Living the Dream
In the midst of the craziness of job-hunting, business-planning, baby-feeding, and all around life-changing, there comes a moment when everybody is smiling, there’s a camera pointed at you, and life is perfect.
Things could possibly be crazier for us these days, but we are not sure how. I’m just glad I get to ride this roller coaster alongside such an amazing wife, and laughing at some pretty entertaining kids.
Yeah. Life’s pretty good.
“If you are not satisfied with the drink you’re about to hand to a customer, you have my full support to pour it out and make them a new one.”
That’s a quote from Howard Shultz, the chairman and CEO of Starbucks, paraphrased from the manual I’ve been using to train for my new barista job.
And it’s why I think this could be the beginning of a good thing. I really appreciate that I have the freedom to make a judgement call, in a split second, on my feet. Not only do I have that freedom, he went out of his way to express that I have that freedom.
It makes me think of an experience I had at the NC License Plate office. I had the signatures of three different people, from all over town, expressing clearly that the car i was trying to get a plate for was, in fact, mine. The only problem is that I had initialed on the wrong line, less than 2 centimeters from where I was supposed to. The lady on the other side of the counter said “I’m sorry, but you’ll have to get that notarized again, and get those other signatures again, as well.” I asked a few clarifying questions and found out that if this woman were to have allowed me to pass with my initials in the wrong spot (even crossed out and re-initialed) she could have lost her job. The government did not trust her to make a single, tiny judgement call to save hours of time and frustration for me. Her job was slightly more advanced than a well-trained chimpanzee can handle–check, box, stamp, repeat. And that’s precisely how she was treated–it made everyone in the story miserable.
Contrast that with the fact that the CEO at Starbucks encourages me to pour money down a drain before making the person on the other side of my counter frustrated. Not only does it make the customer happy, it makes the barista feel valued. Which makes more money in the long run (both from that customer coming back, and from that customer sharing how great the baristas are at the High House Starbucks), which allows the company to provide jobs and benefits for more people, which literally makes the world a better place to live in. (not to mention the fact that we give people a product that they like…)
All because Howard Schultz told me to pour his coffee down a drain.
On Halloween my boy dressed up as easily the least ferocious lion I’ve ever encountered. Here’s video footage. Be sure to check out the “subtitles” below the video for a running commentary of LB’s running commentary.
Me: Hey LB…
LB: Cheese! (the LED flash on the camera came on).
Me: Me and my lion…
LB: em-tims? (M&Ms)
Me: There’s the candy…
LB: Candy? (repeatedly)
Me: You’ve got the fire…
LB: it’s hot. (that’s my boy)
Yeah, parenthood is pretty dang awesome. If you haven’t checked out our Web Album, there are some great photos over there of Halloween. They are in both the 2010 Album and the Theodore Brooks Meredith Album. Enjoy.
Another in the long line of videos that prove our son is awesome. Behold, LB the Beatboxer. In between the two beatbox sessions he says “Hey daddy… Hey everybody… Hey LB” as the camera pans past each.”
I love that kid.
Doing your job isn’t enough.
Working harder than all of your coworkers isn’t enough.
Having a college degree certainly isn’t enough, even if it’s Continue reading “How underdogs will get promoted this year.”