I know that feeling. When I had the pizzeria we had 5 children. I bought a brand new Chrysler Grand Voyager as we had always struggled every where we went trying to cram all 7 of us into vehicles designed for less. (The Voyager maybe not the sexiest beast but here in the UK it stuck out like a sore thumb with all the dark glass and the size of a tank).
Anyway when I had a Video Rental Library (showing my age 😀) I remember one of the reps telling me the story of a woman who had a successful retail shop and her one ambition in life was to own a Mercedes Benz. When she finally fulfilled that ambition she parked it right outside the shop where she could keep an eye on it. In no time at all her sales slumped. A great deal of the British mentality is sadly that of jealousy and loathing. Rather than celebrate someone's success and think 'if they can do it so can I' its a case of 'why should they have that and I don't?'
As soon as I got the car I would park it out the back out of sight to avoid the issue. If you can afford a nice car you must be ripping them off right? Whereas if you are driving some beat-up wreck they don't mind paying exactly the same price. Human nature I guess.
A friend of mine owns a very successful tyre/exhaust(muffler?)/servicing station. He provides an excellent service and has a great personality. A great front of desk sort of guy. Always mega friendly and upbeat, remembering everyone's name, making you feel special even though most people hardly know him and see him only once or twice a year. He had become very successful over the years from building up this rapport and can afford some very nice toys but I notice that within a year he is driving the works van to work rather than his Range Rover. I think he must have learned the hard way its not good to flaunt your wealth.
That's one of the reasons why I love online businesses. I can drive into my local town and not care if people see an 80k Beemer. But when old customers and friends do their first question is 'so what are you doing these days then? lol
More smoke and mirrors.
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