The Travel Guide Law

Some time ago I read an interesting article in my Dutch newspaper (NRC, May 1, 2010, 'Nederland bestaat voor 5 procent uit eeuwige zeuren. Negeert die frustraten') about the Law of the Travel Guide. This is how it goes: Every travel group has some notoriously dissatisfied travelers.

Mostly is not more than 5% of the group.

In whatever way the travel guide tries he will never satisfy them. The question is how to cope with this group. It is a potential danger for the travel guide. The biggest mistake he can make it to try to make this group feel OK. He will never succeed, because they are notoriously dissatisfied. All the more he does his best to satisfy them, the bigger his defeat will be. And that energy cannot be spent on the other 95%, dissatisfying them as well (with good reason). Every travel guide knows there is part of the group that is not dissatisfied, but can become that very easily. Spending too much time on the 5% group, can easily lead to a 25% group...

A smart travel guide ignores the 5% badgers as much as possible. He takes their complaints seriously and says hi to them every morning, just like the others. But he never spends more than 5% of his time on them. And he makes sure the other 95% are having the time of their life.

Aren't we all travel guides in some way?