{"id":1104,"date":"2014-11-02T14:02:35","date_gmt":"2014-11-02T20:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/night-scenes.com\/?p=1104"},"modified":"2014-11-02T14:02:35","modified_gmt":"2014-11-02T20:02:35","slug":"letting-our-light-shine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/night-scenes.com\/2014\/11\/02\/letting-our-light-shine\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Outdoor Lighting Design: Letting our Light Shine"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wish everyone a blessed<\/a><\/span> day. Don\u2019t we all want fortune and favor to fall upon all the folks we know?<\/p>\n

\"Kingsland<\/a>
Shining light on a focal point<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Because this sentiment has never struck me as offensive or overtly religious, it is the usual way that I close most of my correspondence, much like many use \u201csincerely\u201d as they end a letter. Although I am a Christian man of faith, I would not normally write about mixing business and religion in my blog because it isn\u2019t really relevant when discussing outdoor lighting and outdoor living spaces. But something happened this week and I thought I should bring it up here.<\/p>\n

During the course of a normal day, especially if I have to be working at my computer for hours at a time, I will take a couple breaks at which time I may check into my social networks, play a couple of hands of solitaire, take a shot at Words With Friends or visit the web and look at a lighting forum.\u00a0 So the other day I popped into the lighting forum where I am a regular contributor, and saw a thread titled \u201cReligion Got Me a Job.\u201d\u00a0 Well, that grabbed my attention real quick because as many know, my wife and I are very active in our church and faith life, and run our business with the moral guidance we get from our Catholic faith.\u00a0 Anyway, I was intrigued enough to take a look at this thread and, low and behold, it had to do with me and my company!\u00a0 Someone had actually posted that they had been awarded a project instead of my company because I had injected religion into my sales presentation.<\/p>\n

That started quite a conversation on the forum thread among other professional lighting people, and there were more than a few opinions on the subject.\u00a0 What I was most concerned with was the title and what actually happened.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t understand why the person posting this topic said that I had \u2018injected religion into my sales presentation\u2019 and that the client in question was \u201cturned off\u201d by that.\u00a0 I know my presentations have no religious wording whatsoever in them.\u00a0 As a business person, I\u2019m aware how sensitive many people could be about such things, and I work very hard to approach a potential client with professionalism and expertise as well as sincerity. Faith and personal belief is not a discussion topic in those business interactions, but I hope I am a good example of a faith-filled person. I knew which client that this person was referring to because he identified the location; their reaction was a surprise. \u00a0Imagine my concern that I had unknowingly offended them in some way.<\/p>\n

I did prepare a design and proposal for these folks and attached it in an email.\u00a0 In our previous email conversations we discussed different aspects and specifics of the project.\u00a0 In each of these emails, as is my custom, I signed off with, \u201cI wish you a blessed day.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 That\u2019s it. That\u2019s how I had injected religion into my presentation? This is what the other guy says was offensive to his client.\u00a0 Reading that forum thread gave me pause: Did I really turn off a potential client by simply wishing them a blessed day? And what kind of professional gloats to others that he won a job for this reason? I was a little disturbed by the questionable character of the guy who was so anxious to knock his competition in such a public venue over such a touchy subject.<\/p>\n

Losing the bid for the project was not nearly as important to me as apologizing to the individuals I may have upset.\u00a0 So I wrote these nice people a short email in which I pasted the initial post from the contractor in question, along with my apology for any offense I may have caused.\u00a0 I got a very kind letter back that reassured me they had been grossly misrepresented in the matter. \u00a0The administrator of the forum apparently thought the thread a little too divisive also, and removed it \u2013 without any prompting from me.<\/p>\n

I find it quite ironic that my faith says, \u201clet your light shine\u201d and \u201cdon\u2019t hide it under a bushel basket.\u201d And I\u2019m an outdoor lighting designer shining my light wherever I go.\u00a0 I have no problem at all sharing my faith with those who ask, and operating our business according to those beliefs.\u00a0 We even send out Christian themed Christmas cards to our clients, not the usual \u2018Happy Holidays\u2019 or \u2018Season\u2019s Greetings\u2019 cards that seem to be the safe thing to do. And in my correspondence, when I feel that I want to wish someone a blessed day, I will continue to do that – because it is sincerely how I feel.<\/p>\n

I wish each of you much good fortune, supreme favor and blissful happiness \u2013 that\u2019s the definition of a blessed day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wish everyone a blessed day. Don\u2019t we all want fortune and favor to fall upon all the folks we know? Because this sentiment has never struck me as offensive or overtly religious, it is the usual way that I close most of my correspondence, much like many use \u201csincerely\u201d as they end a letter. … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[78,5],"tags":[8,9,344],"class_list":["post-1104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-blog-posts","tag-austin-landscape-lighting","tag-austin-outdoor-lighting","tag-religion-and-business"],"yoast_head":"\nTexas Outdoor Lighting Design: Letting our Light Shine - NightScenes Landscape Lighting<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/night-scenes.com\/2014\/11\/02\/letting-our-light-shine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Texas Outdoor Lighting Design: Letting our Light Shine - NightScenes Landscape Lighting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I wish everyone a blessed day. 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