Status you can give away

There are two ways to show people you are doing well.

The first is the familiar one. The loudest engine on Gulf Road in Kuwait City. The wedding with the longest guest list anyone can remember. The driver who sits on the bumper of the car in front, flashing his lights until it moves aside. Each of them is saying the same thing: look how much I have, look how much room I can take.

The second is quieter, and I think braver. The man at the supermarket checkout with a full trolley who sees someone behind him holding two items and waves her ahead. The most senior person in the room who pours the tea for everyone before taking a seat. The owner of a shop who carries a customer's bags out to the car himself.

None of them is short of standing. That is exactly why they can afford to spend it. Only someone secure in their place can give up a place in line without feeling smaller.

People notice both kinds. Somebody pushed out of the fast lane remembers it, and so does somebody let ahead at the till. They simply remember different things about the person who did it.

The question worth asking about anyone, a person or a business, is not whether they have status. Plenty do. It is whether they are confident enough to show it by making the next person's day a little easier.