If there were a point to complaints, they would call them compoints.
Stay Positive & Favor Acceptance
Garth E. Beyer
Month: May 2012
Customer Service Is More Than Just Customer Service
I saw the story about a waiter getting a $5,000 dollar tip earlier today. It reminded me of a post I wrote a long while back related to a tip of 1% being given on a $133.54 bill and how I typically tip around 30% on waiters and waitresses. I referred to my tactic as Dressing Casual But Getting Looked At Like The Top 1%
Seeing this video however just confirms that if you want to be tipped big, then your customer service abilities must be out-freaking-standing. On my earlier post regarding the 1% tip, I mentioned that I typically tip a large amount but if the customer service is terrible, then I tip an “average” to “below-average” amount. However, what my average tipping amount, or anyones average tipping amount is has very little to do with how much of a big tip a waiter or waitress would get.
If the customer service provided is the most significant you have ever received, do you think the waiter or waitress will care if they get tipped $60 from a guy like me or $55 from a typical person? Both will make the waiter or waitress ecstatic. One waitress who I tipped $50 ended up friending me on Facebook and saying how appreciative she was. Regardless of the type of person that is being served, if you want a huge tip, the waiter or waitress (or you) have to work for it.
Great customer service doesn’t stop at just giving great customer service. The waiter that received the $5,000 dollar tip had much more than great customer service. It was noted in the video that the couple who had given him the huge tip were regulars. This means he wasn’t providing great service solely to them, he had it toward everyone. The couple had not only first hand experience with the waiter, they had seen how he treated everyone else while they were there. It wasn’t a one time deal. The waiter was consistent in his excellent customer service.
Above all, the reason why the waiter got the $5,000 tip, and the one quality that makes customer service essential, is that he connected with his customers. He was human, he talked to them, they knew about his smashed up car, he befriended them. He made a personal connection with a customer on top of delivering phenomenal customer service. Remember what I said about serving in the business 101 class
Stay Positive & Big Tips Happen Because You Care That They Care
Garth E. Beyer
Enlighten Others
Good News or Bad News First?
Once you realize that there is always a bad part to every good part and good part to every bad part, whether it affects you or not, the choice between hearing the good news or bad news first becomes easy to pick. In fact, you don’t even need to pick at all. All that matters is which side you listen to.
Stay Positive & Remember The Third Law Of Emotion
Garth E. Beyer
Enlighten Others
Garth’s Riff On FollowBack Courtesy
I had nearly 500 followers on Twitter four days ago. Something had changed and I lost almost 100 of them.
The reason behind it? Dunbar’s Law, or at least an attempt at it. I thought I would carry the 150 maximum of people in a group to the web. I would only follow 150 people who interacted, who had fun, who shared concrete content and who really connected. Four days ago, I spent an hour unfollowing nearly everyone who has never communicated with me or who I do not remember getting any links or information worth reading from their tweets. I unfollowed roughly 900 people, half of which were people who were also following me. Keep that in mind.
After I cleared out those who I followed, my followers dropped increasingly. People who programmed their Twitter to only follow those who followed them, no longer followed me. What does this have to say about follow-back courtesy? A lot.
Taking my statistics, only 1/9th or 11% of your followers are only following you because you followed them. (A small percentage than what I would still assume to be true) This gives you an immediate sense that you are reaching people, that people care what you Tweet and have an inclination to interact with you. All false. For a person who has 4,000 followers that is nearly 500 of them that still have no clue who you are or care to know. Sure, that may not be a lot, but now let’s look at the number of people who I unfollowed.
Roughly 900 people I unfollowed because they had no interaction, no concrete content, and flatly, no care in the world that I exist. Which is fine – Remember, my purpose was to go after Dunbar’s law anyway, I am only wanting people of my Tribe. There’s no need to give a false sense of identity by following people who have nothing to do with my niche (other than for entertainment). This leads to the reason Twitter should get rid of the Follow-Back button.
Have you noticed that Twitter is getting less click-throughs, less interactions with multiple people, and overall less content. It’s all noise – no harmony. The reason why? Too many followers and too many people are just following back. I used to dedicate a couple of hours to reading content via twitter feed. After my second attempt, I realized how much passionate content was lacking. I merely had followed hundreds of people who had a similar interest thinking that they would want to interact over their tweets. Sorry though, I don’t think the lack of hot boys in the midwest has anything to do with public speaking. Nor does the other 899 people who we’re tweeting – roughly 45-50 people consistently tweet great information and interact continuously with people they connect best with. I am now only following around 50 people, far from Dunbar’s law.
Let’s look at Twitter from the should-be view.
Twitter should not be only about following people, it should be about interacting. Twitter should not have a follow-back button because you don’t want people to follow you because you follow them. Do you realize that if you have two people following each other, you get nowhere? Twitter should be about being a leader, connecting to other leaders, and teaching followers how to become a leader. To become a Twitter leader: create harmonic content, consistently interact with other leaders and passionate followers, and by all means, to become a Twitter leader, quit following people back.
Stay Positive & Follow Forward Instead
Garth E. Beyer
Enlighten Others
The Right Perspective On Mentorship
You’re looking for mentors to give to you, but you need to give to them.
When you get a mentor, as it benefits anyone who does, the obligation to fulfill expectations is only the base of what defines the relationship between mentor and pupil.
What makes it work is what you have to show and give the mentor. Not in the sense of doing as the mentor says, but doing more, proving them wrong, and surprising them. You may view them as a mentor, but they need to view themselves as observers, as pushers, as people who are about to get their minds blown.
The thing about this post-industrial society is that the teachers, mentors, evaluators and advisers… they need to be re-taught. They have grown up learning how to follow orders and eventually on how to give orders, how to maintain the status quo and the terrible curriculum of teaching set by tradition. It’s your job as the pupil of a mentor to be the teacher, to represent this post-industrial generation and to not only create something innovative and irreplaceable, but to change the way education is taught.
Stay Positive & Let’s Remind Them What It Means To Be A Mentor
Garth E. Beyer
Enlighten Others
Kabir: Breath Inside The Breath
The 37th Name of Allah
Friend, hope for the Guest while you are alive. Jump into experience while you are alive! Think… and think… while you are alive. What you call “salvation” belongs to the time before death.
If you don’t break your rope while you are alive, do you think ghosts will do it after?
The idea that the soul will join with the ecstatic just because the body is rotten — that is all fantasy. What is found now is found then. If you find nothing now, you will simply end up with an apartment in the City of Death. If you make love with the Divine now, in the next life you will have the face of satisfied desire.
So plunge into the truth, find out who the Teacher is, believe in the Great Sound! (Bly)
The marvelous work of Kabir was introduced into my life this past summer while I was reading a book of assorted poems. While I was an extreme fan of Kabir’s masterpieces, I wanted to know more about how he came to be the poet I am so fond of. As a poet, I know that to best understand a writer’s poetry, you must understand the writer. While poetry has been one of the highlights in class, I decided it would be beneficial to explore a specific poet in the time of the Bhakti movement (Argis). I believe the knowledge gained from the learning adventure of Kabir’s mystic life, will give a better understanding of our recent study of the Islamic World. Kabir offers deep but simple philosophies about life and the Divine. After recognizing the life of Kabir, I appreciated his work even more and feel as though I have been enlightened twice from each poem I read. While I discuss Kabir’s life from a few different sources, I will be making connections to the current study of the Islamic World and quite possibly ancient Asian poetry from class.
To begin, some say he was the son of a Brahman widow and others that he was of virgin birth. The only known fact is that he was brought up in a family of Muslim weavers in India, which is the main source of his reference as “Poet, Saint, and Weaver of Medieval India” (Life Story). Immediately, one is shrouded with mystery of his birth. From the beginning of his life we can make connections to an idea that he may have been as great and saintly as Jesus, having been giving birth by a virgin. It is also possible that I have read the saying that, the whole of Indian philosophy is reflected in the warp and weft of the loom, because of Kabir. “But early in his life Kabir became a disciple of the Hindu Bhakti saint Ramananda. It was unusual for a Hindu teacher to accept a Muslim student, but tradition says the young Kabir found a creative way to overcome all objections” (Granger). Growing up Kabir was referred to as the servant of humanity and thus a servant of divinity (Colors of India). I deem this reference as one that may be used to label Kabir a prophet of the combination of the divine and humanity. This concept makes me think of the Confucius term of Ren. “He was a man of principles and practiced what he preached” (Colors of India). Kabir acknowledged and celebrated the Divine everywhere and focused on bringing the truth to all. This is an example of a connection that could be made here to Confucius. Confucius focused on bringing the truth to all of his followers and the cities he travelled to. Kabir gives this a twist and involves God into the truth. In addition, just as Confucius did not write anything down, Kabir was almost completely illiterate (Kabir). Throughout his life Kabir preached and worked as a weaver in the neighborhood of Benares (Argis).
Before long, Kabir played the role of a teacher and social reformer by the medium of his writings, which mainly consisted of the two line verses called Dohas (Colors of India). A beauty of Kabir’s poetry is that he picks up situations that surround our daily lives. It represents a synthesis of Hindu and Muslim concepts. “From Hinduism he accepts the concept of reincarnation and the law of Karma. From Islam he takes the affirmation of the single god and the rejection of caste system and idolatry” (Life Story). He also had a strong belief in Vedanta, Sufism, Vaishnavism and Nath sampradaya traditions (Colors of India). So unlike other great thinkers, Kabir has experience in many different cultures and religions. According to Kabir, all life is an interaction of two spiritual values. “One is the personal soul (Jivatma) and the other is God (Paramatma). It is Kabir’s view that salvation is the process of bringing into union these two divine principles” (Life Story). Thus, even today, Kabir’s poetry is relevant and helpful in guiding and regulating our lives, in both social and spiritual context (Krishan). He had a strong faith in the concept of oneness of God and this was expressed through his basic idea that whether you chant the name of Hindu God or Muslim God, the fact is that there is only one God who is the creator of this beautiful world (Colors of India). This idea has been expressed in class when we noted that Allah and God are the same. The major three religions are all worshiping the same God. While it is clear from Kabir’s background that Hinduism, Islam, and even some Christianity are mixed into his teachings, I cannot help but notice a hint of Buddhism. In fact, it is common knowledge that Buddhism originated in India where Kabir grew up. Through reading some of Kabir’s poetry, the eight elements of the Eight-Fold Path can be noticed. Kabir always offers an enlightening idea about right action, effort, livelihood, meditation, mindfulness, motives, speech, and understanding. Kabir touches the soul, the conscience, the sense of awareness and the vitality of existence in a manner that is unequalled in both simplicity and style (Life Style
Lastly, the belief that six hundred years ago Kabir was born in India in 1398 AD is questionable. He lived for 120 years and is said to have relinquished his body in 1518 (Argis). He died at Maghar and immediately dispute arose about the rights to his remains by Hindus and Mohammedans. “While they argued, Kabir himself appeared and made them raise the cloth which covered his corpse and the body had vanished and left a heap of flowers to occupy its place. Half of these were burnt after the Hindu custom at a spot now known as kablr Chaura in Benares, and the rest were buried at Maghar” (Argis). A person can understand that Kabir had a special spiritual power just by learning about his birth and death. While in his life, “Kabir openly criticized all sects and gave a new direction to the Indian philosophy due to his straight forward approach that has a universal appeal. It is for this reason that Kabir is held in high esteem all over the world” (Krishan). It is clear that to label Kabir a worldwide Guru is not an over exaggeration. The followers of Kabir, known as Kabir panthis, are estimated to be around 9,600,000 worldwide (Kabir). Kabir’s name is actually the 37th name of Allah: Al-Kabir, meaning The Greatness (Al-Halveti). We learn from Kabir as we learned early in class that poetry is not a luxury. Kabir uses poetry as his voice, giving language and structure to everyone’s experiences, offering them the power to decline ignorant beliefs or hold close divine values. In response to the opening lines of this paper, Kabir says “When the Guest is being searched for, it is the intensity of the longing for the Guest that does all the work. Look at me, and you will see a slave of that intensity” (Bly)
– Garth E. Beyer
Works Cited
Al-Halveti, Tosun Bayrak Al-Jerrahi. “The Most Beautiful Names of Allah.” The Threshold Society & The Mevlevi Order. 1985. Web. 10 May 2011. <http://www.sufism.org/society/asma/>.
Argis, Ali. “Kabir Presented in Philosophy Section.” Newsfinder E-magazine: A Literary Favour to World Culture. 24 May 2003. Web. 09 May 2011. <http://www.newsfinder.org/site/more/kabir/>.
Bly, Robert. “The Heart of the Matter: A Six Pack of Kabir.” Creativity, Innovation, Team Building, Leadership, Brainstorming, Idea Champions. 19 Nov. 2009. Web. 09 May 2011. <http://www.ideachampions.com/heart/archives/2009/11/a_six_pack_of_k_1.shtml>.
Granger, Ivan M. “Kabir : Poems and Biography.” Poetry Chaikhana – Sacred Poetry from Around the World: Sufi Poetry, Zen Poetry, Hindu Poetry, Buddhist Poetry, Christian Poetry, Yoga Poetry. 2002. Web. 09 May 2011. <http://www.poetry- chaikhana.com/K/Kabir/>.
“Kabir.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 24 Apr. 2011. Web. 09 May 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabir>.
“Kabir – Kabir Biography – Sant Kabir Life History – Story of Kabir Das – Facts about Saint Kabirdas.” Colors of India – All Aspects of Indian Culture People & Civilization. Colors of India. Web. 09 May 2011. <http://www.thecolorsofindia.com/kabir/index.html>.
Krishan, Rajender. “The Mystic Poet.” Boloji.com – A Study in Diversity – News, Views, Analysis, Literature, Poetry, Features – Express Yourself. Sept. 1999. Web. 09 May 2011. <http://www.boloji.com/index.cfm?md=Content>.
“The Biography of Kabir – Life Story.” PoemHunter.Com – Thousands of Poems and Poets.. Poetry Search Engine. PoemHunter, 18 Aug. 2009. Web. 09 May 2011. <http://www.poemhunter.com/kabir/biography/>.
Enlighten Others
Mentors Can Be Unnecessary
As long as you still have evaluators.
It’s your responsibility to jump the gap, exceed expectations and take risks. You don’t need anybody telling you how or what to do – you make the process your art, not theirs.
However, you still need to be held accountable for current improvement and future success, so evaluators are necessary. Lucky for you, there are 7 billion of them.
Stay Positive & You Get A Perfect 10 For Trying
Garth E. Beyer