It's not personal It's business

In any business you will come across people that you have to compete with to get to the next step and there is always another step so there will always be competition. Competition at its core is healthy and helps push people however naturally some people are willing to go to greater lengths to get that step up.

Different professions require different personality traits and when it comes to business things work the same way. To be successful in business you need discipline, determination, passion and bravery among other traits. This is where the saying 'It's not personal it's business' comes from, at times in business you need to put some traits to the side and some traits forward and you have to understand that you can't make everyone happy.

It is business and the needs of the business are more important than individual needs, it is not ideal however if you want to be successful you have to work by that rule. However as with any word you can intemperate them in many ways when applied to different situations which can be very dangerous.

Negative implications:

When you say something is not personal you are removing other peoples emotion from the situation, you are allowing yourself to not take into account someones emotions to get your desired result. Taking the emotion out of a situation can help to look at things logically however with this saying it takes away other peoples emotion while still holding onto your emotions. This can make people willing to do things they usually wouldn't do as they don't have to think about how others feel, they only have to convince themselves that they can live with the outcome.

It's like a person stealing food from a shop to feed their family they tell themselves it is not personal to anyone so they don't have to think about others while still holding on to what they want and they want food and have permission to not think about harming others, themselves and their family is more important than other people so they do what they think needs to be done and can feel less remorse for doing so.

When you follow this up by saying it's business it allows you to say, in a normal situation I would not do this but we are in the realm of business which is separate from emotions as a whole. In this context you let yourself let go of your emotion and do what is best for business, however it can be easy to attach ones personal desires too business decisions, as a result people give them selves a pass, a get out of jail free card for emotional burdens.

If you feel bad about doing something or need a push to do something, saying it's not personal it's business can take the guilt away from something, the problem is saying something doesn't mean it is true. It doesn't mean the consequences don't exists, saying it is a defense mechanism because saying it's not personal doesn't mean that people won't get harmed and it doesn't make it any easier for the people being harmed. There is also not some alternate reality where business takes place, decisions made still affect the world and everything on it. Just because a person said it's business does not make the outcome any better, worse or even different.

As I said it is a defense mechanism to use sayings like this, at times they can be a useful tool in bringing a business forward however they can often be destructive and largely negative. What are your thoughts on the implications of such sayings, Comment, Upvote and Follow for more...