“It’s better to be hated for who you are than loved for who you aren’t.” - Your guild, however amazing it is, isn’t going to be the place for everyone. If you are talking to an applicant, be sure to be honest about what they can expect from your guild. Bringing in a member who clearly desires something your guild doesn’t provide will only breed discontent.

“Cleanliness is next to Godliness.” - This may be a stretch, but I use this advice as motivation to keep my information organized. I can tell you in 30 seconds or less the attendance of a raider since the first day they stepped into the guild, who broke a sheep in the raid, the resistance each raider has on, how many symbol of kings one of my pallys has, the average mana level my priests have, who’s isn’t flasked and who’s missing what buffs in a raid. My raiders are impressed. I tell them it’s because I’m omnipresent, but it’s really just because I’m well organized.

“Don’t say anything you don’t want on the front page of the newspaper.” - Electronic information is forever. Between screenshots, vent recording, and forum archives, what you say can be shared with people you didn’t intend for it to shared with. Be sure before you speak that you would willing stand by and support your statement if it were published in the newspaper or more topically, shouted in the Trade channel.

“Never argue with an idiot, he’ll drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.” - If someone is being unreasonable, you cannot reason with them. Sometimes it’s better for you just to say “I’m sorry you feel that way” and move on.

“It’s better to eat soup with the one you love then to eat steak with someone that you do not.” - If I find a new recruit who looks like an awesome player of his class, but I don’t think his personality is going to mesh well with our guild, I pass on him. First and foremost this is a game, if we’re not having fun no matter what bosses we’re killing, we’ve failed at the basic concept of entertainment.

“Anything worth doing is worth doing right.” - If you’re going to put your time and energy into something, don’t half ass it. Your members will respect one well done project to better your guild much more than 3 halfway done things. If you don’t have time to do something well that needs to be done, then delegate the responsibility to an officer or trusted member who does.

“Well behaved women rarely make history.” - If you do what everyone else is doing, you’re going to end up where everyone else is. Sometimes you have to push the envelope and operate outside of the normal to accomplish something extraordinary.

“Deep down most people just want to be understood and valued for who they are.” - More than shiny purples and getting into every raid, most of the people in your guild want to feel like they contribute something important. If you take the time to get to know what’s unique about your raiders and make an effort to capitalize on that uniqueness, you will inspire more loyalty in most people than if you just give them purples for showing up. That being said, in a raiding guild you have to give them purples and get them into raids too.

If you have any sage mom advice you think could be applied to GMing I’d love to hear it!