The Philosophy of Customer Loyalty in the Retail Space Years ago, I informed my mentor #yd that I had been approached by his rival and frenemy. There had been some bad blood and old history between the two and frankly, I didn’t want to complicate my life, so I politely declined offer. Mr. YD's exact words were, “Mohammed, that was very decent of you. I appreciate what you did, but I would not have stopped you.” In the years that followed, whenever we quarrelled, I would use this as a reminder of our allegiance to him—a clear demonstration of where our loyalties lay. His response was always the same: “Mohammed, I appreciate the fact that you didn’t go to our competitors, but it was clear that your decision was born out of self-preservation as you knew the value of a bird in the hand.” In hindsight, he was right. We often do the "noble" thing and expect validation from others. Could it be that we actually acted for the validation and not the nobility? That t
