We have spent so much time and effort over the last 40 years (that's as long as I've been around for it anyway) trying to improve our children’s self-esteem by assuring them that it doesn't matter what other people think of them.

We are starting to see those generations come of age now. Self-esteem is still an issue for many people, only now those people are of the opinion that other people are to blame; since it doesn't matter what people think of you, you shouldn't have to take responsibility when other people think you're a slob. Or rude.

So here's a wake up call for any of my peeps who might be out there sitting at their nail table, snapping their gum, squeezing their size 14 boobs into a size 7 blouse, talking on the phone through their appointments about the guy they spent the night with but don't remember his name because they were "soooo eff'd up!" while they yell obscenities across the salon to another tech...

People don't think very highly of you.

And it does matter. Because while you're sitting around at your table filing your own nails whining about how you can't pay your electric bill this month because business has been so slow and blaming "The Economy" and trying to convince yourself that everyone is slow, your clients are at another nail tech's table across town talking about how they left you because they couldn't take the cursing and the gum-snapping and the rude behavior anymore.

True story. I just said good night to one such client. Who's areally goodclient. Who came to me over a year ago from another salon because she“just couldn't take it anymore.” Tonight she told me that none of the girls she works with go to that other salon anymore, and they all used to go to the same salon. The owner of that other salon is losing not just clients, but booth renters too. Because those renters have realized that the salon owner is costing them clients.

Yes. There's room for a lot of different personalities in this business. Lots of different types of people, different types of salons, different types of nails, and maybe my not-entirely hypothetical description above exists somewhere with a full book and keys to her Mercedes in her purse. And that's just hunky dory.

But I'm here to tell ya, if you're trying to run a business, it matters what people think about you. End of story.