How My Service Affects My Service

I am a little Boy Scout doing Good Deeds. Last Saturday I helped an older man lift a crate of fruit from the pavement to waist-high. A foreigner, he thanked me with his eyes. Yesterday I picked up a fallen pen for a younger rider on the subway. He thanked me with his eyes, and thanked me again seven stops later when he rose to get off the train.

I felt good.

I felt in harmony with the world of people around me.

Neither act was a ostentatious as standing and giving my seat to a little old lady. Neither act required more than a flash of the eyes in acknowledgement, both directions.

Neither act changed the world or the course we are on.

In both cases my day improved beyond measure. You’d need Steven Pinker or Richard Dawkins to explain why, but I suspect that small acts of kindness elevate my image of myself, so that by the time I meet the CFO for the first time some thirty minutes later, I have a feeling of confidence that might have been missing. An attitude not far removed from “This planet belongs to ME!”, or at the least “I belong on this planet; I have as much right as you to be here”..

It’s not about whether my revenue comes from Service or from Application Development. It’s not about Sales or Marketing.

It seems to be about using a little bit of social lubricant to make my own path smoother.

I daresay if I practice it often enough that from one of these events business might flow, but I doubt it.

I think that the small acts of kindness are me being kind to myself.

Talk to Me !