As an aside for the telemarketer and salesman annoyances, what grates on me is that their timing is always so rotten - they catch us at home at our increasingly rare private time, and thus they are such an intrusion.

The thing is, great salespeople don’t really sell at all: They help us buy. I don’t think door-to-door selling worked after most home-makers got cars of their own: We prefer to drive to the store to initiate our intent.

Bad Dad, I don’t wanna know exactly what the Burger King employees did, but I don’t think I want to eat there now. I appreciate the way you have assembled strong boundaries, it must allow you to have the energy to do both a good job with your family AND be the listening ear to Dads that you are.

And a moat? That is cool. Would you go for crocodiles or piranhas?

If my community board allowed, I’d surround my ‘castle’ with a moat to keep out undesirables intent on wasting my time.

Funny how we become jaded with things that were once a huge part of life. I worked 2-1/2 years at Burger King as a young man. Now, I wont ever eat there because I know how awful employees behave in fast food restaurants.

I’ve spent the last 20 years in direct marketing. But I throw every piece of direct mail I receive in the garbage and tell every survey phone caller to take me off their contact list. I just cannot stand salesmen intruding into my home, physically or otherwise.

In fact, at times I would sell more at “No Hawkers” places than other places, even though the “No Hawkers” ones are the minority.

Good article, good analogy. Kinda makes you want to keep an eye on the emotional radar screen.

Ken

How well do you reckon someone would go selling stickers saying ‘No Salesmen Please’ and ‘No Junk Mail’ door to door…..? I had the thought two years ago. And go to businesses selling ‘No Hawkers Please’ stickers for their doors.