The Desert of Arizona
Sunny 54 Degrees – 8:49 a.m.
A few months ago, I offered some pretty good looking sushi to a homeless man outside a grocery store in town. It was unopened and ready to eat.
He laughed at me and said, “No way!”
My attempt to serve in such a simple and small way got rejected.
You learn a lot when you view business from this same perspective of SERVICE.
You grow up really quickly whether or not you’re ready!
Because if you’re truly into serving, you have to work through the B.S. fed to you by mind and emotion that most everyone else gets stuck in.
Those games have no place in your world. You’re better than that. You’re actually “morally superior” because you CHOOSE to be. That label is open to anyone by the way.
You don’t have to be special, you just have to do the work. Choose the level at which you want to play. I choose BETTER and I do my best to live up to that choice.
We have this story in business that, if people buy our stuff we’re doing better than if they don’t. If money is your compass for all things, that’s technically true. But really, let’s expand ourselves a bit. Life is too short to be ruled by anything or anyone, including the figment of our collective imagination called the “buck.”
So what happens if you make something for your prospects, clients or customers and they don’t want it?
Well, you’ve just uncovered the “dark” side of service.
While most people shy away from the dark, I’ve found it’s a place of immense power… IF YOU’RE WILLING TO WALK THROUGH IT.
If you’re going to serve the marketplace (which is really a poor name for a collection of completely unique HUMAN BEINGS), then this is the journey.
This is what you sign up for. Know it before you start and it completely changes your perception of this event when it happens.
When you experience the dark side of service, you get the opportunity to learn the secrets that darkness has to share.
Just like on the “Hero’s journey,” you don’t GET a hero without the darkness.
What the darkness shows you can bring insight that leads you to better serve in the future.
It’s a cycle. Cycles exist everywhere.
Nothing grows forever unless it’s a cancer.
So respect the journey, respect the cycle.
There’s no part of it from which you CAN’T learn something valuable.