Last December at a Christmas Staff Party my boss gave a
little speech. It wasn’t one of those typical boss to employee speeches, with
ostentatious compliments to his little minions that were filled with fluff.
Nope, in this speech, my boss talked about how we can only be happy (and
succeed as a company along the way) by serving others. Part of the mantra that
my work has is “Committed to Service”. My boss discussed how our company could move
forward when we look to serve both our coworkers and our customers. I hadn’t
honestly thought of my work before as service. I mean, service is what I do
when I’m doing things for people for Church stuff or after my workday is done.
But nope, I realized that service is just doing things for people. That’s it.
And so this past summer it’s been cool being a delivery boy. Ya, kind of a big
title deal, I know. Aside from the lucrative title, my job just lets me help
people that need things. It has opened my eyes to what a company means when it
“provides a service”. Sure the company gets paid for it. But when
you’re doing things for people- especially things that they can’t do for
themselves (think of Christ for that one), then you’re gonna be happy.
Now I’m no expert on this. I can’t say I look at all my work
as serving and that I am happy with it 24/7. Sure, there are days when I look
at the clock and want it to just be 5 already. But it’s been neat seeing how happier I’ve
been in just trying to think of my work in terms of service. But I guess what
I’m really saying in all of this is that most things we do on a routine basis
can be done two ways: for others or four ourselves.
Let’s take college for example. It’s hecka competitive,
pretty stressful, and a tad bit overwhelming sometimes. But in all of that you
can see two attitudes one might take. Attitude number one: I want to make money
for myself, I want to be the best, I want to show everyone that I can do better
than everyone else, thus helping me achieve my goals. Attitude number two: I
want to provide for others, I want to ensure that my family is taken care of, I
want to find meaning in what I do. I think you get the difference between the
two.
Robin Williams summarizes this second attitude well in Patch
Adams when he tells his doctor what he wants
to do with his life: “I want to help people. I want to learn about people and
help them with their troubles”. The
doctor who Patch is confessing his to then indignantly responds to Patch,
“That’s what I do”. Then, the witty Patch pierces by him by saying “but you
suck at it”. Here’s the clip of the
video in case you want to watch it. I think it’s hilarious!
Well to summarize, we can do a lot of what we do it two
different ways: for us or for others. Going to church, setting up a business,
being a parent, a spouse, a good brother or sister, being kind to people. All
of that. There’s a saying in sales: it’s not what you say but how you say it.
Similarly in service, It doesn’t matter what you do as much as how you are
doing it. That’s my two cents for the
month.
