I'm going to repeat a phrase that your mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, teachers, roles models and anyone else of influence and respect has told you time and time again.
"Treat others how you would like to be treated."
I'm telling you, that this is the most accurate and wise advice I've ever taken seriously. And in all honesty, yea, it's nice to treat other people humanely, but the real reward is in the benefits that you, yourself will reap.
I have gotten free phone replacements, returns without receipts and tags, $100+ tips, numerous passes on speeding violations, and even out of a DUI (no joke) simply by being real and by being nice.
The first thing to realize is that with the exception of receiving overly-generous tips, all of these situations can cause anxiety-induced aggravation that is felt by the person on the receiving end prior to even having a conversation.
Here are three rules to consider in having the Golden Rule play in your favor:
Rule #1: Be Nice to People in the Service Industry!
Keep your cool. No matter what. Nobody these days can live without their cell phone, so when it breaks, and you've been cut off from the world for 27 minutes by the time you can finally get to Apple, you're probably a little bit irritable. That's why you have to pull a 180 and act exactly opposite to the rest of the customers that are bitching about how they don't understand why their piece-of-shit phone isn't working after it fell in the toilet earlier that morning. It's the unexpected calm person who doesn't place blame for things that poor sales associate had no control over that gets the $149 replacement fee waived. Every time. I'm on number 3.
Rule #2: Cops (and all authoritative figures) are People Too!
You know that first time you went to the bar back at home for Christmas break, and you happened to see your high school English teacher pounding down some beers? Remember how weird that was, and how until then, you always thought your teachers basically lived at the school and had no family, friends or any sort of real life outside of the classroom? Cops seem to have that same semblance. That's why up until I had it figured out a few years back, every time I got pulled over I would get teary eyed, my voice would quiver and my hands would shake. This behavior results in an automatic ticket.
Here's what you have to realize with cops. People hate them. Cops know people hate them. So when they pull someone over they are just waiting for you to rudely roll down your window (yes, you can do that in a rude sort of way) and avoid eye contact as you bitterly hand over your ID. Now, I'm about to reveal the key to getting out of any traffic violation, yes, even a DUI if you are lucky like me (you may want to consider using your good looks with that one, as it needs a bit more persuading than the normal traffic violation). All it takes is a, "Hey Officer, how's it going?" Followed by a sincere smile, and perhaps if you're good at one liners like me, drop a little joke. This should work at least 75% of the time. Guaranteed.
Rule #3: Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover!
The absolute best tips I've ever received have come from foreigners and minorities. For those of you not in the service industry, these are notoriously the worst tippers of all time, and the most avoided tables by servers. You want to know why they are bad tippers? Because people in the service industry already have it programmed in their head that they are going to get a shitty tip when they walk up to a table of Asians, so they just don't even try. This is why I do the opposite. I go above and beyond for these people. Because I know, that probably the last ten times they went out to eat they got crappy service because of the stigma they carry with them. So when I take good care of them, they really appreciate it. And that appreciation is translated into at least 40% tips.
I will say, that this stigma of being stingy that minorities and foreigners have acquired did not come out of thin air, as I have definitely had my fair share of bad tips, but really, for every one bad minority tipper, there's ten good ones - if you play your cards right.
So there you go. Drink a cup of compassion for breakfast and see how far it gets you. We're all human, we all make mistakes, so the key really is acknowledging this as a simple fact of life, and translating it into kindness to all.
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