by Ralph de la Vega, President and CEO of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets.

4 out of 5 stars

How does a book about being a successful business executive translate into something helpful for a Mom, writer, and homemaker?

Turn Obstacles to Opportunities

De la Vega’s message is simple but profound: you’re going to face obstacles in life. You can either spend your life ducking and running, cursing and complaining, drifting and resenting, or you can see the obstacles as opportunities and use them as stepping stones toward the life you want to have.

Ralph de la Vega faced his obstacles early on. He came to the United States alone as a ten-year-old immigrant after his parents were denied permission to leave Cuba. Four years later his parents joined him in America, and in that time between ten and fourteen Ralph got his first chance to practice what would become his life philosophy: learn to welcome obstacles and make them serve you.

From Business to Home

There are plenty of business stories and applications of de la Vega’s philosophy to the business world in the book, and while the issues that affect the daily work of a CEO aren’t the same as the issues that affect me, I still pulled some valuable lessons from the book. That’s de la Vega’s vision for what he shares, that it will help not just business executives but everyday people with everyday problems. And if we applied his principles for success, we’d all see a lot more goal-reaching and a lot less whining.

For example, de la Vega talks about “pivotal points” in life. These are the times when we face big changes or challenges and, says de la Vega, these “life-direction changes” are “the greatest opportunity for learning and growing.” His advice is to quit trying to avoid the challenges and instead to “seek them and embrace them.”

Key Points Worth Remembering

A few other key points that translate well from the business world to the personal/home world:

• “Embrace obstacles because they provide opportunities to grow in your personal and professional life.”
• Opportunities often come disguised as problems.
• “Be comfortable with being uncomfortable… be willing to venture outside your comfort zone.” (This concept really helped me to deal with some writing jobs I wanted to tackle but wasn’t familiar with.)
• “Unlearning is also a part of getting better.” (How many times have we all acted insane, doing the same thing and expecting different results? This concept is a great reminder to me: if it’s not working, try changing! Especially as a parent, you have to willing to unlearn the old ways and learn new ways with each new phase of parenting.)
• “Dreaming big makes you more likely to succeed as long as you match your dreams with hard work.”
• “Only you can allow limits to be imposed on your dreams.”
• “Your communication must be clear, concise, and consistent.”
• A vision won’t work without a plan, and “the plan should identify specific steps you need to take to achieve it.”
• “To create anything of value, you must sacrifice.”
• “Create an environment that makes contributing easy.” (I’m working on how this translates to creating a home environment that makes it easy for my children to contribute.)
• “Focus. Leaders concentrate on critical things, not everything.” (Substitute “effective home makers/writers/mommies” for “leaders.” Makes me feel a lot better about ignoring the dirty baseboards and ceiling fans in favor of reading aloud to my kids, spending quality time with my husband, finishing up an article I’m inspired about, or taking a ltitle extra time to rest and regroup. Critical things, not everything.)

Writing Style and Repetition

The only element of the book that keeps me from giving it a full five stars is the writing style and some needless repetition. The writing style is just a bit stiff, sometimes awkward, and full of more business jargon and abstract terms than it has to be to get the message across. And de la Vega tends to repeat his stories as he draws different lessons from them, which kind of makes my eyes glaze over until I get to the new material. A bonus: I love the”Takeaway Messages” at the end of each chapter which succinctly state the, well, takeaway messages.

Bottom Line: A great book for folks in the business world, and one I think any manager or executive could learn from and enjoy reading. Not as great for the Mom-Reader model, as getting the concepts requires a bit of wading through business waters; but if you’re a Mom with a business background or an ongoing entrepreneurial interest/activity of your own, this is a great read that will offer you wisdom to apply in your personal life, parenting life, and business life.

Go to the ant, O sluggard, Observe her ways and be wise, Which, having no chief, Officer or ruler, Prepares her food in the summer And gathers her provision in the harvest.

“Diligence in business is every man’s wisdom and duty; not so much that he may attain worldly wealth, as that he may not be a burden to others, or a scandal to the church. The ants are more diligent than slothful men. We may learn wisdom from the meanest insects, and be shamed by them. Habits of indolence and indulgence grow upon people. Thus life runs to waste…” from Matthew Henry’s Commentary on Prov. 6

Do what you can while you can do it.

O Me! O life!… of the questions of these recurring;

Of the endless trains of the faithless—of cities fill’d with the foolish;

Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who  more faithless?)

Of eyes that vainly crave the light—of the objects mean—of the struggle ever renew’d;

Of the poor results of all—of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me;

Of the empty and useless years of the rest—with the rest me intertwined;

The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?
Answer.
That you are here—that life exists, and identity;

That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.
O Me! O Life! by Walt Whitman.

--------------------------------

“True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new.”

-Antoine de Saint-Exupery

1. Update your photo and bio.

   If your bio ends with your current status ten or five years or even six months ago, bring it up to the present. While you are updating, get a photo that looks professional: a closer, well-focused head shot with a neutral, non-busy background will look more professional than that half of your face from the 1999 family Christmas picture. You can use a photo you already have and do a little editing. Blur out the background; maybe convert the picture to black and white. You might also check into prices on getting a professional head shot.

2. Add screen shots of the sites for which you write on your own website.

   . This saves visitors the trouble of having to click to all your links, and it also saves you the risk of getting them so interested in a different site that they forget to come back to yours. If you’re not sure what a screen shot even is, go read this explanation from Wikipedia. Basically, you are taking a picture of what is on the screen, saving it as an image file, and then putting it on your website as a picture. You could put it into a writing sample of what you’ve done on that particular website, so visitors can read your work and see where it’s published all without leaving your site.

3. Provide a downloadable .pdf of your portfolio, resume, and/or writing samples.

   You have a potential client who is browsing your website while waiting for a flight. It’s just time to board when they start reading your writing samples. They notice that little “Download as PDF” button, click it, and now they have a copy they can read in flight. Providing options makes it easier for your clients to remember you and hire you.
   Most office programs provide a way to convert a document to a .pdf file, or there are several online options you can look into. Make sure the option is easy to see for your website visitors.

4. Document your areas of expertise with specific samples or clips.

   First, of course, you’ll have to list your areas of expertise. As you build up samples and clips in each area, provide links right next to the listed topic on which you are (becoming) an expert. This makes it easy for clients who want writing on a particular subject to go straight to your relevant writing samples, rather than browsing through your entire portfolio.

5. Have a professional header and logo made.

   If you got some graphic designing skill, make it yourself. Think simple and streamlined. Do a little internet searching if, like me, your graphic design skills are at a negative level. I have found several very affordable options and have been very pleased with the results. Having a uniform header and logo for your website makes you look professional, and it also makes it easy for others to link to your site in an aesthetically pleasing way.

6. Make your design/theme simple with muted or neutral colors.

   I give this advice with a big caveat: some very professional themes and designs incorporate brighter colors and more complex color schemes. But if you’re not sure what you are doing, of if your aesthetic sense is somewhat, uh, underdeveloped, err on the side of caution. A classic black and white theme promotes your writing skill, whereas a complicated, multi-color scheme might just prove distracting to potential clients. Obviously personal taste is involved, and the kind of clients you are pursuing matter, so take this advice with a big grain of salt. Sea salt. White sea salt.

7. Provide a table or spreadsheet with your rates.

   Make this downloadable as well, so clients can have it as a reference. It doesn’t have to be a complicated table, just a simple spread of the services you offered lined up with what you charge. If you have pricing options (by project, by hour, by page), then lay those out clearly as well.

8. Use your sidebar for shameless self-promotion, but in a classy way.

   If you have a sidebar, that is… Gather a collection of quotes from your satisfied clients, positive reviews, and a few of the best lines you have written. Convert part of your CV and areas of expertise into little factoids, then load up all those goodies into a rotating quote collection or other display format. It’s like a little snack bar of how talented you are.

9. Record an audio or video introduction of yourself and what you do.

   A caveat with this one as well: only do this if you can do it well. If you are a work at home freelancer and can’t find a quiet time or place to record, skip it. If, however, you have a friend who is handy with YouTube videos or podcasts and you can come up with a brief, smart script and a good place to record, do it. This could be the first thing visitors see when they come to your website, and a little click on the play button will let them “meet” you. It might be the extra effort that makes you stand out from the other freelance writers out there.

10. Offer a contact form, not just a mailto: command.

    This is a pet peeve of mine. I’m not always on the same computer, and when I want to contact someone who offers only a mailto: option, I have to copy the email address from the command line, open up my own mail server, and send the email. Offer a contact form option so that visitors only have to take one step to get in touch with you. If they are using a public computer or don’t have a default mail server set up on their own, clicking a mailto: command is far more annoying than it is useful.

I originally wrote this post for Writers Unbound, several months ago. Editing it to post on this website has added a few significant items to my list of updates for my portfolio website. Time to get to tweaking…

• The first, and most obvious option, is simply to report as self-employed. You don’t have to set up a business structure; it’s the simplest option. Another way to say it is that you work as an Independent Contractor. This means that “the person for whom you perform services has only the right to control or direct the result of your work, not what will be done or how it will be done,” according to the IRS. You need your social security number, good records of the income you have received, and a little time to fill out some additional forms at tax time. The federal self-employment tax rate is 15.3%, and you will have to make estimated tax payments since your taxes are not automatically withheld.
• A Limited Liability Corporation is the next simplest option. It’s not that complicated to set one up; About.com’s guide predicts 1 – 4 hours. Basically, you have three items on your list: the Articles of Organization, the business name, and the Operating Agreement. The simpler your company is, the simpler these documents will be. If you’re one person, the sole owner of the LLC, you’re looking at a fairly quick set-up. Unless you have more than one member, the federal tax rate is basically the same as it is for self-employed income. The IRS treats a sole-owner LLC as a “non-entity” and taxes it according to sole proprietorship (self-employed) tax laws. So what’s the benefit of forming an LLC if the tax rate is the same? Purportedly, an LLC offers what its name indicates: you can’t be held personally liable if the business fails. So if your business took on debt to support itself, couldn’t pay, and went bankrupt, you wouldn’t lose your personal assets (house, car, savings) to pay that debt.
  I’ve heard from different sources that 1) it’s a good idea to have an LLC because you need the liability protection and 2) the LLC is really just a false front that doesn’t offer any real protection. I suggest doing some independent research there, like talking to someone who actually runs an LLC or chatting with an IRS representative, your accountant, or your lawyer. However, all that said, I don’t really see the point of an LLC structure for a freelance writing business. There is basically no overhead to work from your home as a freelance writer. If you get into setting up an office outside of your home or buying a new laptop every month, you can acquire some debt, sure. But generally, freelance writers are able to keep their expenses very, very low. So setting up a structure to provide liability protection for a company that doesn’t really have liability seems rather redundant. The only other scenario would be the possibility of a lawsuit that could result in large bills. So don’t write anything rude about people…
• Finally we come to the corporate structures, the S Corp and the C Corp. The C Corp is how the big businesses are set up. The S Corp is an option for businesses that don’t want to offer public stock options, and it allows pass-through taxation, which basically means that the corporation doesn’t pay taxes, only the “employees” do on their actual income.
  Neither one is very hard to set up, but you want to pay attention to tax documents, annual reports, and other required forms and filings. As with an LLC, however, a corporation seems rather over the top for a sole proprieter(freelance writer) except that it offers liability protection and, in some scenarios, a savings on taxes.

Now the disclaimer, and I mean it: I am NOT a lawyer or an accountant, and what I’ve said should in no way be treated as legal or professional tax advice. I am a freelance writer, like you. The research I’ve done has been for the purpose of understanding tax options and making decisions for my own income. I have simplified and shared what I know, which isn’t much. The point is to get you started thinking about the best route, so you don’t just wake up in April and realize you have no idea what to do. Whatever you do, be sure you keep accurate records, report honestly, and set your business up legally.

Coaching, team development, and personal growth are a big part of business now. I’m not sure I buy into it: seems like a corporate extension of what is often a self-help racket. Can coaching and leadership development really produce increased productivity, magically cooperative team-players, and employees so motivated they beg you for extra projects?

Maybe. Maybe not. As with most broad-sweep solutions to common problems, what you put in is exactly what you get out. A corporation can’t force you to develop yourself any more than you Mom or Dad could. It’s up to you. That said, choosing to exercise discipline, smooth out your rough places, and gain skills is beneficial whether you work in a corporate office or a drive-thru window or from a laptop at your kitchen table.

The coaching concept of business intelligence can involve any or all of four areas: physical, emotional, social, and spiritual.

A brief definition of each:

• Physical Intelligence: being aware of your body’s needs, responding before you crash and burn from too much stress, too little sleep, sickness, fatigue, or poor diet; providing your body with the energy, rest, and fuel it needs to complete the work you give it; being sensitive to the cues your body gives you.
• Emotional Intelligence: being aware of your own emotions, being able to manage them even in stressful situations, producing sufficient inner motivation to keep you moving, noticing the emotional responses of people around you and handling them positively.
• Social Intelligence: an extension of emotional intelligence, really; being able to gauge the group atmosphere, interaction between team members, potential problems and points of strength; exercising leadership in groups to move people toward positive, productive interaction and decision making.
• Spiritual Intelligence: the newest development in business intelligence potential; being able to see and/or seek a deeper purpose in work, business, and company mission; working from a motivation that is more universal and lasting than profit; being aware of how to make your work correspond with your greater purposes and goals in life.

Now that we know what our four possible areas of intelligence are, let’s look at some ideas for enhancing them.
Most of us can easily identify which particular “intelligence” areas we are weak in. I know my social intelligence isn’t that great, though my emotional intelligence is keen. I can easily sense the emotions of others, but when it comes to providing group leadership and moving an emotional atmosphere toward something positive, I draw a blank.

My husband, on the other hand, has a natural social intelligence. He seems to interact and move through groups with an instinct both graceful and effective. We all have natural strengths and weaknesses, so once you identify yours you can more efficiently smooth things out. Building skills is smart for business or personal success.

Read on for 80 Ideas to Enhance Your Intelligence.

Ideas to Enhance Your Physical Intelligence

1. Stretch every morning for ten to fifteen minutes, and again at some point during the day (lunch break, afternoon coffee break) for five minutes.
2. Once every hour or so, push your chair back from your desk, lean your head back, close your eyes, and just take a few deep breaths. If you notice that you are feeling very tense, get up and take a five minute break.
3. Get a Pilates workout dvd and use it at home or join a Pilates class at your gym. Even weekends only is great.
4. When you walk, check your posture. Straighten your back and release your shoulders. Tighten your abdominal muscles.
5. Climb the stairs instead of using the elevator.
6. Get an anatomy book (one with good illustrations) and spend five to ten minutes per day reading about part of your body.
7. Do puzzles over your lunch hour to give your brain some stretching time, too.
8. Keep a food journal for a week or so.
9. Create some clear space in your work area. If your office is cluttered and your desk is covered, you are creating unnecessary anxiety and tense muscles. Clear things out a bit. Keep your desk surface neat, and only keep papers out while in use.
10. Plan healthy meals for a week. See how much better you feel at the end of that week.
11. Get up at the same time every morning for a week. Then get up ten minutes earlier the next week.
12. Keep an exercise journal for a week or so.
13. Try a new sport, something you’re totally unfamiliar with that will force you to use your muscles in new ways.
14. Subscribe to a fitness/health magazine and read the issues as they come. Try to implement an idea or suggestion from each issue into your routine.
15. Schedule a session with a personal trainer at your gym.
16. Get a full-body massage.
17. Notice how tired or energetic you are at the end of the work day before you make evening plans. If you’re feeling peppy and excited, go out, have fun, spend time with friends. If you’re tired already, give yourself a break. Go home, eat a healthy meal, read a relaxing book for a while, and go to bed early.
18. Buy and wear comfortable working shoes.
19. Pay attention to the way you sit and use a computer and phone. Are you aggravating or stressing muscles by your posture? Shift your body a little until you hit a comfortable position.
20. Consider your clothing. Are you comfortable? Is your waistband tight? Is the material scratchy or warm? Try to build a wardrobe that is both comfortable, functional, and flattering. This takes time, but the sooner you start the sooner you will appreciate the benefits.

Ideas to Enhance Your Emotional Intelligence

1. Write out a definition of emotions and give examples of three strong positive emotions and three strong negative emotions.
2. Read a basic overview of personality types.
3. Notice your tone of voice next time you’re having a conversation that could escalate into conflict. Consciously force yourself to speak in a quiet, calm, and kind tone of voice, no matter what you are saying.
4. What is your personality type? If you don’t know, find out.
5. Write a paragraph describing the most exciting, thrilling, and/or fulfilling day of your life thus far.
6. Write a paragraph describing the most depressing, discouraging, and/or unproductive day of your life thus far.
7. Smile at strangers.
8. Start noticing body language. Arms folded? Leaning forward? How do different people stand, sit, and gesture? Look for the signals that tell you what they’re feeling.
9. Start noticing your own moods. Are you in a good mood or a bad mood most of the time? Describe a good mood and a bad mood for yourself (a brief statement for each will do).
10. Find someone who knows you well and ask him or her what your moods are like. Do the answers correspond with your answers from #9?
11. What triggers your anger? Do you know? Quickly list five things that make you mad.
12. How do you respond when you are mad? Quickly list a typical response to the five things from #11.
13. Now consider how your typical mad response from #12 would affect the people near you or involved in the situation. Quickly list what you think someone else’s response might be to your five typical mad responses from #12.
14. List three people you know well. Think about how they act, speak, and move when 1) happy and relaxed, 2) angry or frustrated, and 3) stressed and under pressure.
15. What is the purpose of emotions? Answer that question for yourself. Do a little reading and research if you want, but come up with your own answer.
16. Listen to a conversation between teenage girls. Really listen.
17. Listen to a conversation between businessmen. Really listen.
18. What emotional differences do you notice between the conversations from #16 and #17?
19. Notice the expression on the faces of strangers.
20. Smile, broadly, for no apparent reason, every hour on the hour.

More ideas…

Ideas to Enhance Your Social Intelligence

1. If you’re not a naturally outgoing person, find and memorize a few greeting and exiting lines. Use them. People like repetition.
2. What’s your typical response to conflict? Ask yourself, then ask someone who knows you well. Compare answers.
3. How can you tell when people are stressed out, anxious, tense, and uncomfortable? List at least five physical cues that you can look for.
4. How can you tell when people are angry, irritated, annoyed, or about to lose it? List at least five physical cues that you can look for. Not everybody yells, you know.
5. What physical cues do you display when you get anxious or angry? List at least three for each scenario.
6. Find and memorize five humorous one-liners. Funny helps mad go away. They’re not foolproof, of course, but it’s better to have something handy than draw a blank when you’re desperate.
7. Who was/is the mediator in your family? How did/does that person mediate conflicts?
8. Who is the most popular person you know (besides yourself!)? Next time you are around that person, notice at least three particular gestures, expressions, or movements.
9. Start asking people something besides the standard “How are you?” or “What’s up?”. Try for something that requires more than a Yes/No, Fine/Nothing answer. Then listen.
10. Respect personal space. Don’t get right in someone’s face, don’t stand extremely close, and don’t talk louder than is necessary to be heard.
11. Read a book about how to resolve conflicts.
12. Keep at least a minimal knowledge of current events and pop culture so you can have a conversation with anyone.
13. Walk with confidence.
14. Read a book about mingling.
15. Smile when you talk to people.
16. Send clear signals about what you are doing when entering a group. If you want to shake hands, put your hand right out there. Don’t be wishy washy. People will respond if they know where you’re going.
17. If a topic is touchy, pull out a deflection line: “Perhaps we could continue this conversation tomorrow, in my office,” or “Would you be willing to email me your thoughts on this so I can be sure I understand them?” Then change the subject.
18. Don’t assume people agree with you on religion, politics, and morality. In fact, assume that they don’t agree, and assume that they can teach you something. Discuss the big issues with an attitude of trying to solve a problem together.
19. Use names, first names when appropriate.
20. Close each conversation gracefully. Memorize a few closers if needed. Extend thanks. Say nice to meet you, or see you, or whatever fits. Smile, and walk away.

Ideas to Increase Your Spiritual Intelligence

1. Sketch or describe your idea of the perfect life.
2. What is altruism? Write out your own definition.
3. Read a short passage from the Psalms each day.
4. Read a chapter from the book of Proverbs each day. (The numbers correspond to the date.)
5. Find a few inspiration quotations and memorize them.
6. Volunteer at a local charity or non-profit organization.
7. Give away ten percent of your paycheck to your church, a charity, or an individual in need.
8. Write a mission statement for your life.
9. Write a quick list of the five greatest problems in the world. Now write a list of what you can do to help solve those problems.
10. Spend five minutes when you first wake up (or while you’re in the shower, or having your first cup of coffee) to think about your larger goal for the day, the week, the year.
11. Offer to help your co-workers when you see them struggling with a project or problem.
12. At least one day per week should be “off-work” day. Don’t bring it home, don’t run to the office, don’t take the phone calls, don’t check your work email. Your mind needs time to reflect and renew.
13. Read an allegorical book.
14. Read some poetry by Rabindranath Tagore.
15. Answer this question: if you didn’t need money, how would you spend your life?
16. Spend some time baselining.
17. Donate some time to help a friend finish a project.
18. Once a month, take an hour or so to review your life goals and the direction you are heading.
19. Talk with your spouse about his/her goals, dreams, and life mission.
20. Write a sentence or two describing how your current work fulfills your mission at this point in your life.

Market unto others as you would have them market unto you.

What does that mean? Seth Godin, author of New York Times Best Seller “Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable” (among others), put it this way in an interview with Anthony Tedesco for the 2008 edition of Writer’s Market: “Give help, don’t ask [for help].”

Don’t Be a Marketing Moocher

Have you ever been in a relationship with a co-dependent person? How about a serial moocher? Or someone extremely clingy, needy, jealous, or constantly out of cash? You don’t like being taken advantage of, do you? It eats at you, even if the person is asking for something you really don’t need, or care about, or even value. It’s the fact that you’re being worked over, played for what you can give, expected to provide even if the other person contributes nothing.

Marketing is a relationship between you and the client. If you promise and don’t deliver, you break a trust. If you build expectations and then don’t perform, you break a trust. If you hype a product that really isn’t worth hyping, you break a trust. If you flash a pretty sign, make a pretty speech, wave around a pretty brochure, and expect money, money, money for that meager show, your marketing relationships will fail. Clients don’t like being worked over, played for what they can give, and expected to buy even if the seller contributes little or nothing.

You Gotta Give a Little

We, the sellers, the marketers, must start being the givers in these relationships. Instead of pushing our product, we need to look for ways we can provide to our clients. What skills, resources, talents, know-how do you have that can help someone else get a step up? What can you give away? What can you offer besides a product for sale?

Your Cheatin’ Heart

People remember how it feels to get cheated. I bought a $20 labeler at Wal-Mart last week. It doesn’t work, fresh out of the package. I didn’t expect much, but I expected it to work. Now I have to go stand in a line with my two little children, talk to a crabby customer service representative, and hope that they’ll either give me a refund or exchange it for a working model. Is it Wal-Mart’s fault that the product doesn’t work? No, not directly. They don’t manufacture or package it; they just distribute it. But it matters. I don’t deal with the manufacturer; I deal with Wal-Mart. And I will remember this experience. I will think twice next time. I will wait a little longer, do a little research, and I will go buy what I need somewhere else.

Good Vibrations

People also remember how it feels to get more than you pay for. I love going to St. Louis Bread Company, because I can buy my $2 bottomless cup of coffee and my $1 cinnamon raisin bagel (bread sliced with butter, please) and get a lot more than what I’ve paid for. I get a large, distraction-free space that I don’t have to clean up. I get free wireless. I get quiet, anonymity, and a paper to read if I need a break from writing. I get someone to come by and whisk away my tray when I finish my bagel. I get coffee that’s hot, cream that’s cold, a clean bathroom, and just enough people around to provide conversation snippets and spur on the next paragraph.

Does this stuff cost them? A little bit, sure. But what do they gain? My loyalty. My good feelings. My happy associations. A guarantee that I will come back, over and over, and that they can burn my bagel, run out of cream, or throw out the newspaper and I will overlook it all. Once a good association is established, it takes a lot to undo it. Same goes for a negative association.

Be Like Santa Claus

How does this concept translate to your business? First, stop looking for more ways to sell and start looking for more ways to give. Stop promoting a product and start offering a service. For free. If people are impressed with your service, they’ll be impressed with your product. Be a resource center. Learn all you can about areas that relate to your product and provide that information at no cost to clients, potential clients, anyone. Don’t ask for anything in return.
Give.

It takes some faith. What if the principle of reciprocity stops working just as you start trying it? It might. I doubt it, though. That ‘do unto others’ concept has been around for a long time now.