All Clients are amazing!

On Thursday I had a second meeting with a client who, I'm discovering, is probably one of the most insightful and amazing people I've met to date.

He is seeing me, ostensibly, to talk around topical areas of exercise, health, food, motivation and such. By mostly listening, and occasional questions however, I find our conversation chunking around (mainly up!) into areas that seem quite remote from our "base camp" - and yet are not, because they are enjoined and engaged with connecting threads of purpose and meaning.

Strangely, talking to him and listening to him reminded me of the character Socrates, featured in Dan Millman's books and film Peaceful Warrior - The Movie. If you aren't familiar, here is a short interview with Dan Millman talking about the character:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4lN5VR8kqU>
Dan also quotes the phrase "When the student is ready, the Teacher will appear" - and this is certainly true with regards to my client, who I am now viewing as a timely mentor for me in the journey I am on.
His comments and insights are really thought provoking and for me, I find myself saying "For what purpose?"
The answer is clearly for my discovery and education - and I am just thankful I have the presence of mind (and working style) to listen and take in all that he says, because were I not to then I would miss a lot of the deeper meanings.

There were two particularly amazing things that came out of our conversation:-
1. We both share a passion for and draw inspiration from the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu. In his case however, when he was in business he gave a copy to each of his employees. Very interesting!
2. He also ran his business on these philosophical pillars - rather than imbuing the business and every employee with the profit motive, there were two things that stood firm - one was that for every employee this had to be the best job they'd ever had in their life to date, and the other was that for every customer this had to be the best firm they'd ever dealt with to date.
By following this philosophy he felt his work and his business would have true purpose. Not surprisingly, he also reported that the business was hugely profitable - and for all the right reasons namely the people who it served.

We can learn so much from our clients - not just about them, but also from them for ourselves. And the key has to be LISTENING, purposeful listening.