So, there’s this little store I like to go to, just a few blocks away. I only discovered it a few weeks ago and I’m a fan. Yesterday, I witnessed something unusual, something I haven’t seen in many years… something that got me thinking. Here’s the story.

The shop owner is a wonderful Indian gentleman, we’ll call him Rajish, and he works with either his not very experienced much younger brother (they kinda look alike) but then, he could be the son or the nephew.. who knows, not important.

So I walk in there today and my Indian friend is in the corner chair, relaxed and completely oblivious to the fact that his son/brother/nephew ( I gotta ask him some day) … is struggling with an uncooperative cash register.

Being first in life and seeing all the people behind me, I was starting to get a little agitated, and trying hard not to show it, wondering why customers were having to wait in a long line when the store owner Mr Rajish himself was relaxed in a cozy chair, seeming totally oblivious that we had things to do and places to go. And just in case you’re wondering, he was totally awake, like a distant observer. I know that because at one point, he couldn’t stand the noise from the cash register keys his partner was punching…. “Hit the clear button” he said, without moving an eyebrow. It worked.

I wanted to buy more stuff but it’s one of those places where everything is behind the shelf or under the glass counter. For the sake of the waiting customers, I decided to do everyone a favor and limit my purchases. They did not look like they needed any favors from me. The struggling young man behind the counter was more than willing to keep showing me stuff as others waited and his dad/brother/uncle savored his cozy chair in the corner.

Just before I headed out, my memory was jogged. I remembered this scenario very well. It was common when I lived in Nairobi. One look at the clock and I got it. It was lunch time. Mr Rajish was on his lunch break and no number of customers or a temperamental cash register were going to interrupt his time for relaxation…. his alone time. His ability to tune out was marveling

I also noticed something else. The only person in the store who seemed concerned about Mr Rajish’s unusual behavior was me. Everybody else was just as relaxed, as calm and as unconcerned with the long line and the uncooperative cash register as was Mr Rajish, which brought me to my third and final epiphany. These were his regular customers, I’m just the new kid on the block who’s too used to hurry and rush but Mr Rajish’s customers know him and he’s obviously “trained” them to respect his alone time, stay calm and wait for their turn.

Even though Mr Rajish could have left his cozy chair and attended to the waiting customers so he could make everybody happy, he couldn’t be bothered. He’s has obviously learned two key things that most of us entrepreneurs have yet to master.

1. You teach people how to treat you. If you’re doing business especially online, the distractions you have to deal with are endless. Besides the constant need to fetch beverages from the kitchen, there’s phone calls, emails and skype chats, ringing, dropping in and beeping, and yet most of us have never mastered the discipline to ignore them and focus on income generating activities. And what makes it worse is that we have trained those who are calling, emailing or skipping, that we’re at their beck and call, any time they want to interrupt us for a friendly chat or questions that can obviously wait. And because people expect what they’ve always gotten, whenever they feel like calling in, they expect us to answer and when we do, we reinforce that same behavior and give them permission to continue interrupting us. Continue Reading