“Client is always King”
(Except when that’s not profitable)

There’s an interesting thing that occurs in the world of business. A business or consultant being respected/liked/popular/and otherwise showered with sales in the form of cash and cookies despite that they practice the opposite of “customer-first-always.” Plenty of angry or controversial business owners have existed in time, from the Soup Nazi on Seinfeld (who was based on a real person), to that stuck up restaurant down the road, to the hip club that only lets the beautiful in, with no remorse for those turned away. Yet human nature wants what you can’t have. Whether it’s getting on the VIP list or buying a limited edition model that costs a zillion more than it’s worth, human nature hungers for the chase; craves for the affection; longs for recognition. When a business doesn’t offer this first hand, and sometimes even takes the opposite approach, the person doesn’t know how to feel. Bewildered and confused, they find themselves in some way admiring the audacity of the business and wanting to be accepted and on the “VIP list” more than ever. In a way, it’s like otherwise normal adults are reduced to envious teenagers behaving out of a basic need to be accepted and as a result of peer pressure as opposed to common sense.

If you’ve tried polishing the edges of your business and it just isn’t remarkable and growth just isn’t occurring, maybe it’s time to roughen it up a bit, maybe start turning people down, ruffling some feathers, maybe even saying some controversial statements on your blog. As long as it’s authentic, it just may work. Or it may blow up in your face and cost you customers. Only one way to find out.