In the Business of Boundaries: Lessons From A Sunrise Cab Ride

In my youth, while working in retail administration on Oxford Street, I was asked or coerced into doing a stock take once the store had closed one evening. For reasons that, to this day, baffle me, the stock take took all night. The manager gave our small team cash to get a cab home. I emerged onto an eerily quiet Oxford Street, with the sun peeking over the buildings. 

I managed to raise my tired arm to hail a black cab. The driver pulled over. I told him where I wanted to go and I slumped into the seat ready to be whisked off to my warm, comfortable bed. Before I could properly settle in, I saw the cab driver hesitate. Then he turned around to me and said, “You’ll need to pay up front.” I beg your pardon?!