The other day my wife, daughter and I went out for my birthday dinner. It was the restaurant my 5 year old chose (of course…). Once we got seated the waitress came over and asked what we’d like to drink. My daughter said, “What do you have”? The waitress responded with all the major sodas (pop for us Michiganders), various lemonade flavors and then like a right hook and with a big smile she says and “root beer floats”. She pauses just for a second, looks at me and says, “oops, I’m sorry I shouldn’t have said that should I… ugg I am so sorry”. Well, my daughter wasn’t sorry. She was shouting “yes yes a rootbeer float sounds yummy”.

Now, I’ve never waited a table in my life but I can smell a ploy when it’s being dealt. She knew exactly what she was doing. Problem is, a five year old drinking a rootbeer float with a main course never gets to the main course.

I looked at my daughter and said if you eat all your meal (hey wait… now I’m running a game) you can have a rootbeer float or a dessert. She said, “ok dad”. I got off easy that time. Another night and we’d have had a pouting angry 5 year old.

Toward the end of the meal the waitress asks if we’d like a dessert. My wife and I declined but my daughter asked what they had on the menu. The waitress looks at me after my daughter decided and said, “let me get that for her, I’m not even going to charge you anything for it”. Beep beep, radar up. She already pulled one scam earlier what is she up to now? Well, I read my birthday coupon and it said my free meal included a sundae. Guess who got my “free sundae”? Yeah, she acted like she was doing a favor for us to improve her gratuity but in my eyes she dug a little deeper into her transparent repertoire of tricks.

You know, I’m not one to think the world is all out to scam me but sometimes you can just feel the game someone is playing on you. It makes you wonder if they really think the world isn’t up to their speed. Why do I share this? Well, young or old, people can often tell when someone is trying to bamboozle them. Most people are too polite to say a word. Most people however will vote with their dollars when it comes back to giving a business a second chance.

Think twice and always work from a place of integrity. It will come back to you many times in all that you do. It doesn’t mean you’ll never get taken advantage of but it does mean you can hold your head up high knowing you do the right things even when no one is looking.

Dan Nichols – Business Coach