Lessons from Florida: How Not Being a Dick Can Transform Your Business

I got a phone call from Florida. This is guy, he calls me up, he owns a business. He says, hey listen, I’d like to have you come in, look at my business, it’s failing, my employees hate me. I’d like you to tell me how to fix it and how to save it. I love your stuff on TikTok. Can you do that? I said, well, you know, that’s not really my shtick, right? Like I’m up here running my business, you know, it’s not really what I do. He says, listen, I’ll buy you a first class airfare round trip, put you in a nice plane, put you in a nice hotel, keep you at the Marriott, I’ll pay you $1,000 a day, come down here five days, tell me what’s wrong with my business. Thought about it for about half a second, I was like, guess what I do? Sure, I’ll come down, we’ll chat. Now, I come down first day, Monday, and all the employees are gathered around, they’re waiting on the boss, the boss is late, so they’re all gathered around, and one of them, Hernandez, is telling this amazing story about how his kid got on a sports team, they’ve got practice and tryouts or whatever happening on Saturday, this, that, and the third, everybody’s listening to this guy talk about his kids and how much time he’s gonna spend with them on the weekend. And the boss comes in, he’s about 15 minutes late, and he walks in, he grabs his clipboard, gets everybody going, unlocks everything, they’re getting their keys to the truck, and he just announces like a dictator, Hernandez, you’re working the weekend. It’s like, hold on for a second, bro. Like, first off, had you been on time, you would have heard this guy has something going on on the weekend. Other thing, you got like a ton of employees here. Don’t you think one of them would like to make a little bit of extra money on the weekend, but no, you’re just assigning that shit out like, like, what, you didn’t give them the choice? I understand it has to get done, let them decide which one of them is gonna do it. They all do the same job, we’re all out here pumping septic tanks. And I just, the very first impression, the first taste in my mouth was, wow, this guy’s a dick. So listen, whether you’re trying to be successful as an employee, or you’re trying to be successful as an employer, rule number one, probably the easiest rule to follow, don’t be a dick. Can we agree? Just don’t be a dick, be nice. Imagine yourself as the person that you’re talking to, and think about what your reaction would be. Maybe just a little bit. And instead of giving people orders, ask people if they can help you out. But really just don’t be a dick. That’s all I got for you guys. I’ll tell you the rest of the story on some of my other platforms, they do longer content a little bit better than this, but yeah, go have an amazing day, don’t be a dick.