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Personal vs. business

I have a feeling I have written about this before. There is a popular saying (even in The Godfather) that goes something like this: "It's not personal, it's business". But some time ago, this seemed like an oxymoron to me. That is, if a business is very close to one's philosophy and way of acting, then the business is not just personal, it is the person.

But in recent days, I have come to realize one important distinction between what is personal and what is business, and it has to do with the kind of people one interacts with. One's personal space may not - and in most cases does not - involve the same people as one's business space. Yet, one's business space is what keeps one's personal space happy and prosperous.

In this light, "it's not personal, it's business" has taken on new meaning for me. Sometimes, the personal needs to stay out of business, otherwise there would not be enough time or resources to satiate everyone's personal appetites. At the same time, the business needs to stay out of the personal, otherwise our private, intricate relationships would wither into calculated, emotionless transactions.

Some comparisons I played with:

Business: Personal
Revenue: Expenditure
Work: Pleasure
Labor: Recreation
Public: Private

One more thing: This reminded me of a previous post, Binary oppositions.

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