Ever noticed how the loudest complainers are the ones who have had it pretty easy? They’re not fuming over genuine injustice or unfair treatment—they’re just raging because they didn’t get what they think they’re entitled to. It’s maddening. And honestly, it’s probably holding us all back more than we realise.
Take this example. I was in the first-class lounge at LAX (finally clocked enough air miles to make it to platinum—yes, I felt pretty smug about it). My flight was delayed by two hours, then the airline cancelled it altogether. Not ideal, I know, but it happens. Now, you’d think, here in the fancy lounge, there’d be a bit of decorum, right? Wrong.
It was the boomer white man brigade that kicked off—loudest voices by a mile. One of them decided to unload on this poor customer service rep, grilling her about every hypothetical scenario that might make the delay worse. Mate, she isn’t running plane maintenance or air traffic control. Do you think shouting at her is going to miraculously make the plane appear and take us to our destination quicker?
A little while back, a US politician hypothetically mentioned his 90-year-old mother-in-law not complaining about a missed pension cheque. I think the main reason she wouldn’t complain is years of conditioning not to make a fuss. Then there’s this dominant, angry white man using her as an example for not speaking out against something his own political party is responsible for. Imagine someone who’s lived a life where being put out was the norm, with no privilege to rely on. She’d adapt to inconvenience as a given, while others might throw tantrums over their flat white arriving at the wrong temperature.
This brings me back to our friends in the lounge. They weren’t upset because they were inconvenienced. They were furious because they didn’t feel like they deserved to be. Entitlement, plain and simple. And that entitlement is drenched in privilege. If you’re so used to things going your way, a single hiccup in the system feels like the world’s ending.
It’s a pattern, isn’t it? Entitlement breeds this righteous indignation. It’s why certain demographics have flocked to media empires that validate their worldview. They crave narratives that tell them, “You’re right to be angry. The system is letting YOU down.”
The thing is, this kind of behaviour doesn’t just make me roll my eyes. It’s dangerous. It creates this feedback loop where privilege becomes blindness. People so caught up in their own minor annoyances they can’t see the broader picture—or worse, they refuse to.
And as women in business—especially those of us on the entrepreneurial grind—we know full well that entitlement isn’t exactly an asset. Success in business isn’t about what’s handed to you; it’s about how you work around what isn’t. Those of us who’ve had doors closed in our faces, been underestimated, or told “that’s not how it’s done” don’t crack into a full-blown meltdown at the first sign of a problem. We roll up our sleeves and get on with it.
There’s some kind of twisted poetry in the fact that the ones who’ve actually had to claw their way up don’t make the most noise when things don’t go as planned. Those used to entitlement? They lose their minds over the mildest inconvenience because they’ve never had to toughen up.
Here’s the takeaway. Next time you hit a wall in business—or, hell, life in general—ask yourself this. Are you working on the solution, or are you throwing yourself a little pity party over the problem? You can grumble about the system not being fair, or you can find a way to make it work for you.
Because here’s the honest truth no one likes to talk about. Complaining doesn’t fix anything. It doesn’t make your late plane board any quicker, and it sure as hell doesn’t build a successful business.
Problem-solvers win the day. Whiners just tire people out. Which one are you going to be?
