the wrong attitude since we are talking income here? Should I join the nasty brigade in the interests of profit?

There's a quote which for my adult life I've tried to live by:

What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?

 

Matthew 16 v26...(have to admit I thought it was Shakespeare until I googled it to ensure I had it right...ooops!!!)

I've always believed that morals, ethics, kindness, honour, good reputation, were hugely important at whatever level one is working or living. But, as I am swiftly discovering, its easy to keep your ethics intact when you stand in the middle of the island; when you are clinging to the rocks at the edge of the sea-cliff its more difficult to honour one's own beliefs and to believe they truly matter, especially when you see others doing the opposite and reaping significant financial benefits as a result. Does that indicate they are more desperate or just more business minded?

The other day when I was grumbling Middlest informed me:

Karma's a bitch so I don't have to be!

I laughed, I really found it funny, and maybe I hope its true but not sure. Of course I don't wish confusion and destruction on others but neither do I any longer believe that what 'goes round, comes round'. Call me cynical but in business as in life it does not pay to have morals or ethics, to be generous, thoughtful, considerate, encouraging or to 'live and let live'.

Can success only be measured in financial ruin of the opposition? Is there no room for healthy competition and diversification? Why must we die or be kilt, why can't we go separate ways? Its not a small village we live in, its a city, much as we all call it a town and still live with a small rural town mind-set.
(I know I'm being vague here, but its on purpose for fear of saying too much, as several small business people are involved on each side of the equation, whether or not they are aware .)

Am I wrong? Naïve? Out dated? Not cut out to make a 'go' of my pathetic sewing?

The alternative, of giving up and staying on welfare whilst twiddling my thumbs, is humiliating. There's a happy medium somewhere but I need to find it, and fast.


PS I think that 'kilt' may be an Irish colloquialism. It does not refer to a Scotsman's skirt, neither is it short for murder. It is sort of being being in serious bother with someone, usually yer Irish Mammy, and receiving a verbal hiding, possibly a clip of the ear, and temporary banishment! Its a bit difficult to explain, but since I found it in the writings of Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849) its obviously been in usage for a long time, and it really is in everyday usage.