Missed a meeting or flaked out on a friend? Start abiding by the whisky rule, and you'll owe someone a bottle of the good stuff next time. Entrepreneur Ned Dwyer explains.


The Whisky Rule is pretty simple. If you cancel a meeting with less than 10 minutes notice, or if you miss it completely, then you owe your counterpart a bottle of whisky.

Everyone's time is important but sometimes mistakes happen. Rather than any sense of ill will being generated, the mistake should be settled. The party who was left waiting should be compensated in some small way for their time.


I've been using the whisky rule for a couple of years. I'm generally pretty punctual and keep a close eye on my calendar, but from time to time I'll slip up and completely forget a meeting or get stuck doing something else that I can't get out of. In those situations I'm more than happy to sling a bottle of whisky to my counterpart as an apology and a sort of olive branch, hoping they'll forgive me and we can make it up the next time we meet.

Likewise, if someone cancels on me or just doesn't show up, I don't get too hot and bothered by it. Instead, I let them know about the whisky rule—if they really want to meet up again they should come bearing a Laphroaig or some obscure small batch Japanese whisky.

It keeps things honest.

So far the whisky rule has worked out pretty well for me. I've been given about four bottles of whisky and I've given six away. I just bought a desk calendar and I hope I'll make up those two extra bottles and get beyond the break even of the whisky rule.


The Whisky Rule | MyNameIsNed

Ned Dwyer is the founder of Tweaky, the marketplace for customizing your web site.


Image remixed from gresei