What I WANTED Was A Sandwich. What I GOT Was An Education!!

I rushed into our local cafe hoping to squeeze in a quick sandwich before I headed off to work. ”Quick” slowed to a grinding halt as one of the front tables was filled with 8 of our pharmacy’s most regular customers.

It would have been impossible to “skirt quickly past the group” without feeling like a big jerk so, even though I knew it would make me late, I put on my “entertaining” attitude and made sure I interacted with each of them. Critical to the learning experience I was about to garner was that I had no previous knowledge that they even knew each other, let alone an understanding of their “connection to each other”.

What made this group unique is that they had formed sort of a support system for the fact that they were all unemployed and on public assistance. It seems that they had met at the local soup kitchen and chose to befriend each other as a way to ‘pass the time’.

Individually, I knew they were each in dire straits, but the significance didn’t really hit me until I left the group for my own table and overheard one of them say: ”I love that guy! He treats us like PEOPLE!”

WOW!! Who ever thought the word PEOPLE could have such significance?

I was lucky. I had grown up near the steel mills in Indiana and was well aware that one awful day many outstanding people showed up to work and were greeted by nothing more than a “closed for business” sign. This gave me a first hand lesson that one’s “worth as a human being” has no real relationship to their employment status.

Consequently, treating them as anything OTHER than people had simply never occurred to me. Obviously, sadly, it had occurred to other business people.

As I reflected on the significance of Don’s comment, I reviewed a few facts in my head:

1) Regardless of who “wrote the checks” these 8 gentlemen were responsible for about $10,000 of business for my pharmacy every month, because:

2) Most of them were unemployed due to the types of health conditions and disabilities that could happen to anyone. And

3) They all knew and SUPPORTED each other. Therefore, if ANY business treated ANY of them poorly, they were likely to lose the patronage of ALL of them. AND,

4) Based on our discussion, their group had several other members who didn’t happen to show up to this “meeting”. Further, and most importantly in my book,

5) Treating people poorly is simply a lousy thing to do!

This meeting took place exactly 12 years ago which is hugely significant because TEN years ago I changed employers. To the date of this publication, every single one of these gentlemen uses the pharmacy of my current employer.

Over the years, I have carefully watched these fellows with great fascination and have taken special note of their “circle of influence”. It turns out that many of them are related to, or acquainted with, many other members of my clientele. It also turns out that most of them have had led fascinating lives, and have amazing stories to tell.

As an occupational hazard I am also forced to talk to many a physician who brands him or herself as “DOCTOR GOD”. Guess who I’d rather have coffee with; even on my own dime.

The more we travel the road of life together, the more I learn that EVERYBODY is SOMEBODY, and just because a person is SOMEBODY, doesn’t really mean they are ANYBODY!

To learn more about how we are successful to the degree that we create value ,and to the degree that we celebrate those who create value for us, please click HERE
————————————————————————————————————————————————

Bio:
Corey Jahnke is the author of “We Are Not Here On Rehearsal” and the creator of SuccessEqualsValue.com. Corey is a John C. Maxwell certified success coach AND a Bob Burg certified Go-Giver Coach. Corey’s company, Legend Crafters, helps people go from stuck to unstuck, from unstuck to remarkable and from remarkable to legendary. Will YOU become a legend?

Links:
www.coreyjahnke.com
www.SuccessEqualsValue.com
www.facebook.com/cwjahnke