Unnecessary Roughness

What do you do with people who use abuse as a strategy in life? I encountered it often working in the financial markets and saw it again the other day when I was doing my errands and I was surprised to get treated that way by someone who I had never met. I was trying to have a phone conversation about business and he edged up to an inch away from dropping the F-bomb before I had said a word to him. From my perspective it was totally uncalled for and inappropriate. It's hard to talk to people like that and bring them back from the brink. Usually people train staff to handle customers, but that requires some loss of control, and some find it impossible to give up any control at all.

Self righteous indignation and self aggrandizement poses an attractive nuisance to us all, me included. But while everyone is susceptible, I have found that people who are in fields where they make a lot of money particularly so. Some of those outwardly successful people did it to salve their ego by making a lot of money. Some people just can't get along with others, others like to boss people around.

As a teenager dreams of being a star after walking out of a room of people who just weren't impressed enough, people want people to value them according to their need even if that means grabbing them by the collar, shaking them up, and taking from them the respect they did not give. One way is stunning people by being famous, beautiful, or rich. That's not going to work all the time, but it will work enough that you won't care when it fails.

From my experience with very, very wealthy people I have found that even after some of them made a lot of money it didn't help. After you pay your bills having lots of money is just an idea in your head but that doesn't change how small you feel. For that you need people around you to change their behavior, and not everyone is impressed by a lot of money. You can either stun them with your flash (which unfortunately requires spending) or take control of something they need. "I own it. I am the boss. I am in charge."

I don't mean to insult people who go out and make a living on their own or start a business. Lots of very talented people work very hard to build their business from scratch. There are jerks everywhere, but a certain kind needs to run their own business.