Let me first play out five real life scenarios that have happened to me.
1. The owner of a Company that made sliding windows came to visit me at home.
When he took off his shoes, the room began STINKING.
I told him, “Your socks are stinking. Please remove them, and then enter my room.”
Was that being Rude or Honest?
2. I was eating dinner at Gallops (a restaurant at the Race Course in Mumbai).
There was this government guy seated in front of me, with 3 ‘chamchas’ (yes men)
I could make out from the people accompanying him and the many ‘files’ with them that this man was an important officer.
Suddenly the mobile phone of this man rang, and he answered the call. He then began talking very loudly on his phone – as if he wanted to break down the windows or something!
I got up, snapped my fingers at him and told him, “Shut Up. Or get out of the restaurant.”
Was that being Rude or Honest?
3. I had gone for a business meeting in Mumbai with my co-founder Mahesh.
The person I had come to meet entered the room with his mobile phone’s hands free wire connected to his one ear.
As we started greeting each other and talking, this person did not remove his hands free wire from his ear.
I told him, “I can’t talk to someone whose has a hands free wire in his ear it. Either remove it or let us meet some time later.”
Was that being Rude or Honest?
4. A very well known creative director of an advertising firm invited me and my team (Gaurav Sharma of c2w) to meet her in her office, in Parel.
When we sat down in the conference room (the office was on the ground floor), a large black labrador walked into the room!
The dog seemed to be very comfortably moving between the chairs under the conference room table. I guess this was a routine for him…
I told the lady, “Errr, is this dog going to be joining us for the meeting?”
She said, “Yes, if you don’t mind…?”
I said, “I DO MIND. I don’t think this dog will be contributing to our discussion..”
Was that being Rude or Honest?
5. After a lot of hustling, sometime back in 2001, I got a meeting fixed with a client in Gurgoan.
When my sales colleague and I reached the client’s office, after waiting for a good 40 minutes, the guy came out and said, “There are no conference rooms available. Let’s meet here in the reception.”
I agreed.
He excused himself and came back a bit later. By then the reception area was full.
He said, “Ok, let’s meet here, in the corridor…”
I agreed. I balanced my laptop in my one hand and began presenting to him.
We were blocking people as they passed by.
He said, “Sorry, this can’t work. Let’s meet some other time.”
I said, “Hey, let’s go to the bathroom?? I can present to you there….”
Was that being Rude or Honest?
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How do you react to similar situations? What path do you choose? Do you prefer manners over discomfort? Do you mind getting kicked out but still being honest to your job and mission?
This is what happened to me in the 5 cases:
1. The man with the smelly socks immediately took off his socks, without feeling bad. I also think he also learned a lesson to wash his socks more often.
2. The govt. officer in the restaurant threw a BIG FIT. He called the manager and requested to throw me out! I showed them my membership card and made the fuss bigger.
The chamchas of the officer begged me to keep cool and stopped their boss from talking on the phone.
3. The guy with the handsfree wire immediately removed it and spoke politely with me and Mahesh. Nothing came out of that meeting.
4. The creative director felt insulted that I had asked her doggy board member to step out. We did the meeting, but nothing fructified.
5. The Gurgaon client was embarrassed when I said, “Let’s meet in the bathroom.” He took us to his cubicle and we met there. We got a 5 lacs order later…
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Do share your strange and stranger stories and comment on my reactions and what you would have done.
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