Sometimes it's easy to write someone off when you cannot help them. In the law firm where I work I turn down many cases for many reasons. It's easy to simply explain that we don't practice in the specific area of law that the situation requires. It's also easy to say, "I'm not interested in taking on your case". It gets difficult when that person asks you that nagging follow-up question: "Why?" Now you're put in the position to either be rude and cease the conversation, or you can take the time to explain the "Why" behind the "No", meanwhile eating up valuable time. Time is money, right? Not so fast...
A father recently called me about the tragic death of his son. Every law firm he previously contacted simply said "You don't have a case" or "We're not interested". Early on in our conversation, I knew it wasn't something worth our time to undertake. It would require thousands of dollars in litigation with a near-zero chance of success. I prefaced our conversation by telling him this upfront. I then spent some time explaining why we weren't able to take his case and why it wasn't a strong case (in my opinion).
At the end of the conversation the father now fully understood why he didn't have a strong case. For all he previously knew, a bunch of lawyers kept turning him down and he was (rightfully) upset because he didn't know why. While I wasn't able to further help him, the father expressed his thanks in finally getting an explanation after getting nothing but unexplained rejection.
You have been given gifts, abilities and talents. They were entrusted to you to benefit others. Yes, serving people can be frustrating. But you cannot allow frustrations in dealing with hurt and broken people to cause you to "close off" from serving others down the road. Spend some time serving others with your gifts. I guarantee it will bring a joy that know amount of money can.
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