I recently read a blog article about the value of saying thank you. In it the author wrote that as a business owner she had been thankful for the pressures of the past year since it fostered an increased leanness in her business.

The Dalai Lama exercising his famous patience.

Reading this I was reminded of a suggestion that we should thank our enemies. This apparently strange injunction comes from the Dalai Lama. His logic goes something like this: patience and compassion are two key virtues in a person (perhaps in a business too). Like any virtue they may be improved with practice. Who though gives us this opportunity for practice; our friends are unlikely to give us much cause for patience and compassion.

It is our enemies, the people who cause us problems, or seek to undermine us, the coercive or manipulative managers; these are the ones who provide us with opportunity to practice our patience and compassion.

And so, the Dalai Lama suggests that when next find ourselves confronted with such a character, we should thank them for enabling us to practice such important virtues.

Hmm, maybe! I am not sure I am completely up to that level of patience and compassion just yet – though courtesy of several people whom I will not name I am getting quite enough opportunity to practice. Thank you.