During a recent family dinner at a restaurant, I found myself an unwilling spectator to a disheartening scene in the VIP dining room nearby. Our table was just outside the entrance, and from where we sat, we could hear a customer loudly berating a waiter over a minor issue.
It was not the mistake itself that made the situation uncomfortable, it was the way the customer handled it, rudely, with an air of entitlement that could only be fueled by a hefty bank account.
Now, I can speak from personal experience here. Back in my old college days, I worked part-time as a waiter and kitchen helper, and let me tell you that dealing with difficult customers was part of life. You just had to grin and bear it.
In today’s world, wealth can sometimes lead people to believe they have earned the right to treat others however they please, like some sort of gold-plated license to be rude.
Waiters, like I once was, work hard, often under stressful conditions, and yes, mistakes happen. Unless you have got a malfunctioning time machine, none of us are perfect. However publicly scolding someone over something trivial? That says more about the person doing the scolding than anything else.
What people often forget in these situations is the power of empathy. Service workers deal with a rotating cast of characters and it is easy to overlook the fact that they are human too.
Being wealthy or influential does not grant anyone the right to treat others poorly. When we let arrogance and frustration guide our actions toward people who are just doing their jobs, we are not just short-changing them, we are robbing ourselves of integrity.
In my line of work, my team and I deal with a wide range of long-term clients, some of whom are incredibly wealthy and successful in their businesses. But here is the kicker – many of these clients remain humble and genuinely respect the work we do for them, regardless of whether their portfolios are soaring or not.
They recognize that there is a lot of hard work happening behind the scenes, and they value our efforts, no matter the outcome. Of course, there have been times when managing investor portfolios, especially in volatile markets, has been a bit of a roller coaster. That is a story for another day.