This is a guest post written by from David W. Dussault, a dear friend, to his employees at P1 Industries.
Friendship is one of our company’s core values values. Friendship is not merely a word that incorporates “hanging out” or going to the game or movies together. Friendship is a deep, lifelong pursuit of mutual honor between two people that act in each other’s best interests.
Friendship is about honesty. It is about encouragement. Friendship puts others first. Friendship looks out for another out of honor and loyalty. Friendship is ultimately about sacrifice!
The Bible tells us, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends”.
When I decided friendship will be one of our core values, I envisioned a deep, tight and enduring bond of brotherhood (and sisterhood) between people fighting in the trenches together each day to build something truly wonderful.
I imagined people from all walks of life and backgrounds passionate about serving one another in our company’s mission, banding together, combining our gifts and talents in unity to move forward!
One of my dear friends, Mike Sacoccio, CEO of the City Mission of Schenectady, spoke at my College class last night on the leadership principle that, “We need to do all small things with great love and admiration, out of honor for others!”
A great example of this was Mother Teresa. Every day she treated the poor, the widows and the lowest in society as friends. She loved and fed them, pouring herself out on the altar of service to better their lives. Mother Teresa was poor and frail but out of doing small things every day with great love and admiration, she won the Nobel Peace Prize and rescued a generation.
How great P1 could be if we all did the small things daily with great love and admiration! Imagine a company full of people passionate about being friends and serving one another with honor. Honor in how we speak about one another. Honor in smiling and patting each other on the back. Honor in encouraging and lifting up others!
I am challenged today by these thoughts. I need to work on doing the small things with great love and I need to work on my smile and the way I treat my friends!
As the Bible says, there Is no greater love (honor, admiration, respect) than to lay down one’s life for a friend. This doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice your life, but it does mean you’re willing to sacrifice your will and desires and setbacks in order to build up, encourage and honor the friends working alongside us each day.
Let’s make P1 a community of friendship, honoring, admiring and respecting each other and doing the small things for one another with great love and admiration!
Lorenzo Agnes 