Who is a VIP?

November 11, 2008

We may not be a “small business” kind of town or a “self-made millionaire” town, but there are a select few here in Binghamton that are wealthy due to their booming family businesses. The question is when someone becomes wealthy, is that when they are able to be cocky?

I am a server. I have met some and waited on some VIP’s. That is what my coworkers call them. What makes them this? I suppose it is their name. But what names around here are considered VIP? Here are few: Gault, Mathews and Maines. Three big names we can all probably identify. However, just because they are successful in their own family made businesses, does that make them VIP’s? We here in Binghamton are the only ones who know them. This does not make them celebrities. I consider a VIP to be someone of importance. That is what VIP means: “very important person.”

Granted, I am thankful for what they do, I think it takes a very hard working person to become very successful, but using VIP to describe them, I wouldn’t do. I think the President of the U.S. is a VIP. The Maines brothers, not VIP.

How much success does one person have to have in order to become a VIP? If we are throwing this title around then I think there are a lot of people that deserve it such as: single mothers or fathers that work 24/7 just to survive or just Americans in general that live paycheck to paycheck.