He saw.

He pounced.

He killed.

It was over in seconds and the rat couldn’t have known much about it. He picked it up in his jaws and shook the little fucker as it squealed its last. He dropped it, then stood over it looking down, daring it not to be dead.

It wasn’t.

So he picked it up again, shook it, and dropped it once more.

This time it was. 

Dead as a fucking doornail.

Amazing to think this small, furry bundle of love can go from a belly-up lap-warmer to deadly killer in the blink of an eye.

Still, it should come as no surprise, since Haggis is a Jack Russell, and from farm-stock, to boot. A working dog, in other words, dock-tailed and bred for just this purpose: killing rats and other vermin.

It’s in his true nature. 

And while I’m sure this will disgust many, there was a savage beauty in it (but I’m fucked-up and bloodthirsty like that). Certainly, it was a faster and more honourable death than being shot, poisoned, or mangled by a trap.

Now, we all have our own true nature and we act according to it. People do change, to be sure, although less than I suspect most believe they do, and definitely more infrequently than we think.

My point: when you get a prospective client approach you with a shitty attitude and you get that little warning bell going off in the back of your mind, the chances are excellent this is their true nature showing through, and if you take them on, then they’ll be terrible clients.

And even if they’re on their very best behaviour in the beginning, the moment you relax your own positioning and cut them a little slack, they will regress to the mean and revert to their true nature.

Don’t blame them for this: it’s just the way they are.

But you still don’t have to put up with it.

The answer?

Strong, nay, unassailable Positioning.

Want to know how to plug that into your business?

Talk to me (box is below). 

There’s only one bunny in the whole world I’d say knows more about this than I do (that’d be Dan Kennedy — and good luck getting to talk to him, Bubba — he’d probably bounce you over to me, anyway).

Sure, price is immensely elastic and whatnot, but it does have a natural limit.

And if you want to go beyond that (and you can, and should) then Positioning is the key. 

Witheringly,

P.S. Rats.

We live on a farm so they’re everywhere.

And that’s OK. 

Stay away from the house, and we’ll call it a truce. 

But, come too close… and I’ll kill you.

Still, I admire them.

Why?

Because they're so damned successful.

And you know why they're successful?

Because they're smart and crafty... and they never give up.

We've got bird-feeders hanging up around the yard and no matter where we put them... those Clever Bastard Rats find a way to get to them. We've seen them literally (and I use the word with its correct meaning), literally hanging upside down off the feeders having completed a long jump from the nearest wall.

Mrs EBG has suggested a couple of times we could do more to make things harder for the rats.

But there's no point. We, the human race, have been at war with the little fuckers for hundreds of thousands of years and it's a war we simply can't win.

Because they're smart and crafty... and they never give up.

See, the spoils of war don't necessarily go to the biggest, the strongest, or the toughest.

To quote Rickson Gracie, "A brave man, a real fighter is not measured by how many times he falls, but by how many times he stands up. Always be ready to fight, to win, and to forgive where necessary".

Wise words indeed.

And ones the rats could have spoken themselves.

Because they're smart and crafty... and they never give up.

Vermin or not, I have to admire that. I'm still gonna kill the little bastards when I catch 'em, though.

Unless The Hagster gets them first.

'Cuz he's got their scent now and some instinct is tickling in his doggy mind telling him to go get them (which is awesome all by itself, I reckon).

Anyway… if you wanna try the Rat Method yourself — being smart and crafty, and never giving up — talk to me (see below).