When a Hollywood actor does an interview and says, with a straight face, that they trained for months, punished their bodies and learned new skills to bring you the best on-screen experience they possibly can by doing every scene featuring their character in a given movie, how much more do we respect them for it? In an industry when CGI and actor-replacement is so common it’s actually cheaper, in some instances, than featuring a big-name for an extra thirty seconds, doing all of your own stunts is unnecessary and, as such, remarkable.
It’s no different in any other business. How often do we see executives step up and see a fix for a problem from discovery to implementation? How often, when you call technical support, do you speak to the same tech the entire time, without starting to fee like a ping-pong ball, being bounced from department to department?
And if you’re in client support? How often do you, when a client has a problem, work with your client straight through to resolution, without passing it off to a supervisor or manager? How big of a deal do you make out of anything that comes your way? Is this an action you’re willing to take?
We miss a lot of opportunities behind the counter. We miss chances to not be like the other guys, to go above and beyond. Sometimes its as simple as offering free high fives to customers. Other times, it’s ruining our own weekends (because we’ll always have more) for the sake of making an experience for others extraordinary.
I demand you ask of yourself: How often do you do your own stunts? How many times in a given month do you jump off the plane and make an experience remarkable for the people you’re serving?
If you answer is anything less than “every time” you’re just like everyone else. That’s not a bad thing. But I challenge you to do better, because I know you can.