First words

“Come on. Let’s go. Whadd’ya - running for governor?”

First words out of his mouth - I promise.

I’d gone down to the other building to fetch a guy off to Oak Creek. When I walked into the building one of the advisors was walking the customer toward me. I nodded and proceeded right past him eight feet or so to shake the hand of another long-time customer I know; Lee, from church.

“Come on. Let’s go. Whadd’ya - running for governor?”

“No, but if you brought a baby I’d kiss it.” I said, heading back toward the van.

So, the guy, whose name I do not yet know, is overly boisterous and manipulative in that passive aggressive, ‘it’s-just-a-joke’ way. He posed a few questions he knew the answers to so that he could interrupt when I tried to respond. He is used to being in charge. He did say he was a long-time customer and this was his first shuttle ride. He was making the most of it.

“You’re a Christian, aren’t you?” he asked.

“Yes … and …”  I started with gratitude - being thankful. I gave him a couple versions of my GoodWork Mini-Thanks cards. I talked about goals, motivations, gearing up for the day and finding what you expect to find: in my case, goodness and smiles.

He’s a 30 veteran of MMSD and a veteran of the fist-bump. The ’S’ is for sewer or sanitation.

“I don’t shake hands much.” he said. “You just don’t know where they’ve been.”

He’s also a long-time HS football coach. 

“Not a teacher, just a coach.”

“Well, you still understand kids, mentoring, and modeling behaviors, right?”

“Well, yes …”

Here I had a coach and an opportunity to ask about the rest and recuperation component of high performance. I gave him my standard little dance about one of my favorite books: The Power of Full Engagement, by James Loehr and Tony Schwartz. Amazon link here.

I might have said something like this: In high performance sports the athletes practice for an event or season. Then there is the event or the season. After that there is rest and recuperation. That is the recipe for high performance. Business, of course, does not do that. They whip the flesh from the starched-collars, the cube-jockeys, and general lackeys knowing there’s a line of fresh meat pressing at the front door.

“You’re making my skin tingle.” he said. We seemed to be heading off into his favorite topic: football coaching, but I stayed my course.

He thought maybe I should go into psychology or life coaching. I kid you not.  I took him home and a couple hours later I brought him back. 

“So, what about this life coaching thing?” he asked. “What if I were a drug-addled …. no, that’s too far out. What if …” and he named something else almost as far out.

“Well, as I might have said, I was in business. I refer people. I subcontract work to other providers as necessary. Simple, I think.”

“Of course.”

As we were pulling up he asked for a pen and paper and jotted down the name of the book. He asked if I thought it might be above his reading level. As if I would presume to comment on that.

“Some of it might have been above my level. Here’s how I read a book anymore,” I said, “I am no longer writing book reports and I really don’t need to prove anything to anyone. So, I decided that I do not need to finish a book just because I start it. I realized I am looking for a couple good ideas and a few quotations. I use a blank 3 x 5” card as a bookmark. I write down the page numbers of interesting stuff so that I can keep reading. Later I go back, look up the pages, and if the stuff is still interesting I might write it down in my notes.”

At the end of our ride he was asking for my boss’s name so that he could send along his praise of my behavior. Apparently I passed his audition. Unfortunately I gave him the name of an immediate upline worker that does not retrieve or answer his own voicemails, but now I am smarter about that little point, too.

You know, it all went by so fast I don’t even think I told him about my own books, blogs, or why I read at all.

And, I think this particular interchange has locked it up for me. 

I am goin' to school.

Soon. I have to finish my next book. Deadline: Christmas 2014.