Flash over Substance

I was talking to a friend of mine today and we got to laughing about something that happened to us a few months back.

We were at a strip club up in Minneapolis, We sat down, orders our drinks and just took it all in. There were at least 25 young ladies in the place that night as it was Friday and every one wanted to blow off some steam.

Two young men enter the club about the same time we get our drinks. These young men looked like they just came out of a beauty salon. Hair tips frosted,tanned, hands manicured,they both had on from what I could tell where outfits that were not cheap at all, probably 600 to 800 a piece.

Every thing about these two young men was eye catching, perfect hair, teeth, jewelry,clothes, you now, FLASH as they call it, or now a days its BLING.

These two young men now proceed to go to the stage and through 1 dollar bills up in the air and are landing all over the stage. Of course this is like a call to duty to all the young ladies in the house. Through out the entire set these young men repeated this, pulling out 5 to 6 1 dollar bills and throwing them in the air as if they did not matter and there was end in sight.

After the set was over the two young men went over to a booth,fallowed by 8 to 10 beautiful young Scandinavian girls, and continued to throw 1 dollar bills in the air with reckless abandon. Me and my friend just sipped our drinks and kind of laughed.

This went on for about an hour, by know they had 12 to 14 girls over by them, or bringing them drinks. One young man reached in his pocket and I saw a strange look on his face,and it was a good look. He excused himself from the table and made his way to the ATM at the back of the bar. By now we were very interested in the whole scene these two where putting on and we payed close attention. He slid in his card, hit the buttons, NOTHING.
Slid in a second card,NOTHING. A third and fourth card were entered but to no avail.

The young man returns to his table with his friend and all the lovely young strippers. He leans over and whispers in his buddies ear. His buddy turns and shakes his head in a shocking NO. HAHAHAAAAAA, there broke.

Now being the self restrained person that I am, I walked over to the table where these two well dressed,FLASHY young men are setting and ask the young ladies" If you are done playing at the kids table, would you like to come over and set with adults.


They gladly came our way and the fun began. Shortly there after the two young men got up and walked out,humiliated.


In talking to the young ladies I asked what made them pass us up and go straight to the two FLASHY ones. They said with how they looked they figured the were loaded with money, You now, substance. They further told me that the two young men had only spent 145 dollars in that time but the way they where tossing it around it looked like a million.

We stayed for another 5 hours and had a large time. We spent money on drinks,dances and what every we felt like spending money on,because we had it, you know, substance.

At the end of the night two of the young ladies that had been sitting with us said they would never make that mistake again. Passing up two older, Yet handsome men of substance for two flashy ones that where just full of them selves and hot air.


In light of telling you this story, my question is this. Do we look deep inside something or someone for substance, or is all about the flash, like a child to a shinny toy.

LOL.....Oh, it's ALL ABOUT THE SUBSTANCE for me!
I learned this lesson Years ago while working retail. I worked at a very expensive womens clothing store. (Had NO business being there myself) Anyhoo....I'll never forget this lady walked in wearing flip flops (beaten down), hair in a pony tail, messy teeshirt, and shorts. The older girls that I worked with kinda laughed when she'd walked in. They just motioned me over to her. So, I helped her. And she helped me...it was my First $7350 sale! You bet your sweet ass! That was a good day. I remember the woman saying how much she appreciated my help. She was working in her garden when her Grandson called wanting to be picked up early from the ice skating rink at the mall. My store just happened to be on the way out.

SUBSTANCE.

Flash will just get you a Jackass.

Just Sayin....

~Kelly TNT

So that's where they got the idea for that scene in Pretty Woman.

I must say us guys area just as guilty. I have passed over ads of more experienced ladies for a young hot body. It hasn't paid off yet.

Substance is the stuff that sticks with you. Flash is bright for a moment or two, but fades quickly. Sadly, flash draws the attention and substance tends to require a bit of probing to uncover. The good news is that people of substance typically are willing to invest the time and effort to uncover substance, yet people who are flashy gravitate to the same.

Kelly, great story. I have similar experience. Back in the day, a dear and brilliant friend of mine went from a garage entrepreneur to an electronics millionaire almost overnight. He wanted to buy himself, his wife and his parents new cars to share the wealth. At the time, he was driving a Chevrolet Chevette. (One of the original econoboxes.) He invited me to tag along to the closest local Mercedes, Porsche Audi dealer.

It was summertime, and we arrived in his Chevette, wearing jeans, tee shirts and Topsiders. When we walked in the door, the sales team looked at the two of us (young guys, dressed down, driving a cheap car) and pretty much didn't want to be bothered. When my friend finally spoke to one of the sales guys, and told him he wanted to buy three cars and pay cash he was so arrogant and rude that it was offensive beyond belief. My friend told him, "You lose! We're headed to the dealer across town to give them my business."

And that was exactly what we did. He ended up buying a Porsche 928, a big four door Benz for his wife, and an Audi Quattro for his mom and dad. Cash on the barrelhead! Later that week, he, his dad and his wife picked up the three new cars...and drove over to the first dealer. They parked out front, my friend went in and introduced himself to the sales manager while explaining that his sales guy had made a quantum mistake...assuming that flash was a measure of substance! True story, and I'll remember it as long as I live.

I never make assumptions about people. We are ALL people! Also, I discovered a LONG time ago that it is definitely not MY responsibility to judge ANYONE!

Substance all the way!