That night ended up changing how I see value completely.
And it wasn’t something I planned.
It started because I just wanted my girlfriend to feel comfortable.
At the time, I was running Wednesday nights at Zanzabar in Waikiki.
Seaside and Kūhiō.
That was my night.
I had a deal where I made around 35-40% of everything. Door, bar, bottle service.
If the night did well, I did well.
Zanzabar was the spot on Wednesdays.
18 and up.
The number one college night in Waikiki.
Packed every week.
We had the radio tied in, too.
Power 104.3.
DJs, street team, promotions.
So the energy was already there before people even walked in.
The club was Egyptian themed.
Marble. Gold. Two dance floors.
Hip-hop.
Military, tourists, language school kids, locals.
Everybody mixed together.
My girlfriend at the time, Princess Tammy, used to come and support me.
She had this one table she always sat at.
Nothing special.
Just a tall-top table between the bar and the main dance floor, near the bathrooms.
But there was a light above it.
So wherever you were in the club…
You could see her.
Tammy was outgoing.
Friendly with everyone.
Always dressed up, talking to people, and introducing people to each other.
She enjoyed being there.
But it was still a nightclub.
Guys drinking. Walking up. Trying to talk to her.
Nothing crazy.
But I was always moving.
Inside. Outside. Door. DJ. Bar.
I just wanted her to feel comfortable sitting somewhere she wouldn’t be bothered unless she wanted to be.
At the same time, my best friend Tanner was running another club down the street, Level 4.
And on my night off, I used to go there.
We’d get bottle service.
But not really for the bottles.
For the table.
For having a place.
For being seen.
Because part of my job…
was being the guy people recognized.
The party guy.
The one running nights in Waikiki.
Even on my day off, I was working.
Talking to people.
Shaking hands.
Letting people know who I was.
So one day, I had an idea.
Nothing strategic.
Just practical.
We grabbed a couple of stanchions and red ropes from Tanner’s club…
Put them on a skateboard…
And rolled them down Seaside Avenue to Zanzabar.
Middle of the day.
Tour buses are going by.
All the guys we knew from working the streets were yelling,
“What are you doing?”
We just laughed and kept going.
That night, we set them up around Tammy’s table.
Same table.
Same spot.
Nothing changed…
Except now you couldn’t just walk up to it.
And then something happened I didn’t expect.
People started asking me:
“Hey… how do we get that table?”
At first, I didn’t even understand what they meant.
It had always been free.
Anyone could sit there.
Then someone else asked.
“How much to sit behind the ropes?”
Then someone else.
Same question.
Within the first hour of the club actually getting busy…
Multiple people were asking how they could get that table.
The same table…
that nobody wanted the week before.
That’s when it clicked.
Nothing about the table changed.
We didn’t upgrade it.
Didn’t add anything.
Didn’t move it.
We just made it harder to access.
And now people wanted it.
Bad.
The next week, we started charging for it.
$150.
$200.
$300 depending on the night.
We brought in more stanchions.
Built out more tables.
Eventually, the club bought them.
And just like that…
We created hundreds of extra dollars a night.
Off something that used to be completely free.
But the money wasn’t the part that stuck with me.
It was what it taught me.
That was the first time I really understood this:
People don’t always just want something because it’s good.
They want it because they can’t easily have it.
I’ve seen that play out everywhere since.
In sales.
In business.
In life.
Give people something freely…
And they hesitate.
Put it just out of reach…
And suddenly it becomes valuable.
That night in Waikiki, I wasn’t trying to create scarcity.
I was just trying to create a space.
But it showed me something I never forgot.
Value isn’t always created by adding something.
Sometimes it’s created by limiting access.
And once you see that…
You start to look at everything differently.
Not just what you offer.
But how available you make it.
That’s one of the first lessons that carried me…
From the streets of Waikiki…
To the suites above them.
I share one real story each week, along with the lessons behind it.
