"I'm sure glad I didn't give them good service..."

Some years ago, I was chatting with a friend of mine who was co-owner of a popular dining and brew spot. As we talked, one of the wait staff came by and said to him, "See those guys leaving right now? I'm sure glad I didn't give them good service, 'cause they left me a lousy tip." After a few seconds and a swallow of his coffee, my friend turned to me in sheer disbelief at what he'd just heard. Suffice it to say that there was an opening on the wait staff very shortly thereafter.

Clearly, that waitperson had a complete misunderstanding of the whole relationship of service quality and tips, and did not understand much about cause and effect, either.

Poor service quality should not bear a direct relationship to dollars collected. I'm sure that you can think of an instance when you received good, personable service in a deep discount store, or from someone who was giving something away for free.

"I can't afford to give good service here" is a very lame excuse. Attitude and focus do not cost money. 

As a business person, you are responsible for the results of your business. (Duh.) If you are not conveying the proper sense of cause and effect, you need to rethink your focus.

Money follows service.

Are you getting "lousy" tips?

Do. Improve. Repeat.

If you've been following me on Twitter for any length of time, you've read these three words before:
Do. Improve. Repeat.
I call it my "mantra." I've used it in just about every aspect of my life. Of course, it's my personalized version of "Practice makes perfect" or "La práctica hace al maestro" or "Kaizen," but with emphasis on a central step: Reflection and the conscious intention to make the next golf swing, guitar riff, kata routine, blog post or paragraph better than the last.

Every day presents a new opportunity to get better at something, whether it's being a better follower, leader, thinker, writer, golfer, musician, student, manager or martial artist (or whatever it is that you've chosen to apply yourself to). It seems to me that this is a common thread among the people I have admired throughout my life: They have worked on the things they find valuable, and have tried to continually improve not only for themselves but for others as well.

I realized long ago that practice doesn't guarantee you excellence as compared with the greats. I found out that I'd never be a major league baseball prospect, or a pro golfer, or lots of other things I might have enjoyed. But knowing I can't be the next Jack Nicklaus doesn't stop me from heading to the range and trying to get better. It's easy to put yourself on "cruise control" when you reach a certain level in your chosen profession or hobby or sport, and many people do. It's not my way.

Does this make me better than other people? Absolutely not, and that has never been my goal (especially because it isn't possible). It only makes me better than my "yesterday self."

If there's some area of your life, be it hobby or work, that draws you on and makes you try and try again, think about why that is, and see if you can't bring the desire you feel there into other areas of your life.

I would thoroughly enjoy hearing about your experiences.

Give it some thought.

Golf practice photo by Roy Atkinson

Starting Something New Over Again

September has special meanings for those of us who spent lots of years going to school, and who enjoyed it. I loved getting ready for a new round of classes and teachers, buying new books (except for the money!), and meeting new classmates with whom and from whom to learn. Another year, the next level, new challenges, new opportunities.

Then there's that autumn thing: Crunchy leaves under your feet, the emotions of watching a year die and knowing that the winter is coming on.

Well, I'm not going to school this year, but even now things change in September. Vacation times are over, and rounds of meetings are starting up again. There are new people to meet, and new challenges to face. All of this September anticipation brings me to ask you some questions:

• What are you learning right now, in your life?
• What are you reading?
• What are you writing?
• What are you doing to meet new people and new challenges?
• What are you doing to make yourself better?
• What are you doing to make the world better?

Please use the comment feature of this blog to let me know what you are doing and reading. I'm always finding out about new books and sites from others, and I love to learn about new things. Here's a quick list of blogs I'm following, and I also share from Google Reader.

Reach up and grasp something higher than you have before. Learn, do, change. Make this September the beginning of a new semester of your life.

Give it some thought.

The Sign in the Shoe Store

"The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten."

The sign hangs near the front door of a locally-owned shoe store near where I live. It caught my attention because of the use of language. What a great phrase "the bitterness of poor quality" is! That's exactly right. You feel betrayed by shoes, or a car, or new software, or anything you buy that doesn't live up to your expectations of good quality. It's so much more expressive than its more common cousin, "You get what you pay for."

The same is true about the work we do. We pay with our effort, and the goods we take away are the results of that effort. By the work we do, I mean not only the hours we spend in our offices, or driving a taxi, or stocking shelves, or teaching a class. I mean all the work we do—as volunteers, as friends—in short, as people. If we put in little effort, our results are usually not very good. If we put greater effort and more thought into any one of our activities, the results improve measurably. Imagine how our lives could be of we took great care about everything we do!

If you follow me on Twitter, you've probably seen my little mantra: Do. Improve. Repeat. Take an action, improve your action; then repeat the improved action, and so on. And how do you gauge improvement? It's measured in quality of outcome. I know I'm swinging my golf clubs better now because the ball goes farther and straighter than it did. There is no real "perfect" in golf. All you can do is continually improve. There's no real perfect in life. But continual improvement is what we can aspire to.

Give it some thought.