Thursday night I was on my way to my Toastmasters meeting. I was sitting at a red light behind two other cars. The light turned green. The cars ahead of me did not move. The cars in the other lane were moving. What’s up?

It turns out that the driver in the front car was busy on his phone. It wasn’t until after I honked my horn that he woke up and decided to drive. The second car couldn’t move until the first car did. I’m not sure if that driver was afraid to honk, was being nice, or maybe they were on their phone too.

I try to be nice. You never know what the first driver had going on. But when the cars in the other lane are all the way across the intersection, (and this was a pretty big intersection) then I think it’s time to take action. When I honk, if they move, great, problem solved. If they don’t move then perhaps it might be time to see if there’s another issue, like a medical condition.

Since that event, I have seen at least three other drivers driving along with their phone either being held with one hand in front of their face or on the steering wheel. Time to honk the horn again. How many advertisements have to play? How many accidents or even near accidents have to happen before people get it, before they realize the risk they are taking?

How hard is it to have a blue tooth earpiece, like the Legend, so you can focus on your driving? It seems to me that driving with one hand holding the phone would become really annoying. But then I guess many are used to doing that. I don’t use an earpiece anymore as I have a blue tooth radio. I have a phone holder where I can see the map if I need to or if something comes across really important I can decide to pull over to deal with it.

So, you might be asking why I choose this rant for my newsletter. Good question. There’s two reasons. One, I seem to have encountered more people this week paying attention to their phone instead of their driving. Sorry, pet peeve here. But second, it’s little habits in your business can make or break you. Maybe you have a habit of letting the machine answer your phone. Or perhaps you are bad at returning phone calls or emails. Do you make it a habit to support other businesses who you want to support you? Do you take, take, take and forget to give back?

Yes, big stuff matters. But so do little actions, little habits, little steps that grow to bigger steps, good or bad.

Are you that person staring at your phone instead of where you’re going? Are you that person who takes your customers for granted? Do you take time to appreciate your partners and employees?

Little things and little habits matter. 

Which ones do you have?