No, You Don’t Understand.

I was talking to a regular client of mine a few weeks ago. I did not know she was a regular until then because I had not heard from her in over a year since she got her postiche. I realized she was a regular client now because she called to ask me to order her another one. This means that she has now joined the ranks of the hundreds of women that come back to Continental Hair every year because they like what we do.

I dutifully started taking down the particulars of her order, asking if she wanted any changes from the first one that she got thirteen months ago. She said she did not need any. I said something along the lines that I was happy she was pleased with it and she said that “It changed my life.”

“I am happy that you liked it.” I replied.
” No, you don’t understand,” she said, “IT CHANGED MY LIFE!”

I was startled by the emotion in her voice. She told me about how it changed her way of looking at herself. She walked taller. She loved the way she looked (she did not say that she used to not like the way she looked but I can guess). And she used that seemingly magic word, “confidence.”

I remember as a young man what confidence was like. When you had so much of it you didn’t even think about it. Warren Buffett, talking about markets, said that confidence was like air, you never think about it until you don’t have any. But it is true about us individuals as well.

Its like as a child you come downstairs in the morning and are asked by the adults “How did you sleep?” The question puzzled me then. I mean, you go to bed, you sleep, you wake up in the morning. How, besides the odd bad dream, could it happen any other way? Well, as I got older I found out what could happen.

As a businessman I have a lot of problems to solve to make sure that a woman is able to enjoy her hair again. I have to source product and manufacturers. I have to deal with the landlord (my Mother). Make sure that the staff are professionally up to date and motivated. Take care of my website. You know, all that stuff. And sometimes I can lose site of what the whole thing is about.

And then a client comes in. Sometimes one that I have not seen in a long time but also maybe a woman that comes in every month, and reminds me about what it is all about. It gives me confidence.