Monday, December 15, 2014

Grow up.

I've been thinking a lot about Uber lately, the app-based cab company that Wall Street values at $40 billion--twenty times the value of the world's newspaper of record, "The New York Times."

You'd think that a company with Uber's market cap would start acting like a company that's in the big leagues. You'd think they'd act something like a grown up.

They'd screen their drivers--you know, for little things. Like whether or not they were convicted rapists.

They'd have a customer service phone number. If you had a problem they'd give you someone to talk to.

And, you'd think, they'd be able to accept and learn from criticism. Not plan smear campaigns against reporter who find out dirt about them.

But Uber does none of these things.

To my mind, they act more like a petulant child than a legitimate business.

Lack of grownupness is endemic in the world today. Failure to do the tough jobs that no one really wants to do. Being ready with excuses instead of solutions. Going through the world as if all the lights on the way to the airport would magically turn green just as you arrived.

I see it with clients.

I see it with agencies.

I see it in the people that work in those places.

I have a friend who screws up on occasion. She has a way of dealing with her screw ups when I call her on them.

"I wasn't thinking," she responds.

What a way to go through life.

Not thinking.

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