bigbuzuki:
RC, it sounds too complicated to live in that envious community. Sounds like its time to move to another community where you can have your 911's and be happy.
Life is too short to be living for your envious customers and neighbours.
Easy to say but not easily possible. I can't move my business (if I do, I would need to start practically from scratch, incl. a huge investment, which I'm not willing to make in the current business environment for my business which depends a lot on government/insurance legislations/payments). I also can't move from my private home because of the kids and their school/friends, I have to think about them first.
I got used to it, this is typical for smaller German cities but not every city has similar problems, it really depends on the people.
Funny enough, my roof repair guy owns three Porsche and nobody really seems to care because they need him and they have no choice. The moment "choice" is involved, people get nasty. So if they can easily take their business somewhere else, they are onto you and every move you make.
Just a funny side story: A woman, she named her daughter Cayenne (no kidding) came to my business and when I saw the name of the daughter, I told her "oh, Cayenne...like the Porsche Cayenne". She looked at me very angry and told me that her daughter's name is Cheyenne and not Cayenne (although the name clearly said Cayenne). When I told her that I had a Porsche Cayenne and I thought this is why she named her daughter this way, she turned around and left. Now the very same woman is a patient of my wife. She told my wife that she won't come to my business anymore because apparently I earn enough money to be able to afford a Cayenne (I actually thought she was angry because I told her how to spell her daughter's name right ) and she wants to carry her money to another business who needs her money more. Good joke...she spent maybe six or seven EUR per month at my business, big deal. Anyway...you see how people think here, it is absolutely horrible. My wife on the other hand could easily park whatever she wants in front of her family practice, she is a doctor, people accept it (well, when one of the doctors in our neighborhood bought himself a new M3, they were bragging about it for a couple of weeks and not in a good way).
People want to hear that you are miserable, this is when they sympathize with you. When my parents had health problems and my customers found out about it, they came much more often to my business, usually just for talking but they also bought something. If I tell them that everything is OK and my family is OK too, you should see the disappointment in some of their faces.
Most of my customers aren't wealthy and some worked their whole life and have nothing left. So just imagine how they react when they see that young(er) guy in a Porsche. If I would be 20 years older, maybe they wouldn't care that much, I don't know.
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RC (Germany) - Rennteam Editor Porsche Panamera Turbo S, BMW X3 35d, Mercedes C63 AMG Coupe PP/DP, Mini Cooper S Countryman All4