hello my name’s Gary Shotton and I am a part of inspiring better business IBBTalks.com today I’m going to talk about true colors and I don’t mean colors like the color of my shirt that people over a period of time can really show themselves who they really are and you may not be able to determine that upfront and and right away so over time a person’s true colors will come out it does sometimes take an extended time and but it’s fun to find somebody that’s really with you they’re not they’re not there with an ulterior motive or a side deal or or something that they want to sell you they want to become your friends so that that you that you can advance them and their cause and and you know it’s okay to be in sales but I like to know upfront if I’m being stacked up for kind of a sucker there for an eventual opportunity to buy their product or service so it is important for us to kind of look deeper into our friendships to see who sir who is surrounding why are we being surrounded with people and what is the real motive it will come out many people will come to you with a side agenda and you’ve got to be able to start that I’m going to refer to a couple quotes from my friend John Mason in his most recent book and one of the quotes says some people come into your life as blessings and others come into your life as lessons so you think about that a minute they’re a blessing to you and if not you can learn a lesson from dealing with them in their situation and later on in the same book he said don’t base your decisions on the advice from people who don’t have to deal with the results while people give you all kinds of advice but they’re not having to deal with the results and maybe they don’t even experience haven’t even got experience I always liked to ask myself when someone’s giving me advice where are they coming from what is their background do they even understand my situation they even in a position to speak into my life on this and so I don’t ask a lot of people to speak to me and give me advice I really don’t want that and if to finish that up says don’t base your decisions on the advice from other people who don’t have to deal with the results and do not have your best interest at heart those are quotes especially those that are in sales if you’re a higher position others that seek you out for your in for their interior motives of selling you something I’ve seen it with my investment I’m in a position I have a little extra money and I think some people that are in that operation or that field I got to ask myself are we really good friends here or are we eventually going to come to the point that I they would like me to use their firm for either insurance or investments and and after a little while I can see that the true colors came out that’s where this comes from well I’m going to be a little personal here when I talk about not buttering up to people and not trying to get close to them and not trying to take advantage of a relationship and so it may kind of sound unusual but I have been attending the same church for more than 23 years and I have true colors in that church I have no motive I really believe that the Tim but that to come and serve God in that church I don’t have any aspirations of advancing my career gaining customers getting on staff attempting to get some advantage back from that organization my home church and I kind of even shy to an extreme some may say because in 23 years I’ve never asked nor for nor ever I have I had a personal one-on-one conversation with my senior pastor that’s unusual I know it’s a larger Church the pastor has many things to deal with and now he’s actually semi-retired is the founding path turn the church over to his son who is the lead pastor but still my point is this I really don’t want my true colors is I don’t want his personal advice in my life I really don’t I want to hear from him through the Spirit of God through the Word of God through the message I said in and I want to hear God’s plan for my life I want to hear the things that God would have me not his personal opinion and so that being my case my true colors are that I really don’t expect my teachers and my leaders to be perfect I don’t expect them to consult with me if I need it I guess I would but at this point I believe it’s working fine because I’m hearing God through them I know there’s other people I’ve observed that come to our church in the first month or two they’re wanting to get an appointment with the pastor they want to tell them something that they’re bringing some cause to them and their have the opportunity to help fix things at the church and so I hope this comes across well but I am NOT of that attitude I really want a the true colors of serving God openly at my place of worship I want others to know that I can be a friend of God I’m not going to be the best friend with everybody in my spiritual world I’m going to be friends with God I have some examples of negative true colors I hope this comes across well an individual work for me in fact I needed some help pretty desperately when I was in my first business some thirty years ago and it was actually through my church somebody came to work for me he was a good leadership good good management material had managed some other stores and his wife actually came on with me so as my wife and I and this other couple I won’t name their names of course and for a couple three years man it looked like this was a team but I started seeing some problems developed number one this person wanted to own part of my business actually wanted me to give them part of my business I said well I’m not in a position just to give that to you but I can let you earn it I’ll pay you a bonus and you can take that bonus and buy some stock back we had a plan going and then the true colors came out one night over he had check writing abilities and that means he could write checks on my account and unbeknownst to me starting on a one-week the beginning of one week he wrote five or six checks to himself and backed him up with bogus and unjustified documents and went to the bank and got cash to the tune of about fifteen thousand dollars no you didn’t walk out of the bank with one check for 15,500 to use what I considered my money to pay my workers to move him to another state where I could not actually if I wanted to pursue any recourse Wow his true colors came out and I was maybe oh I was really taken off I mean I’ve been tricked I think and you know some dawei kind of give him some kind of justification although it’s not right he had done some poor investment on his side and he needed to skip town on some bills that he had created outside of anything to do with me but his true colors came out you can reclose with this and I can remind you that the truth will always come out I’ve been I’ve been used that as an anchor for many years that’s both on the good and the bad if I want to do something inappropriate or immoral or or outside of the perfect plan for my life and and and and I step into an arena I’ve got to ask myself know what I’m doing here maybe in secret but remember God said the truth will always come out and on the positive side if I’m working hard and diligently and I’m doing my job well and I’m just supplying a product or service or or my services personally and someone else jumps ahead because they’re kind of what we call taking advantage of the situation and and propelling themselves faster than their there came claiming credit maybe for work I did and they’re wanting to claim credit for that so that they can advance and they do advance they go up the ladder in them they’re passing me by remember the truth will come back the truth will come out and so rest on that fact be confident of that and work heartily as unto the Lord and you’re going to be okay thanks for being a part of inspiring better business