Biggest Bully on the Block

Ghost Writer considers the question, "When do customers, of any form, go from being demanding to the Biggest Bully on the Block?"

    So I have a customer, a lot of them actually internally and externally, who expect a great deal from me.  That's fine.  That's the world of work, but lately there's a Bully on my playground.  A capital "B" Bully in bold form.  This Bully wants my lunch, my allowance, my homework, and demands exclusive rights to my future lunches, allowances, AND my science fair experiments.  Further, the bully wants to stop by my house, check out how I live today, decide how I should really live and take everything that doesn't fit the Bully's assessment of my needs.  WOW!  Now that's my definition of the Biggest Bully on the Block.

    Unfortunately, this Bully controls Business, big capital "B" business.  Failure to allow this Bully access to my homework, lunch, allowance, science fair project and my home will have far reaching consequences for many people.  However, when does a Bully just get called a Bully?  The hardworking geeks need to rise up and say, "ENOUGH!"  I spent plenty of years subject to playground bullying, and I learned early and often, "Don't go near them.  They don't become less of a bully because you befriend them."

    In the world of business, though, it seems as though we choose to keep doing business with the Bully out of fear of life without the Bully.  These are the moments when I want to say, "Are we credible business people if we let the Bully run our lives?  I'd rather be unemployed than cave to this Bully's demands."  I have been informed that is a personal choice, not a business choice based on the needs of many. 

    So now I have to formulate a strategy based on the Business' choice to allow the Bully to ransack my house.  How do I watch as the Bully decides what's right and wrong in my house?  Maybe that's my problem.  This isn't MY house.  It's the business.  This is just business.  This is just business.  Will I believe it if I say it enough?