Treat others as you yourself would like to be treated is a piece of wisdom nearly as old as humanity itself. It’s also the key to doing business in the 21st century. And yes, authors, writing is a business just like any other. So, I’m going to tell you a story about my relationship with a company called Timbuk2.

Oh, and sorry, but this is going to sound like a commercial.

This is a Shagg Bag, a small pouch made for cameras and phones with velcro that can attach it to a strap or belt. My friend Joe bought a Shagg Bag from Timbuk2, but he ordered the wrong size. When he called explaining his mistake, they sent him one of the proper size and told him to keep the other one and pass it on to someone who could use it. He passed it on to men. And I took it, because, hey, free bag.

I’d had my Shagg Bag for a couple years when I decided to to all-in with Amazon, and buy my wife and I matching kindles. I had noticed how well the Shagg bag had worn, so I decided to buy Timbuk2 bags for our kindles. Again, I was impressed with the quality.

The other day, I borrowed a book from Catherine and I almost didn’t want to put it in my laptop bag, because my laptop bag likes to tear up the corners of paperbacks. Thinking about this, I wondered if Timbuk2 made anything that I could put paperbacks in, so I picked up one of these.

It’s an iPad sleeve, but I figured it would fit most of my paperbacks. However, when I received the sleeve, I was so impressed by how good it looked and how well it was constructed, that I decided to replace it. So, I started to look at, you guessed it, Timbuk2 laptop bags.

So finally, I end up here, with a new messenger bag on the way. Because of excellant customer service towards someone else, Timbuk2 has earned themselves a loyal customer.