The Confidence To Not Correct Everyone

“I get it, you run a pawn shop on the Internet.”

The first time someone told me this, I got a little offended.

“Oh, so you’re a middle-man.”

Nobody wants their career, dreams and aspirations summed up as ‘middle-man’.

If you tell your mother, “When I grow up, I want to be a middle-man!” she will most likely start crying.

Of course, I think of my company as much more than a middle-man pawn shop, but today, I rarely correct people when they have an over-simplified vision of what I do.

“Yes, it’s basically like that.” is my typical response.

Why I Used To Want To Explain How ‘I’ Was Different

I didn’t want to be put in a bucket. I didn’t want to have a ‘normal’ online business and I didn’t want to be a stereotype.

Why I Now Just Agree, And Say “Sure, That’s About Right.”

Once I get my ego out of the situation, this person can more quickly understand ‘basically’ what I do and how I live.

They may imagine a dusty pawn shop or a scammy middle-man, or they may see me as a hopelessly misled college dropout. So what?

If they can understand 90% of the truth with a simple ‘Yes’… why not give it to them?