UNITE vs. UNTIE: Moving Letters Makes All the Difference

As I have been giving speeches in recent weeks, I have opened my remarks with the following statement. I ask the audience to reflect upon two words that are not that different in appearance, but quite different in meaning. The two words are UNTIE and UNITE.

You see, the two words are comprised of the exact same letters. The only change is switching the place of the letter "T" and "I." What does this mean? When "T" is in front of "I" we get the words UNTIE which means things are coming apart or undone. It means we are divided and pointing fingers about what is wrong. In contrast, when the "I" is in front of the "T," we get the word UNITE. This means people/things are coming together — we are finding common ground. And instead of pointing out differences, we are embracing our common humanity.

The printing/related industries epitomize what the word UNITE is all about. We are diverse and we embrace it. It makes us the best at what we do. You see it is simple. We are all human. We are made of flesh and blood. We sleep, eat and drink. We all want to be loved, seek peace, like to laugh, desire less stress, want to be encouraged, and wish we had more time. We all want an as good if not better life for our kids and grandkids than the life we have.

Going beyond the printing/related industry community ... the people I meet in this country are doing amazing things. They are not "talking" about making a difference but are "living out" making a difference. I wish you could switch places with me for one month. You would be overwhelmed at the number of positive happenings that are personally shared with me all across the country. It is overwhelming, and I share (as I am doing here) as many times as possible.

However, we must be careful as (month after month) we are bombarded with negative news. And it can be easy to almost become "tricked" into believing this is the norm. The mainstream media is clever in grabbing our attention with negative headlines. Please know this is only a tiny sliver of news. And, it is not representative of the overall positive things going on in our country and our individual communities. So, never buy in ... as this negativity does not help us UNITE but does indeed help us UNTIE. I am not saying we don’t have negative ... but there are more great people doing great things than negative people doing negative things.

We must never settle for good when great is attainable in all of our relationships. And, is that not what life and thus business is all about? Our striving to make the world a better place every step of the way in our own corner of the world. This is our footprint that we leave long after we are done living on this Earth.

I challenge you and I challenge myself. Do not buy into the world of UNTIE ... stay focused on UNITE. If we continue to look at ourselves (in the proverbial mirror) first, it will be difficult to focus on what is wrong with others. Let’s continue doing what has made us one of the best industries in this country, and then ... stretch some more.

Let’s love more and criticize less. Let’s work to find common ground (UNITE) with others we may not know or understand. If we start with a couple of things we share in common, then relationships can blossom and great things will happen. Together we can and will let everyone we come in contact with (all stakeholders) see we are modeling the humanness we ALL have in common.

People need encouragement, and they are eager to hear a kind word. People need to laugh and they want to smile. So, give them that smile ... and make their day. I am so glad you are with me as we continue the upcoming series of blog posts. We will look at our world and realize it goes much deeper than B2B and B2C Communications and that it is all about the (human) H2H communications.

Lastly, if you have a particular topic you would like me to cover in an upcoming blog post please email me Ryan@RyanSauers.com

Have a great week.