WING TIPS

If you have followed this blog over the past months, you'll notice two things: I focus on building a culture of excellence in all you do, and I often use short stories to illustrate the point I'm making. The more significant point is that excellence is not a complicated concept to envision or execute. My definition of excellence is as simple as you can imagine-doing the very best you can, every time. That is something we can all do.

I believe we unnecessarily complicate excellence, particularly in business. I'm doing some work for a client, and I've just finished reading articles on Setting Yourself Apart in several business publications, including Forbes and Entrepreneur. The pieces are generally well written and offer decent advice, yet not one offered a straightforward approach that has consistently worked for me. Begin by asking yourself the following question, "What would I, as the average Joe (or Josephine), want?" That is a commonsense approach to providing a service or solving a problem, but it often seems that commonsense is not a common virtue. It is an approach that has generated $millions and other successes in my ventures.

The Short Story

When I was a cadet at the Air Force Academy, only seniors could own cars. There was an unwritten tradition of asking to borrow a senior cadet's car if you had a weekend pass and you could find a senior who wasn't using his car.  Perhaps the senior cadet might have a local girlfriend who had a car or needed to study or was in trouble and restricted to base. I expect I'm dating myself on both the car policy and the fact that women had yet to enter the Academy, but I digress.

If you were lucky enough to borrow a car, you were expected to take care of it and replace any gas used. I noticed other underclass cadets met these reasonable expectations when I happened to be riding with them when one had been fortunate enough to borrow a car. 

The day finally arrived when I had a special date and wanted to borrow a car from one of the seniors. I asked a guy who had loaned his car to a classmate of mine before. Luck was with me, and he loaned me his car, a bright yellow SS 396 Camaro. I had a great time driving that car. 

Be Appreciative

To show my appreciation for having such a hot car for the weekend, I made it a point to refill the tank all the way rather than just the gas I used. On the ride back to the Academy, I noticed a carwash and thought it would be a nice touch to run it through the wash and quickly vacuum the inside.  This was something I would like if I had loaned my car to an underclassman.  My motivation was not to "set myself apart" from my fellow underclass cadets. It was to show my appreciation for having been given this special privilege

Two things happened; 1) the senior was particularly pleased when he went to his car and found it cleaned with a full tank of gas. 2) he told some other friends how I had returned the car, and the word got around. 

Riding in Style

Yes, it did cost a little extra, but I was never in need of a car at the Academy from that point on. In fact, to my classmates' amazement, seniors, including some who had a reputation of not loaning their cars, would sometimes stop by my room and ask if I needed a car for the weekend. I drove Corvettes (most seniors had one), a Jaguar XKE, a Porsche 911, and a Mercedes 280 SL, and, of course, that SS 396.

The business application- Show your customers genuine appreciation for having been given the privilege of serving them by doing what you would want to be done for yourself. The word will quickly spread because you have truly set yourself apart, and you'll never have to worry about getting customers again.

A Quote To Consider!

"True understanding and appreciation for the feelings of others will set you apart from the crowd and magnify your excellence. "

Author: William "T" Thompson, Esq.