The mantra that I hate most is “UBU”. You just go out there and be you. The reason I hate it is because.. it is implied that “you be you” without regard to the society as a whole.
We find ourselves in the middle of a terribly disturbing dismantling. We are no longer unified. There was a time when we all rushed home to watch the same “After School Special” and the next day talked about it. While in this day and age, we may watch the same viral video, it’s not at the same time. The only thing that comes close to that “all at once thing” is the Super Bowl Halftime Show. And that is no longer entertainment… That’s just a political message or politically correct message wrapped up with a “singer” in ill fitting clothes.
Do I suggest that we go back to three TV channels? Nooooo way. It’s kind of funny when you think back… we lived in a free country of 300+ million people and “you will enjoy the luxury of three television channels”. Come on, laugh at the irony of that!
We now have thousands of channels, in fact, we have “AllAboutMeTV”. That’s when I, you, everyone, can go Live and talk about anything, right now. As long as I have followers… they can watch me. However, that lends to watching people in ill fitting clothes bathing in milk and cereal… mind you, that while person has several million followers… I don’t think that’s the best role model behavior one can provide. And that’s why I hate UBU.
UBU implies a sort of “f-you” I’m going to do whatever I please. It’s a very “online” thing that has now captured the real world.
I saw it yesterday.
In my store, and I’m not kidding, I had a grown man throw a temper tantrum. He jumped up and down like a 4 year old screaming that it was the “lake’s fault” that the prop on the boat he rented got damaged. Jumping up and down in a real temper tantrum. On one level it was hilarious, on another level it was disgusting, and on a final level it was terrifying.
The renters called in from the water and complained the boat was not running well. They “limped” it back to the dock. We lifted the motor out of the water and a big chunk of the blade was missing. Immediately the response from the man was, “You’re not going to charge me for that.”
We moved the boat to shore to fix, pulled the motor out of the water again, and he admitted to his wife “It did not look like that when we first got the boat.” She as the driver of the boat immediately replied, “well that’s a ‘fake prop’… they put a broken one on it to have that piece fall out so they can make more money” followed by “if you don’t charge us we won’t leave a bad review on trip advisor”
OH my… this kept going for 45 minutes…
It became “they would shut us down by writing negative reviews all over social media” to “the dock attendant told them to go into ‘bad areas’ on the lake to make more money because it’s part of our scam” to “I ruined their vacation” to “they had to go back to Kansas right now because they didn’t have any money for a hotel room” then it was “they didn’t have money for dinner” to “slamming the gates and kicking the furniture on the boat” to yelling at other customers walking by that “this whole place is a scam” all of this in front of their two kids around age 8 and 10.
Yes, the initial jumping up and down temper tantrum was outside in front of his kids! It occurred in our store for an encore performance in front of my crew.
In business you have to differentiate yourself, your product, and your brand. But think twice about what or how you are doing it… Anyone with an internet connection and computer can make money online. But is selling “slut” T shirts to middle school girls a good thing? Sure, you can sell the glass that says “Fu*k this” on it, but how does it impact you? You see that word, over and over, as you create the product, or list the photo, or unpack and display it on your shelf, or talk with customers about it. Soon the message will impact you and that’s the world you are creating for yourself.
Use caution to surround yourself with positive messages. This goes for the people you hire, the products you sell, and the customers you interact with… all messages will impact “your world”. And as a business owner, you are building “your world”. Build it with strength, character, and make a positive impact on the surrounding world you interact with!
I’m not sure what “world” created a middle 30’s man to temper tantrum in front of me twice jumping up and down, screaming and blaming “the lake” for damage he caused to a boat he rented… but if you think they didn’t have money for dinner… when I was applying their pre-departure cash rental deposit to pay the boat damages the wife asked, well let’s be honest… demanded that I put the bill on her “debit card” because she didn’t want to pay a fee later for getting cash out of her account for dinner.
Yeah… demands don’t work in my world.
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Action Step
1- Find 3 new positive messages, people, and/or products to surround you in your business. Do this by the end of today. You may not be able to implement today, but create the plan. It’s important!
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Listen to Episode #132 of the Two Minute Commute audio blog Podcast
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