You’re a caveman wandering around the savannah spear in hand all alone hunting for food for your family. All of a sudden you see that you are in fact the hunted. As you walk into a clearing you notice a 800 pound male lion has you in his sights and he’s only 30 feet away. He’s also out hunting to feed his family. The truth is, it doesn’t matter that you have a spear, because one man is no match for this beast. It’s a bad day for you. The lion is going to kill you and feed his family. You lose.

 

The good news is that human beings, that’s you, don’t roll alone. We are pre-programmed for survival, and so we form hunting parties and we never hunt alone. When you go hunting you bring 7 of your friends and as a group you are very effective. You exchange commitments in language to hunt together and so when you corner a 900 pound grizzly bear all 8 of you operate as a team and kill the beast. You go home with meat and fur coats for the winter. You survive and thrive.

 

We are all first programmed for survival and part of that mechanism means that we form alliances by exchanging commitments with others. Our very survival depends on doing it effectively. We form families, we form companies, we form communities, we form countries. All of it is for survival and all of it is held together by language, by the commitments we exchange with each other.

 

When commitments break down the relationships break down and the family disappears. The same thing for companies and even entire countries can disintegrate over a short period of time. Look what’s happening now in Venezuela and don’t forget what happened to the Soviet Union or the far flung British Empire. The commitments break down and the alliance falls apart.

 

As you think about being a caveman, think about the people in your life who depend on you for their very survival. Think also about the people in your life whom you depend upon for your survival. Think of the people you simply can’t live without.

 

People reaching out to you for a price or technical information are in fact alone in the jungle. Their car is broken leaving them alone and stranded in the jungle. The only thing they ‘really need’ is a commitment of ‘help’ from someone skilled and competent at hunting. They are looking to become a member of a ‘hunting party’ so they can survive. And they need to do it now.

 

The fact that they ask for price could be important but it’s NEVER the real issue. It can’t be the main issue. If the car was functioning properly they wouldn’t be calling you but it’s not working right. And the functioning of the car isn’t even the REAL issue. The real issue is that their survival is at stake. They can’t go shopping, or get to work or go on vacation or go to the doctor or take the kids to visit grandma. They can’t live their life and THAT is the real issue.  

So when people call you for a price on service or tires, dig a little to find out what their REAL ISSUE is? What are they REALLY SUFFERING about? Once you discover that, you can make a commitment to be part of their hunting party and to take care of them.