Do they see you as a huckster? aka: Be careful what you glorify...

Wow - I'm a little surprised by a couple of the comments. Is that really the mentality of the business world today? Extract what you can from who you can, regardless of consequences. I hope not! I wouldn't say it's about altruism - of course we are all trying to make money - and we need to get it from somewhere ... from someone. But where is the line between making a buck and plain old human decency? I see someone who wants to do a post card mailing ... a struggling new start up - am I going to try and shove 10,000 pieces down their throat when I know they won't use that many in a lifetime? Of course not, I'm going to give them what they need. Sure, I'll make suggestions on how they can enhance the product - even if it costs more. But only if and when I think there's a benefit to them. I like to believe that there are still tons of business people out there who understand the principles of value and customer service. Upselling someone to something that is completely useless, only to make an extra buck - that's not a value, nor is it good customer service. It's the kind of thing that creates a bad reputation for the person and/or the industry he represents. Two examples ... door to door vacuum sellers. I don't know if they exist anymore, but they notoriously sold an overpriced item using high pressure tactics. They became synonomous with rip off and as a result carried a horrible reputation. (Used car salesmen too?) More recently - the (so called) housing crisis. Many of the fingers have been pointed at unscrupulous mortgage providers. People are losing their homes ... and why? Because someone didn't explain all the pitfalls of a program. They pushed clients into something risky and unstable, not caring one whit about what happens after the sale. Well kudos to them! Many of them are probably out of work because of this attitude and the entire economy has taken a huge hit too. All because someone cared more about making more money than actually doing the right thing. You may call it altruism, but I call it (what it should be anyway) standard practice. Long term success comes from offering a good product or service, good value and standing behind what you do. If you have to use deceptive tactics to move a product, then maybe it's time to consider a different one.

Now there's the whole question of personal responsibility - and I'm a huge proponant of people taking responsibility for their own actions and decisions. But that doesn't excuse people from taking advantage of their ignorance.

IMHO

Oh, and I would define a huckster as someone who peddles something of little or no value, pretending and/or intonating that there is value.