Shinin’ Shoes and Savin’ Souls
I had a great trip to Mississippi this week. As I journeyed home, I was blessed with an opportunity to grab a quick shoe shine in the Jackson Airport, as I’ve wanted to get a professional shine to protect my new investment. Luckily, there was a shoe shine station immediately adjacent to my gate. I had a great time with Doc the shoe shine man. As he was wrapping up his work, I asked, “What do I owe you?” This is where it gets good.
“Here’s how it works over here. We shinin’ shoes and savin’ souls. Salvation is free, and so are the shoe shines. You just give whatever your heart tells you.”
Yes! Doc was speaking my language! I was anticipating the cost being $10-$15, with the plan of just giving him a $20 bill. But the moment he shared that, something inside me shifted. I reached into my pocket and gave him every dollar I had on me.
Was Doc sincere? Not sure. Did he have ulterior motives? Not sure. But I was going to take him at face value…..because he built trust with me over the preceding 10 minutes. He served me with excellence. He was engaging, thorough, shared wisdom, and provided a killer end product. Excellence should be rewarded. If he’s running his own business out of the airport (which probably isn’t cheap), and doesn’t even have a price for his service (it’s 100% free), I suspect many other people also reward excellence. He wasn’t asking for a hand-out, but rather for an opportunity to serve people with excellence and let the chips fall how they may. It takes an awful lot of confidence to sustain a business without having a price tag on your product.....confidence only excellence can buy.
In addition to all that, in just 10 short minutes, he managed to make an indelible impact on me……enough to warrant an entire blog post by a complete stranger. Here’s an interesting question to ponder today. What can you do today to make the type of impact where a total stranger would write a blog about you? I don’t know the answer, but I do know one thing: the bar is probably lower than you think. It doesn't take some grandiose act to make an impact. Doc impacted me within 10 minutes of a chance encounter. If Doc can do that, why not you? Why not me? Why shouldn't we move the needle in someone's life today?
Let's get to work!
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