⛽️ The Gas Station guy

Hey everyone,
​
If you're new here, welcome to Tech Flavor—where I share what’s been on my mind professionally, along with breakthroughs in IT, AI, and Health.  

Now onto this week’s issue…

Every time I pumped my gas this man walked up to me and mumbled something through his mask, holding a spray bottle. I used to shake my head indicating I wasn't interested in whatever he was offering. He always walked away and waited for another car.

One day I changed the dynamic and walked up to him first.

I asked him what the deal was. He mumbled again. I asked him to remove his mask and explain everything clearly. He complied and, as I expected, he was offering to wipe windshields.

I asked him how many he wiped that day and he said none so far. I asked if he was approaching people with the mask on, and he said yes. Then I asked if people were just shaking him off like I used to, and he said yes.

The problem was obvious - he had just a few seconds to present his value proposition, but he blew it every time because he was mumbling through his mask, which in a noisy setting like a gas station, made it impossible for drivers to comprehend.

So I advised him to remove the mask and prepare a quick pitch. I even helped him formulate it. It would take 4 seconds exactly. He thanked me and I drove away.

Today I stopped for gas at that same ARCO gas station again. The man approached me and said: ms^%8hsgdh()dkdlsha%$gah*.

Mask on. I shook my head in disappointment, and he walked away.

This situation immediately made me think how a lot of C-level people in business would follow their old routine even after they were shown their routine sucked. It's the "we always did it this way" mentality that we, at Techery, face every week during prospecting calls with enterprise customers.

One of the latest manifestations of this mentality is the strong defensiveness of enterprise CIOs when you bring up AI. Having no AI strategy is an obvious oversight going into 2025-2026. And yet, we're hearing “I have 3 years worth of legacy issues to deal with first" or “My hands are tied, because of the security concerns". Those are just excuses, and very expensive ones.

And I used to think that over time people could change their view, change their routine, become more open and visionary. And some can.

But, as a patriot of this country, who is running a software consultancy aiming to reinforce American enterprise, I’m a little disappointed at the speed of new idea adoption among corporate tech leaders.

Remember how we used to celebrate new companies emerging and old companies breaking records? Now it seems like my newsfeed is overwhelmed with corporations going under “Searsstyle” simply because they were too slow to adapt to new digital reality.

I watched the guy from the gas station interacting with a few more drivers while I was pumping my gas, and it made me sad he was just one mask removal away from making a few bucks that day, but he won't make any money until he stops being his old self.

That’s all for this week…but one more thing. If you’re enjoying this, can you do me a favor and forward it to a friend? Thanks.

-Alex

Want to build something bold for your enterprise or need a cutting-edge software partner? visit → Techery

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