Franchise Update Magazine Issue III, 2015 | Page 50

CONSUMER MARKETING

Customer
service
Live an Extraordinary Life
So countless others do as well
BY JOHN DIJULIUS

T

his may sound mean or unsympathetic, but one of my least favorite sayings is, “I gave my best.”
To me, this is an unacceptable crutch. I
don’t want to hear it.
My personal feeling is this: when the
goal is to accomplish greatness, go where
no one or no team has gone before. I wasn’t
asking for your best effort; your best is
what you were capable of in the past. I
was expecting you to figure it out, to try
a thousand ways and, if need be, another
thousand ways, expecting you to innovate,
lose sleep, get around it, find loopholes,
research, and sweat like you never have
before. Every extraordinary accomplishment, invention, or revolution was not
a result of someone giving their best.
Somehow that person or group found
a way to do what no one else could do.
They did the impossible. They did what
no one had ever done before.
The real issue is this: it’s not the effort
that is in question at the moment or during the event, it’s what you put in leading
up to it. Whether you win or lose, get the
sale, or ace the test, it is all determined
by the effort given in preparing for the
moment or event.
Every match is determined long before
the contest begins. So the next time you
fail, before you want to make yourself feel
better by saying “I did my best,” consider
if you had given your best in the preparation. The actual effort given in the event
has the least to do with the outcome.
Each of us has the ability to affect
thousands of lives by providing genuine
care for others, whether it is called customer service or human service. One of
my favorite quotes is from author Marian Wright Edelman, who said, “Service
is the rent we pay for being. It is the very
purpose of life, and not something you
do in your spare time.”
However, it is critical that each of us
understands the purpose of why we were

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given this amazing gift of life, what we
were put here for, and what we are to
accomplish in the short time we have.
You can’t just deliver world-class service
at work, it has to be something that is in
you, in all areas of your life. It is who you
are, it is the way you treat your family,
neighbors, co-workers, customers, and
strangers. And remember, there are no
strangers, just friends you haven’t met yet.

Success is when
you are firing on
all eight cylinders:
mentally, physically,
emotionally, with
family, socially,
in your career,
financially, and
spiritually.
Personal purpose statement
Over the past 10 years, I have had a personal purpose statement, a vision of what I
want to accomplish in my lifetime, which
has served me greatly through good times
and some very tough times. I have had this
vision posted on my bathroom mirror, it
is in my wallet, and it’s on my desk in my
office. It reads: “Live an extraordinary life
so countless others do as well.”
I don’t want to live an extraordinary
life to have a bigger bank account, nicer
car, house, and more toys. I know that if I
live an extraordinary life, many others also
will as a result. And if I do not find a way
to live an extraordinary life, I will probably end up cheating thousands of people.
Undeveloped potential cheats those
around us, those whom we touch, influ-

ence, and affect. It also deprives ourselves
of joy, satisfaction, and opportunities. Living our life to its fullest potential is not
an opportunity, it is our responsibility. It
is an obligation to be the best version of
ourselves we possibly can be, every day.
Not just for us and how our life will benefit, but also for all the people depending on us: our spouse, children, friends,
employees, co-workers, customers, and
community.
Living an extraordinary life is living
fully. I believe that we all have enormous
potential inside each of us, and if there are
parts of that potential we do not develop,
we are cheating the rest of the world out
of the contribution we could have made.
So if I don’t live fully, I don’t just deny
myself a