Archive for the ‘character’ tag
“The General Public”
When I was younger, my father advised me to “try to avoid dealing with the general public” in my professional life. “I really have to hand it to the receptionists, police officers, and DMV workers of the world, for having the patience to put up with rudeness and disrespect all day long, and smile about it. I wouldn’t last a day in a job like that.”
To the extent that one can control who one does business with, there’s a lot of wisdom in that. The average American is overweight, and in debt. Most marriages end in divorce. Entire industries (video rental and credit cards, for example) derive significant revenue from peoples’ inability to follow through on their commitments.
My dad’s not an elitist, he just doesn’t take people at their word, unless he has reason to.
It’s easy for my dad to make a statement like that, though, because he’s spent the majority of his working life dealing with a small number of highly-qualified professional colleagues inside corporate America. When you’re on the outside, selling, things get a lot murkier. To what authority can one appeal, when a customer is being unreasonable? What to do, when someone refuses to pay? And how can one know another’s character, prior to doing business with them?
Doing business with great people is a privilege, something to fight for, not a right.