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2007 > August > 16 > One for the old hippies among us.

One for the old hippies among us.

Patch-ing relationships. (Awful pun—sorry.)

Aware of the pressures in my own life (there's always so much to do and apparently so little time in which to do it) short-cutting the relationship-building process is something we all do—perhaps to our detriment.

So, as a helpful counterpoint, I offer this from Patch Adams.

When a person comes to me, unless the problem is an arterial bleed, which has to be addressed that second, the first goal is to have a friendship happen out of that relationship.

So we spend three to four hours in the first meeting. We might go for a walk. If you like to fish, maybe we will go fishing. If you like to run, we run together, and I'll interview you while we are running.

By the end of that time, I hope we have a trust, a friendship starting to develop, and from there we can proceed.

Without suggesting we take things as far as Adams—we are after all, 'only trying to sell stuff'—wouldn't it be wise to invest wisely in establishing-and-building a relationship as a foundation for commercial transactions? Unless, of course, we regard ourselves as more akin to W*lM*rt and just clear the lines fast as we can.

[Patch who? Founder of the radical Gesundheit! Institute—'dedicated to revolutionizing healthcare delivery by replacing greed and competition with generosity, compassion and and interdependence'. Cool.]

Filed by g on August 16 2007

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