I stumbled across this poem by Michael McFee while doing some research. It beautifully articulates what standing in the service of others can mean.

Poem: “Service Is Our Business” by Michael McFee from Shinemaster. © Carnegie Mellon University Press. Reprinted with permission.

Service Is Our Business

It used to be black as the insides of a Penzoil can
whenever we drove this ten-mile stretch of Highway 25
at night from lit-up Asheville back to our gloomy house
in Arden, no stoplights or streetlights anywhere, nothing.

And there’s where (during the day) mom would stop for gas,
a Shell filling station in the curve at the foot of a long hill,
a couple of pumps and a little office and a double bay
over which “Service Is Our Business” shone in red plastic

as the smiling proprietor emerged, wiping his large hands,
looking like Glenn Miller on the 78-rpm records she’d play
(I still have them, maiden initials scratched on each label),
like some veteran still wearing his crisp khaki uniform.

He’d bend to the open window and speak to her, then us,
sun polishing his wire rims, starching his cursive name,
brightening the yellow scallop shell stitched to his chest
and the huge one slowly revolving overhead as he began

hooking the nozzle in the tank (gas rushing behind us),
checking (obscured but heard) the oil and radiator water,
cleaning each window (mom laughing loud through hers),
topping off (when needed) the fluids or the air in tires,

then lowering the heavy hood gently, not slamming it down,
and firmly replacing the gas cap behind the license plate,
and taking her offered bills with a thank-you and half-bow
before watching us drive off, shading his eyes as if saluting.

That was 40 years ago. Gas was 28.2. Now that I’m the age
she was then, I wonder: Who was that guy? A former boyfriend?
A harmless but steady flirtation? And what was she to him—
another nice housewife to flatter, to keep the business going?

Or were they just a couple of decent lonely people
who enjoyed each other’s company for a few public minutes
before returning to work and turning up their tinny radios,
longing to hear “In the Mood” or “Moonlight Serenade”. …

That station’s long gone. Now it’s ten pumps and a mini-mart.
Service was his business. And service was her business, too,
a mother serving children every day for over twenty years
until they were old enough to drive their cars away from her.

I pump my own gas then climb into town past strip mall
after strip mall, this local branch of the Dixie Highway
lifting its newly affluent glare into the lost sky every night.
We used to look up at countless stars. Mom loved “Stardust.”

I tidy my parents’ graves at the cemetery behind K-Mart.
Dusk lurks. That man with the ovaled name might be here
on this hillside with my mother, just one of many customers
queued up in the darkest dark of all, waiting to be served.

Technorati Tags: Service is Our Business, customer service, clients, Michael McFee

Garrison Keillor may not be the first person you think of when it comes to business and personal success. But, he has a lot to say about success - and what it really takes to create meaning and value in our lives.

From his perspective, success happens when you follow these three principles:

“Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.”

To me, “be well” part is about taking great care of yourself and handling the personal problems, fears and challenges that keep you from growing your business, advancing your career and living your purpose. It’s about developing the confidence and courage you need to do your best work. The “do good work” part is about investing energy into things that makes a difference and call upon your best skills and talents - whether that be a job, volunteer position or role within our families and community.

Then, there’s the “keep in touch” part.

Most people know that building and maintaining a powerful network is just as important as your net worth. For example, business owners know that keeping in touch is a critical part of growing their business. Whether it be for business or personal, most of us acknowledge that relationships are what it’s really about.

But, here’s the sad truth. Most people don’t keep in touch like they know they should. Business owners miss out on opportunities, lose touch with prospects and fail to connect meaningfully with the people they are meant to serve. Professionals fail to nurture their network during the good times and then panic when it’s time to change jobs. Most of the time, we neglect to consistently make that personal connection with the people we care about most.

And, when that happens, the opportunities to “do good work” are less and less. Which then negatively impacts the “be well” part.

This degenerative cycle repeats itself over and over again…until we break it by reconnecting with the people in our network and in our community.

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Maybe it’s just me, but everyone seems to be talking about intentions these days. Not surprising, given the buzz created by The Secret, which focuses on the Law of Attraction and the importance of setting intentions to attract what you really want.

This talk of setting intentions and aligning your thoughts and actions must have been on my mind today during a meeting the owners of a small business in the service industry. As I listened to the business partners describe the various efforts they had made during the past year to grow their business, a certain phrase grabbed my attention.

We just need to get the word out.

After a powerful discussion about the importance of building relationships with prospects and clients over time, one of the partners explained to me that they were going to purchase a billboard ad in their efforts to grow their business and get clients.

I asked the business owner to repeat that last sentence, certain that I didn’t hear her correctly.

“Yes, we are going to purchase a billboard ad and possibly some additional magazine ads in order to get the word out about our business.”

In my experience, ads don’t do much to help service professionals get clients and generate referrals.

Lest I dirty my name with the advertising community or insinuate that my colleagues should not use a billboard in their marketing efforts, let me say this. Ads can be quite effective for certain companies and for certain projects. I just find them to be largely ineffective for the service professional who wants to get booked solid.

The reason? For the service business, it’s all about building trust and credibility with your clients. And choosing the marketing tools that will cultivate the “know, like and trust” factor.

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Success.

What does that really mean? And what do we mean when we say, “I want to be successful?”

Unless you live on a different planet than I do, you can hardly go a day without someone - either you or someone you know - talking about it.

As much as people talk about it, have you noticed that no one really knows what they actually mean? Or they borrow someone else’s definition of success and pin it on their own career goals and personal action plans.

I often hear my clients talking about the success they want to achieve. Success they desire in a number of areas - their business, career, health, relationships, etc. Yet, no matter the goal or the person sharing the goal, I have noticed a trend.

Many high-achievers and motivated people unconsciously (or sometimes even consciously) adopt bad definitions of success. And use that definition to beat themselves up if they don’t achieve success. Many of the definitions of success I hear from clients, colleagues or friends (and sometimes even myself) are one of the following:

* unrealistic
* impossible to complete
* wholly dependent on the actions of others
* vague and difficult to measure
* based on someone else’s standards or measurements of success

I would like to propose two alternative definitions of success. Two standards that are not only realistic, but achievable. And inspiring, so that you actually feel motivated to take action. This is certainly not an exhaustive list. Just a start…here we go:

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