Part 36 (2/2)

Each new business starts out with two people who like and trust each other well enough to give the other what they need. While banks and development agencies get fl.u.s.tered about business planning, finance, const.i.tutional matters and legal frameworks, this simple truth is not stated often enough. Trade begins when you trust someone enough to pay for the products or services they offer. That can happen without any written agreement, or company const.i.tution, and certainly does not require a written contract of employment. Through the simple act of exchanging labour for money, two people enter into their own agreement. If it works for them both, they continue it.

It is a thankless task arguing against bureaucracy, against the trend towards ever more standards of excellence, standardised codes of ethics and kitemarks, against increasing numbers of laws that seek to regulate not only our behaviour, but even the way we articulate our thoughts. In this struggle I have unsurprisingly - made little headway. But I am pleased to have influenced a few organisations so that they keep bureaucracy to a minimum and replace this with the exercise of moral judgement in the way they deal with investors, customers, employees and suppliers.

For a business to grow, there needs to be a culture in which relations.h.i.+ps are intimate and people can learn from the mistakes they make. I learned this at IC, and that is why I wanted to tell you this story. Intimate relations.h.i.+ps are the foundation of our society, and from them spring not just new human life but new economic life as well. Thankfully I have been able to make a living saying this to many people, and exploring ways to make it work in practice.

After I split from Mike, and Phil split from Elona, I started to see Phil more. Our friends.h.i.+p developed into a lasting romance. We now have two lovely children: a boy I insisted we call John. Three years later we had a girl. We called her Hope. It may not last, these things are never certain, but for now I am content. Phil and I are the closest of friends and managed to rekindle our pa.s.sion for each other after we got the kids out of our bed. As I look to the future, there is only one thing of which I am certain. There is a strength that grows from being quick to listen and slow to judge. If I can teach this to my children and grandchildren, my time on this earth will not have been wasted.

~ End.

Also by Rory Ridley-Duff.

Emotion, Seduction and Intimacy:.

Alternative Perspectives on Human Behaviour.

”Rorys work is insightful and helps to redress some of the imbalances in the feminist theory of patriarchy while simultaneously introducing the concepts of gender and intimacy to the subject of enterprise governance”.

Professor Phil Johnson, Head of HRM and Organisational Behaviour, Sheffield University.

”Rory is a man who has deliberately chosen the left-hand path of progress. He does not shun the moral maze of human desires and pa.s.sions but brings greater understanding to that very facet of life the forbidden fruit that made us fall from grace and its role in our emanc.i.p.ation.”

Dr Poonam Thapa.

Gender, Culture and s.e.xual Health Expert.

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