What Nearly Forty Years in Personal Safety Taught Me About People

If you spend enough years in one industry, you begin to notice patterns. Not trends, but patterns. Trends come and go with changing technology, new products, and shifting consumer preferences. Patterns tend to endure. After nearly four decades in the personal safety industry, I've come to believe that the most important lessons I've learned have very little to do with pepper spray, alarms, locks, or any of the products I've spent my career selling. They're about people.  Maslow's hierarchy of needs features Safety near the top.  If you're not safe, you're not stable.  

I've been fortunate to experience this industry from almost every perspective. I've launched products, built brands, worked with major retailers, attended trade shows around the country, spoken at security conferences, answered thousands of customer questions, and spent countless hours listening to ordinary Americans describe their concerns, fears, and experiences. Looking back, I realize those conversations taught me far more than any product catalog or sales report ever could.

One of the most interesting patterns I've observed is that people tend to fear spectacular events while overlooking the ordinary risks they encounter every day. Plane crashes, serial killers, kidnappings, and other dramatic stories dominate the headlines and capture our imagination. At the same time, many of us think nothing of leaving a garage door open, placing a purse in an unattended shopping cart, answering a spoofed phone call, reusing the same password across multiple accounts, or walking through a parking lot while staring at a smartphone. The extraordinary dangers receive nearly all of our attention, while the routine ones quietly create far more opportunities for criminals.

Television and movies haven't helped. Hollywood has conditioned us to expect sophisticated criminal masterminds executing elaborate plans, when the reality is usually much simpler. Most criminals don't need complex schemes because they don't have to. An unlocked car is easier than stealing a locked one. A distracted shopper is easier to target than someone who is alert and paying attention. A scam email sent to a million people doesn't need everyone to respond. It only needs a tiny fraction of recipients to make a costly mistake. Time and again, I've seen crime succeed not because criminals are exceptionally clever, but because ordinary people underestimate ordinary risks.

Perhaps the most valuable lesson of my career didn't come from a product demonstration or a trade show. It came from listening. Customers shared stories about being followed through shopping malls, parents worrying about children leaving for college, widows learning to live alone for the first time, and young adults navigating independence in unfamiliar cities. The products they purchased varied, but the emotions behind those purchases were remarkably consistent. They weren't simply buying pepper spray or a personal alarm. They were buying confidence. Once I understood that, I began looking at this entire industry differently.

I've also noticed that we prepare diligently for financial risks while giving far less attention to personal ones. Most families carry homeowners insurance, health insurance, and auto insurance. Those conversations have become completely normal. Yet ask many families whether they've discussed what to do if someone is followed home, if a child becomes separated in a crowded place, or if an elderly parent receives a convincing financial scam, and you'll often be met with silence. We've done an excellent job normalizing financial preparedness. We still have work to do when it comes to personal preparedness.

One question people occasionally ask me is whether spending so many years in this industry has made me less vigilant. The truth is exactly the opposite. Experience shouldn't make us complacent. It should make us humble. I've seen too many stories begin with someone saying, "I've done this a thousand times." Unfortunately, the thousand-and-first time turned out to be different. Routine has a way of quietly becoming overconfidence, and overconfidence has a way of creating unnecessary risk.

Technology has transformed nearly every aspect of our lives, including crime. I genuinely love technology and appreciate the convenience it brings, but every innovation creates new opportunities for criminals as well. Smartphones gave us instant navigation, but they also encouraged distracted walking. Social media connected friends and families while simultaneously teaching millions of people to broadcast exactly where they are and what they're doing. Artificial intelligence will undoubtedly improve our lives in extraordinary ways, but it will also make scams more convincing than anything we've seen before. The answer isn't rejecting technology. It's learning to use it thoughtfully.

One encouraging realization I've had is that awareness ages remarkably well. Physical strength changes over time. Speed, vision, and reaction time all evolve as we get older. Awareness, however, can continue improving throughout our lives. I've met older adults who notice every detail in their surroundings, and I've met young adults who notice almost nothing. Awareness isn't determined by age. It's determined by attention, and attention is something every one of us can develop with practice.

If I could change one thing about how Americans think about personal safety, it would be this: stop treating preparedness as something we do after a close call. Instead, think of it as routine maintenance. We don't wait for an engine to fail before changing the oil or for a roof to collapse before replacing damaged shingles. Responsible people maintain important things before problems develop. Personal safety deserves the same mindset.

People sometimes ask why I decided to return to manufacturing after spending so many years in this business. Why start another company? Why write another article? Why continue working in an industry I've already devoted much of my life to? The answer is simple. I still believe this industry can do better. We can educate more and scare less. We can encourage better habits instead of relying on bigger marketing claims. We can have more honest conversations and treat consumers with the respect they deserve by giving them straightforward information. That's exactly why I created Fight Back. My goal has never been to convince people the world is terrifying. It's to remind them they're far more capable than they often realize.

After nearly forty years, I've reached one conclusion that has remained remarkably consistent. Prepared people aren't fearless. They're simply ready. Those are two very different things. Fearlessness often comes from denial. Readiness comes from thoughtful preparation. In my experience, thoughtful people make better decisions, feel more confident, and usually sleep a little better at night because they've already considered what they would do if the unexpected ever happened.

If I were starting over today, the habits I'd build first wouldn't require spending much money. I'd keep my head up instead of looking down at a screen. I'd trust my instincts when something didn't feel right. I'd put my phone away while walking through parking lots. I'd have honest conversations with my family about emergencies before they happened. I'd always know where the exits are, verify information before trusting it, replace expired safety equipment, and make myself difficult to surprise. Most importantly, I'd remember that awareness costs nothing, yet it remains one of the most valuable tools any of us will ever possess.

About the Author

David Happe has spent nearly four decades in the personal safety industry. During his career he has served as Executive Vice President of Mace Security International, President of Fox Labs Pepper Spray, founded Vigilant Personal Protection Systems, authored the Vigilant Kids safety program, spoken at the International Security Conference (ISC), and today manufactures pepper spray in the United States. Through Fight Back, he shares lessons learned from a career devoted to helping people become harder to victimize.

Thank you for reading Fight Back.

I started Fight Back because I believe the most effective self-defense tool has always been knowledge. If this article helped you think differently about preparedness, awareness, or the habits that quietly reduce risk, then it accomplished exactly what I hoped it would.

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Until next time...

Take Your Safety Into Your Own Hands™

David Happe
Founder, PepperSprayWarehouse.com