Which Are You? Eagle or Duck

Being a “Type A” workaholic, I enjoyed, what I’ve been told, was an extremely successful 50-year professional career although, personally, that could be up for some considerable debate. The first 30 years were spent in the supermarket and supercenter industry, while these final 20 years were in professional livery service. I’ve been known as both the Grocery Guy and the Limo Guy during this time, but the reality is I’ve always been in the business of providing customer service which exceeds the expectations of even the most discriminating and demanding customer base.

The livery industry is, not only, an expensive business to run, but it’s expensive for our customers using the disposable income of both corporations and individuals and our contracts are renewed daily with every successful run, but placed in jeopardy if we ever experience a dreaded service deviation. We built a professional Driving Team where we looked professional, acted professional, and were professional by being dependable, safe, knowledgeable, courteous, and discreet. Although expensive, our Driving Team, over time, built a relationship with our customers knowing they could count on us, thus, creating “value”. Our Driving Team became the “brand” of our company and were responsible for the success of the organization which continues to thrive today!

We’re all aware of the importance communication plays in the success of any company and, to this end, we created what we called a “Weekly Message” to keep every member of our team informed. For the purpose of this posting, I’ve included an example of our “Weekly Message” which has become one of my favorites for all the obvious reasons.

The Message

To the JL Team

Hoping this is finding everyone well as we have survived two winter storms two weeks in a row, but, now, we have two more impending winter storms this Thursday and Saturday and the one on Saturday could be a “doozy”. I digress by referring to an old proverb: “Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday and all is well”. Certainly, sound advice, but difficult to follow for those who are “worriers” and tend to still worry about things out of their control.

It’s also that time of year where things slow down dramatically at JL, historically, lasting through Valentine’s Day when we start to “rev up” so to speak. To help get through the normal “winter doldrums”, I, personally speaking, use this time to reflect, rejuvenate, and recharge.

This February, it will be 21 years since Steve trained me to become a JL chauffeur. I can honestly say after the millions of miles driven and the thousands of runs completed, it’s been quite a “ride”.  JL has provided me with so many unforgettable experiences and the opportunity to build so many everlasting relationships that could not have ever happened anywhere else. Additionally, JL has allowed me to maintain both purpose and focus and to have experienced a number of happenstance “life altering” moments.

So this Weekly Message is dedicated to two “life altering” experiences that I’ve copied for you to, not only enjoy, but to embrace their true meaning. The first is about a cab driver named, Wasu, who made a choice in his life which was “life altering”. The second is another cab driver experience whose “life altering” moment came late on a warm August night.

WASU: DUCK OR EAGLE

I was waiting in line for a ride at the airport. When a cab pulled up, the first thing I noticed was that the taxi was polished to a bright shine. Smartly dressed in a white shirt, black tie, and freshly pressed black slacks, the cab driver jumped out and rounded the car to open the back passenger door for me.

He handed me a laminated card and said: ‘I’m Wasu, your driver. While I’m loading your bags in the trunk I’d like you to read my mission statement.’

Taken aback, I read the card. It said: Wasu’s Mission Statement:

To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest, and cheapest way possible in a friendly environment.

This blew me away. Especially when I noticed that the inside of the cab matched the outside. Spotlessly clean!

As he slid behind the wheel, Wasu said, ‘Would you like a cup of coffee? I have a thermos of regular and one of decaf.’

I said jokingly, ‘No, I’d prefer a soft drink.’

Wasu smiled and said, ‘No problem. I have a cooler up front with regular and Diet Coke, lassi, water, and orange juice.’

Almost stuttering, I said, ‘I’ll take a lassi since I’ve never had one before.’

Handing me my drink, Wasu said, ‘If you’d like something to read, I have Good Housekeeping magazine, Reader’s Digest, The Bible, and a Travel + Leisure magazine.’

As they were pulling away, Wasu handed me another laminated card, ‘These are the stations I get and the music they play, if you’d like to listen to the radio.’

And as if that weren’t enough, Wasu told me that he had the heater on and asked if the temperature was comfortable for me.

Then he advised me of the best route to my destination for that time of day. He also let me know that he’d be happy to chat and tell me about some of the sights or, if I preferred, to leave me with my own thoughts.

‘Tell me, Wasu,’ I was amazed and asked him, ‘have you always served customers like this?’

Wasu smiled into the rear view mirror. ‘No, not always. In fact, it’s only been in the last two years. My first five years driving, I spent most of my time complaining like all the rest of the cabbies do. Then I heard about power of choice one day.’

‘Power of choice is that you can be a duck or an eagle.’

‘If you get up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, you’ll rarely disappoint yourself. Stop complaining!’

‘Don’t be a duck. Be an eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles soar above the crowd.’

‘That hit me right,’ said Wasu. He continued and said, ‘It is about me. I was always quacking and complaining, so I decided to change my attitude and become an eagle. I looked around at the other cabs and their drivers. The cabs were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and the customers were unhappy. So I decided to make some changes. I put in a few at a time. When my customers responded well, I did more.’

‘I take it that has paid off for you,’ I said.

‘It sure has,’ Wasu replied. ‘My first year as an eagle, I doubled my income from the previous year. This year I’ll probably quadruple it. My customers call me for appointments on my cell phone or leave a message on it.’

Wasu made a different choice. He decided to stop quacking like ducks and start soaring like eagles.

Have an eagle life ahead…..

—Adapted

Two of our previous Reinforced Training Seminars come to mind from Wasu’s “life altering” experience. In 2017, we spoke about respect, trust, pride, and passion where we needed to concentrate on the “big picture” instead of ourselves in “It’s All in the Details”. We also said that you gain experience through frequency and repetition, but the key to continued self-develop was through” constant and critical self-evaluation. In “Showing Your Softer Side” in 2018, we encouraged everyone to become a “concierge of the roadway” by developing your “softer skills” anticipating your customer’s service needs empathetically. Certainly, verbal communication is important, but it’s the non-verbal communication which sets you apart as exemplified by your “softer skills” set.

Wasu had the “power of choice” as we all do. Let’s choose to soar like an “eagle” rather than quack like a duck”!

IT HAPPENED LATE ON A WARM AUGUST NIGHT

There was a time in my life twenty years ago when I was driving a cab for a living.

It was a cowboy’s life, a gambler’s life, a life for someone who wanted no boss, constant movement and the thrill of a dice roll every time a new passenger got into the cab.

What I didn’t count on when I took the job was that it was also a ministry.

Because I drove the night shift, my cab became a rolling confessional. Passengers would climb in, sit behind me in total anonymity and tell me of their lives.

We were like strangers on a train, the passengers and I, hurtling through the night, revealing intimacies we would never have dreamed of sharing during the brighter light of day. I encountered people whose lives amazed me, ennobled me, made me laugh and made me weep.

And none of those lives touched me more than that of a woman I picked up late on a warm August night.

I was responding to a call from a small brick fourplex in a quiet part of town. I assumed I was being sent to pick up some partiers, or someone who had just had a fight with a lover, or someone going off to an early shift at some factory for the industrial part of town.

When I arrived at the address, the building was dark except for a single light in a ground-floor window.

Under these circumstances, many drivers would just honk once or twice, wait a short minute, then drive away. Too many bad possibilities awaited a driver who went up to a darkened building at 2:30 in the morning.

But I had seen too many people trapped in a life of poverty who depended on the cab as their only means of transportation.

Unless a situation had a real whiff of danger, I always went to the door to find the passenger. It might, I reasoned, be someone who needs my assistance. Would I not want a driver to do the same if my mother or father had called for a cab?

So I walked to the door and knocked.

“Just a minute,” answered a frail and elderly voice. I could hear the sound of something being dragged across the floor.

After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman somewhere in her 80s stood before me. She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat with a veil pinned on it, like you might see in a costume shop or a Goodwill store or in a 1940s movie. By her side was a small nylon suitcase. The sound had been her dragging it across the floor.

The apartment looked as if no one had lived in it for years. All the furniture was covered with sheets. There were no clocks on the walls, no knickknacks or utensils on the counters. In the corner was a cardboard box filled with photos and glassware.

“Would you carry my bag out to the car?” she said. “I’d like a few moments alone. Then, if you could come back and help me? I’m not very strong.”

I took the suitcase to the cab, then returned to assist the woman. She took my arm, and we walked slowly toward the curb. She kept thanking me for my kindness.

“It’s nothing,” I told her. “I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother treated.”

“Oh, you’re such a good boy,” she said. Her praise and appreciation were almost embarrassing.

When we got in the cab, she gave me an address, then asked, “Could you drive through downtown?”

“It’s not the shortest way,” I answered.

“Oh, I don’t mind,” she said. “I’m in no hurry. I’m on my way to a hospice.”

I looked in the rearview mirror. Her eyes were glistening.

“I don’t have any family left,” she continued. “The doctor says I should go there. He says I don’t have very long.”

I quietly reached over and shut off the meter. “What route would you like me to go?” I asked.

For the next two hours we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked as an elevator operator. We drove through the neighborhood where she and her husband had lived when they had first been married. She had me pull up in front of a furniture warehouse that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl. Sometimes she would have me slow in front of a particular building or corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.

As the first hint of sun was creasing the horizon, she suddenly said, “I’m tired. Let’s go now.”

We drove in silence to the address she had given me. It was a low building, like a small convalescent home, with a driveway that passed under a portico. Two orderlies came out to the cab as soon as we pulled up. Without waiting for me, they opened the door and began assisting the woman. They were solicitous and intent, watching her every move. They must have been expecting her; perhaps she had phoned them right before we left.

I opened the trunk and took the small suitcase up to the door. The woman was already seated in a wheelchair.

“How much do I owe you?” she asked, reaching into her purse.

“Nothing,” I said.

“You have to make a living,” she answered.

“There are other passengers,” I responded.

Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug. She held on to me tightly.

“You gave an old woman a little moment of joy,” she said. “Thank you.”

There was nothing more to say.

I squeezed her hand once, then walked out into the dim morning light. Behind me, I could hear the door shut. It was the sound of the closing of a life.

I did not pick up any more passengers that shift. I drove aimlessly, lost in thought. For the remainder of that day, I could hardly talk.

What if that woman had gotten an angry driver, or one who was impatient to end his shift? What if I had refused to take the run, or had honked once, then driven away? What if I had been in a foul mood and had refused to engage the woman in conversation?

How many other moments like that had I missed or failed to grasp?

We are so conditioned to think that our lives revolve around great moments. But great moments often catch us unawares.

When that woman hugged me and said that I had brought her a moment of joy, it was possible to believe that I had been placed on earth for the sole purpose of providing her with that last ride.

I do not think that I have ever done anything in my life that was any more important.

Wow—talking about a “life altering” experience. This is an example of service which is NOT “orchestrated”. Instead it’s service that is sincere, dedicated, real, and “heart felt”. This taxi cab driver exercised his “power of choice” and soared like an “eagle”. Upon self-evaluation, he wondered how many other moments like that had he missed or failed to grasp?

We have chosen to be a member of the JL Team. We’re not curing cancer, nor are we solving world hunger, nor working towards world peace—what we do is really not difficult as we just, merely, drive folks from point A to point B safely and efficiently. But since this is the path we have chosen, let’s commit to doing it to the very best of our ability being both passionate and compassionate in doing what we do. At JL, we are “driven to serve”. Always remember we “strive for perfection, but excellence is accepted”.

Thanks,

The Limo Guy

In Conclusion

I’m hoping, from this example, everyone agrees how important communication is to the success of any organization and at the end of the day, we all choose to “soar” like an eagle rather than “quack” like a duck and always go the “extra mile” never failing to grasp the “moment” whenever it occurs because you, most likely, won’t get another opportunity!