Accidental Impact

By Rhiannon Hill-Lewes

There's a hackneyed, but still thought provoking saying that the movement of a butterfly wing in the tropics will eventually affect the current of air millions of miles away in the Arctic. Or something like that.

We don't have time to examine the impact of all our casual interactions with others, but in business and everywhere else it's as well to be aware of our effect on others.

Here's a true story that may illustrate this, it's a nice positive story, but of course there are negative impacts, you might even be able to trace them in your own life sometimes.

About 15 years ago during the recession I had a large house and was undergoing some financial collapse since my Late husband and I were both involved in aspects of the property market.

My young cousin called me one day and said he wanted to leave the city where he lived and come to Surrey, and could he and his friend lodge with me.

I had room, so I said yes, we needed the money anyway, it would be fine.

He and his friend were unemployed. They arrived, and signed on for social security and went about looking for work. They were in their very early twenties, so there was a fair amount of partying too, and they hinted that something unpleasant had happened in their home city, and they had run away. It was to do with football club allegiances and they'd had a fright.

Now the friend had had a pretty good job in a lab., but the trauma of the football violence added to the newfound partying lifestyle, had thrown him off track a little. There were various short periods working on a building site and in a shop, but mostly, they sat around and hung out.

So long as the rent was paid I wasn't going to nag, they were well behaved in the house, good fun, and very good with my kids.

At this time I was training to be a therapist. The training was in body centred work, and there was a lot of technique involved.

One night, we were all sitting round having a drink when one of the lads asked me what I was learning.

I said (because when you learn something new you like to show off!) I'll show you.

I did a visualisation exercise with them and afterwards asked them what they had seen.

The friend, a pretty intense and private young man, looked really thoughtful.

I'll tell you, he said.

'I see myself sitting in the middle of a really barren, lonely place. In the distance is a mountain covered in jungle vegetation. It looks really nice there and I'd love to be there.'

I asked him what he would do if he really were in a situation like that.

He looked really surprised. 'I want to go to the mountain, but I have this strong feeling that I can't get there because I need somehow to be just picked up and put there.'

We had had a few drinks so we all laughed and the subject was dropped.

A couple of days later he came to me and asked if he might borrow a couple of books from my shelves.

I said yes, he started browsing, and I thought nothing of it.

A few months later the boys moved on. But things, again, did not work out for them, and back they came.

The friend came in and announced one day that he'd signed on for an access course at the local FE college. There was a bit of ribbing from the other guys in his group, but he started the course and passed.

The following term, he announced he'd applied for Uni. Sure enough, off he went, and after three years managed to get a First in Modern Languages. One or two others in their group, because men are pretty competitive, including my cousin, also did access courses and went off to Uni.

The friend even stayed on for a Masters and then moved into IT.

Various jobs and promotions followed and now he has a £100,000 a year job consulting with various financial institutions, has travelled widely and loves his job.

I'd never thought much about that night when he saw his mountain, and it certainly wasn't my intention to alter someone's life path.

But last time I saw him he said to me: 'You remember that book you loaned me years ago? It just got me thinking, and it was the start of everything I've done since.'

Someone did accidentally pick him up and start carrying him towards that mountain.

It was such a small thing I did, I can't take any credit for it, but the lesson is clear.

A tiny act of kindness or support in any area of our lives, including business, can have enormous ramifications, and Who you are is often just as important in business as What you've got to sell.There's a hackneyed, but still thought provoking saying that the movement of a butterfly wing in the tropics will eventually affect the current of air millions of miles away in the Arctic. Or something like that.