Give freely without keeping score

Late last year I started sharing some of my “ten lessons from ten years in business” here on the blog the past couple weeks.  So far it’s included Putting Values First, Putting Yourself First, Two Types of Focus, Power of Thank You, Strategy is Choosing and Plans aren’t as important as Adjustments.
Today I want to talk about the importance of giving freely without keeping score.
For ten years we’ve declined referral agreements from partners, vendors and other tech providers. We work with dozens of companies across the B2B landscape but rarely sign up for formal partner programs and never take a referral fee.
I justify this for a couple reasons. One, we’re a services company. Our revenue should come from our service work, not whatever product recommendations we make.
And two, I believe in giving freely. Our participation in a partner program, or not, doesn’t change now often I’ll talk about a company I believe in, nor