The other day, I was terribly rude to someone I’d only just met.

Actually, it wasn’t just one person, it was five.

The reason? A business card.

I was conversing with some charming Swedish chaps, who are involved in the retail business. One of them handed me his card.

Dear reader, it was dreadful. And I was unable to stop myself from pointing that out.

Instead of saying something normal and polite, upon receipt of this abomination I studied the card and said: “This is a TERRIBLE business card. Just look at it! It’s too thin. The print quality is awful. You are successful business people and this card DOES NOT DO YOU JUSTICE.”

They did look a bit taken aback at the outburst. But, after a pause, they had to agree.

Subsequently they showed me some of their catalogues, which married good design with nice paper and quality print. So that was a relief.

And they are going to get some new business cards printed after my, um, constructive criticism.

While I do hate to be rude, I call that a result.