Marketplace Proverbs & Coffee With Ernie

Marketplace Proverbs and Coffee with Ernie-A Proverb Per Day Keeps Stinking Thinking At Bay · Jul 6, 2026 · 12m

Have you ever heard someone say, maybe jokingly, maybe not, “Don’t waste your time on riffraff”?

In business, that usually means don’t spend too much time on people who aren’t influential, wealthy, strategic, or capable of moving the revenue needle. In plain English: chase the big dollar and ignore the nickels.

But here’s a question for our coffee together today.

What if one of the clearest warning lights of internal drift is how we assign value to people?

Do we treat some customers, coworkers, or team members as more worthy of our time simply because of their title, platform, followers, or…