One way of looking at it........

 

a difference maker..........

 

     The way you do anything is the way you do everything, and we found, over and over, that precision in the smallest of details translated into precision in bigger ones.

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Remember: there's often a brilliant idea right behind a bad one.

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     He discovered that when he gave the teams responsibility, they became more responsible; elevated by his trust in them, they stepped up into the role.

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     I've made it my mission to help the people who work for me see what's important about what they do.  Even at MoMA, we didn't see our guests as a bunch of customers looking for lunch; we saw them as museumgoers—people on an adventure, realizing their dream of being inspired at one of the greatest modern art museums on earth.  That simple shift had an automatic and profound impact on how our teams acted, and on the hospitality our guests received. . . .It's the difference between coming to work to do your job and coming to work to be a part of something bigger than yourself.

     Without exception, no matter what you do, you can make a difference in someone's life.  You must be able to name for yourself why your work matters.  And if you are a leader, you need to encourage everyone on your team to do the same.

-Will Guidara, a few excerpts from Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect

on connection and graciousness................

 

     When I was young, my dad gave me a paperweight that read, "What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?"  That's what I was thinking about when Daniel and I wrote, "We will be Number One in the world," on a cocktail napkin. . . .

     Most of the chefs on the 50 Best list had made their impact by focusing on innovation, on what needed to change.  But as I thought about the impact I wanted to make, I focused on the one thing that wouldn't.  Fads fade and cycle, but the human desire to be taken care of never goes away.

     Daniel's food was extraordinary; he was undeniably one of the best chefs in the world.  So if we could become a restaurant focused passionately, intentionally, wholeheartedly, on connection and graciousness—on giving both the people on our team and the people we served a sense of belonging—then we'd have a real shot at greatness.

-Will Guidara, Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect

delight and refreshment...........

 

7.  Let your one delight and refreshment be to pass from one service to the community to another, with God ever in mind.

-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Six

use of the mind.............

 

Many men are schooled, but few men are educated.  An educated man is one who has learned how to use his mind so that he can get everything he desires without violating the rights of others.  Education, therefore, comes from experience and use of the mind, and not merely from the acquisition of knowledge.  Knowledge is of no value unless and until it is expressed in some form of useful service.

-Andrew Carnegie, from here

serve.........................

 The world has need of a philosophy, or a religion, which will promote life. But in order to promote life it is necessary to value something other than mere life. Life devoted only to life is animal, without any real human value, incapable of preserving men permanently from weariness and the feeling that all is vanity. If life is to be fully human it must serve some end which seems, in some sense, outside human life, some end which is impersonal and above mankind, such as God or truth or beauty.

-Bertrand Russell, Principles of Social Reconstruction, 1916

On doing good.....................

 

.......................................and feeling good.

In theory anyway.......................

 

      backstory here

The very definition.........................

 ............................................of public service.

On service.................................

 Service, for me, for us, is not a transactional act.  It's not a trick we undertake to get people to give us their money.  Yes, of course, great service has strategic value.  Every day we go out with the belief that we need to re-earn our customer's trust and make it worthwhile for people to want to spend time and money with us.  But really, service is a way of being in the world.

-Ari Weinzweig

via

This is what public service......................

........................................looks like. 

Public service.........................

 ...............................looks a lot like this.

Checking in with Emerson............

“O, see how the masses of men worry themselves into nameless graves, while here and there, some great unselfish soul forgets himself into immortality.”

Has a man gained any thing who has received a hundred favors and rendered none? . . . He is great who confers the most benefits.

There is no penalty for virtue; no penalty to wisdom;  they are proper additions of being.  In a virtuous action, I properly am; in a virtuous act, I add to the world;  I plant into deserts conquered from Chaos and Nothing, and see the darkness receding on the limits of the horizon.  There can be no excess to love; none to knowledge; none to beauty, when these attributes are considered in the purest sense.  The soul refuses limits, and always affirms an Optimism, never a Pessimism.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson.  The first quote is widely attributed to Emerson, but the Oracle Google refused to tell me the original source.  The second two quotes come from his essay, Compensation

About security......................

     Most people never feel secure because they are always worried that they will either lose their job, lose the money they already have, lose their spouse, lose their health, and so on.  The only true security in life comes from knowing that every single day you are improving yourself in some way, that you are increasing the caliber of who you are and that you are valuable to your company, your friends, and your family.  I don't worry about maintaining the quality of of my life, because every day I work on improving it.  I constantly strive to learn and to make new and more powerful distinctions about ways to add value to other people's lives.  This gives me a sense of certainty that I can always learn, that I can always expand, that I can always grow.

-Anthony Robbins, Awaken The Giant Within

Call it an investment.....................

When you've done well and another has benefited by it, why like a fool do you look for a third thing on top—credit for the good deed or a favor in return?

-Marcus Aurelius,  Meditations, Book 7:73

      So why on earth do you need thanks or recognition for having done the right thing?  It's your job.

-Ryan Holiday, from today's entry in The Daily Stoic

Vessels.................................

     Our power as miracle-workers in the workplace is to pray that we be used — that our hands, our feet, our minds, and our behavior be of service to a greater good.  That we be empty vessels through which God will produce His extraordinary wonders.  We're simply here to serve a higher plan for the enlightenment of the world, and therein lie out happiness and success.

-Marianne Williamson,  The Law Of Divine Compensation

Must be something in the nature of man .....

     "I thank you for your polite wishes to see me restored to public life.  There was a time when I would have accepted of an Appointment Abroad. . . . But the time is past -- for my accepting of that or of any other appointment in the Government of the United States. -- I already see a System of influence bordering upon corruption established in our Country, which seems to proclaim to innocence & patriotism to keep their distance."

Benjamin Rush, as excerpted from a 1789 letter to John Adams, as printed here

Simple....................................

   
     "Life is so simple, really.  Think through what people want, watch what others fail to give them, and provide it.  Then bill 'em."

-Stuart Wilde,   The Trick to Money Is Having Some

A recipe................................

If you want to be happy, forget yourself. Forget all of it—how you look, how you feel, how your career is going. Just drop the whole subject of you…People dedicated to something other than themselves—helping family and friends, or a political cause, or others less fortunate than they—are the happiest people in the world.

-Michael Crichton, as taken from here