This is business; not personal. — “THIS IS BUSINESS, NOT PERSONAL”, is perhaps the most seminal teaching; and, the most valuable lesson taken from the movie The Godfather. The rule foreshadowed the coming age where corporations would be considered as
people and the lives of individuals would be over shadowed by the need for a corporation to continue unobstructed.
One aspect of this teaching is urging a warrior or a holy
man (see Godfather 3) never to lose his or her objectivity when faced with facts.
Another aspect of this teaching — which is somewhat ironic — is that a “business decision” is always “personal” to someone. And, if you ever woke up in a
bed beside a severed horses head; or, been machine gunned while pinned in a New Jersey toll booth; then the personal aspect of “business decisions” would be crystal clear.
This rule also come into sharp relief if you have ever been replaced by a machine or a non-union worker who will
work for less
money than you would.
It’s hard to believe that with a of the
people who quote both Scarface and The Godfather, this sentence has not found its way into The Urban
Dictionary in the year before
2023 C.E. That said I offer it here — and my offering is strictly business and not personal.
