Category: Making A Difference

When I see a student come in early and work on something I’ve taught or am curious about, I want to meet them there early and give more.

When I see a student stay late and get extra reps in on something from class or some above and beyond material, I want to stay after with them and give more.

When a students asks questions that extend beyond the scope of what’s required—that they can’t seem to figure out how to train past on their own—I want to answer those questions and give more.

When a student is struggling with curriculum and is persisting in the face of frustration, I want to step in and give more.

When a student gives more, I want to give more.

Which, isn’t to be confused with the student who constantly wants to take more.

When the student comes in early or stays late and wants me to teach them a private class… or asks questions about things they haven’t even tried to solve on their own… or wants answers to things they haven’t experienced frustration from yet… I feel like I’m being taken from as opposed to enthusiastically giving.

The difference is subtle… but, in its understanding is a powerful truth.

Invest the time, put in the effort, expend the energy yourself… and I will meet you on the other side.

Try and squeeze me for more time, effort, and energy without the match on your side… and I’ll eventually start taking away, too.

Most people are so busy with their own lives that they have no time to imagine the immense potential in others.

And so they simply live their busy life and wait for others to realize their own potential before they notice, hire, invest in, honor, or reward.

And sure, nobody should be more concerned with realizing another’s potential than their own.

But…

And this is a big but…

If you can zoom out from the busy madness of your own life and… notice, hire, invest in, honor, and reward the untapped, unrealized, unharnessed potential in those around you…?

…Not only will you create a sunlight on the buried seed of a plant effect—

…But you’ll start to see the quality and strength of the plants—people—increase around you.

Why? …Because plants (and people) grow only with and towards the sunlight.

…Having a hard time seeing the seeds around you? Of course you are—they’re buried.

Do what the sun does and shine down indiscriminately.

Double down on the ones that respond and peak through.

…Soon you’ll be surrounded by great oaks instead of buried seeds.

Such a simple idea that could significantly help customer oriented businesses: treat customers the way you would want to be treated as a customer.

I have been stunned at how I’ve been treated by several major companies lately and it just makes me wonder how such disconnected practices and systems have been put into place?

Like… YOU, customer service representative, would HATE the very experience you’re putting me through right now if YOU were the customer… How have we gotten here? Why is it like this? How can we change it?

Some of you reading this are in customer oriented businesses. And I encourage you to challenge your practices and systems and see if they pass the above test.

And some of you maybe aren’t. But, you certainly interact with them regularly. Keep pushing back against bad practices and bad systems. Keep voicing your frustrations and suggestions for improvement. Keep voting for good business with how you spend your money… and stop giving money to companies who have bad business practices.

Big change never happens all at once.

…It happens slowly, slowly. One push, one shove, one vote at a time.

One of my favorite holiday traditions is to Venmo $10 to 10 or so friends and include the following type of message:

“Take this and commit a random act of holiday kindness. Buy someone a coffee or pay for the person behind you in line (or pay it forward to another Venmo friend)… ‘Tis going to be a stressful week for many. Let’s make it a little better for a few.”

What I love about it so much isn’t just the random acts of kindness that get committed from the $10.

…It’s the amount of time each person spends thinking about how they’re going to commit their random act of kindness.

When this idea first made its way to me, the storyteller said her son was given $5 and a very similar message to what I typed above… and he spent 6 months thinking about how he wanted to make the world a little better with that $5.

…Talk about ROI.

I bought a few things on sale this weekend.

And for each item I bought, I resolved to give away a comparable item I already owned.

I bought a jacket, so I’m donating a jacket.

I bought a suit coat, so I’m donating a suit coat.

I bought a few sherpa zip-ups, so I’m donating a few sweaters.

In with the new is easy—especially if you’re in the privileged position of having disposable income.

Out with the old, however, is often forgotten.

And essentially everything you’re not using, could be a tremendous gift for another who lives under less fortunate circumstances.

If you’ve got a whole bunch of new incoming—consider adding a whole bunch of your old to the outgoing.

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P.s. I just started building a MoveMe Quotes Shop featuring products and services that have a “forward” or functional purpose. Got any cool recommendations?

One of my employees just turned 18… and I texted him happy birthday and added a bunch of exclamation points and emojis.

…His mom ordered him a *singing telegram* (a person dressed up in a frog suit who would show up in person and sing happy birthday to him), made an array of homemade cupcakes for him and his coworkers, and got him a stuffed frog as a gift so he could always remember the moment.

Sure, it’s the thought that counts.

But, it’s the effort that gets remembered.