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Lessons on how the real world works
This edition: Double your tips By Rich Trombetta April 4, 2022 This essay is No. 1 in a series of stories based on my real-life experiences. They are designed to provide an interesting and hopefully entertaining way to learn. The names have been changed but everything else completely true. ----- My job during the summer before I went to college was working with a small crew of high school students and union workers to assemble and stock the inside of a new chain of hardware stores; they have since gone bankrupt and part of me wonders if our awful attitude somehow contributed to their collapse. Every weekday I drove my on-its-last-legs car to a strip mall near my home; a dry cleaners, a bakery an overpriced convenience store. There, with two other tired and disinterested workers, I waited for Mr. Greene to pick us up and drive us an hour to the job site. I never quite understood why he was required to drive us but the ride counted toward our hourly pay so, except for the news talk radio and needing three Coke's to stay awake on the ride home, it was fine; we usually started running out of things to talk about by about Wednesday morning and the conversation devolved into "looks like rain." Car ride or classroom? Mr. Greene was a very nice person and, as I figured out, if one was listening he had a lot of great lessons to offer. One day he was telling us about some business travel he had coming up - something that sounded exciting at the time but was eventually an activity I would later dread by the time I was 25. The day you can't remember which rental car is yours in a sea of Dodge and Fords from Avis or Hertz in a Hampton Inn parking lot is the day when you start to wonder if the free muffin really and three-day-old cantaloupe are a perk or a curse. I can definitively say that eating a tuna sandwich on an American Airlines flight during the heat of summer while on a business trip is absolutely a curse, and one that is only exorcised through a steady dose of Imodium and saltine crackers; what was I thinking. As we drove down the lightly traveled two-lane highway he told me something I have never forgotten: "When you are on a business trip and you get to a hotel always tip the doorman, concierge and valet double what you think is fair." It was a Pat-Morita-Karate-Kid moment; wax on, wax off. "Here's what happens," Mr. Green said. "The guy who was cheap comes up later and asks for a good place to eat; the doorman politely and cheerfully smiles as he directs the guy to a dump. He sees me and I end up getting a table at one of the best places in town." 
"No Such Thing As Bad Student, Only Bad Teacher. Teacher Say, Student Do."
There was more. "My cars from the valet always come back without a scratch and before anyone else," he added. "And if it's raining the staff finds me an umbrella. Don't skimp on your tips and don't judge people for the jobs they have. They can either make your day great or your life miserable." It is advice I have used for over 30 years. There are three lessons here: 1. The first is obviously about tipping; I cringe when I see people cheap-out. 2. The second is about respect. Another boss - who will be featured in future essays - once told me "Some people say be nice to the right people. I say be nice to everyone. Don't live your life through a filter." 3. Learning is everywhere; you just have to be paying attention. Once a person is open to listening the knowledge they gain will be like nothing available in a book. It's like having my own live real-life version of the best-selling book "What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School" (please get and read this). Tip and respect the people that are working hard to make your day a good one and pay attention to the world around you; lessons are everywhere. I will be sharing more like these each week. Wax on, wax off, Rich @trombettarich |