Starbucks can't serve a hot drink? (Part 2)

As I begin this second part of the Starbucks story, I'd like you to consider that how we respond to any set of circumstances or situations is very telling of how we see the world fundamentally and therefore this overall world view allows for certain interpretations of the random events of life. Consider that your responses, especially the automatic reactions are a window in to your interpretations of events and the interpretations of events is a window in to the larger generalities that you live your life by. These broad generalities create the context of your life or the context called you. Consider that no matter where you are the environment called you goes with you. Therefore the random events you run in to are opportunities to see you.

I've said quite a bit there, but I want you to get what it is I'm writing. The reason being that often people want to learn some skill, what to do and how to do it. Although many things in life can be improved through imrpoved skills, a lot of dealing with other people on a day to day basis is not so much about skill, but about perspective. To give you an example, let's say you walked in to your house to find a pile of dishes in the sink and your spouse on the couch watching a show with your kids, how would you respond? Really consider. How you respond to this situation is not so much based on skill, but more in the realm of perception of what is going on. If you perceive your spouse is simply loafing around and being lazy, this would open up a set of responses and close off another set of responses. If you perceive your spouse is simply spending a bit of time with the kids before he/she starts on the dishes a whole different set of responses now become available, the ones that would not be available with the other perspective. And of course there are more perspectives than just those two.

Now let's consider the Starbucks incident. What was going on with the other people who left in different levels of upset? We could make some assessments of these people couldn't we? As you read this, if you see yourself relating with the people who left upset you may want to really look at how it is you view yourself and the world you live in. The main thing I'd like you to consider is that the situation and events did not create the reactions, the people did. If the situation was the thing that was in control, then every person in that situation would behave the same way. As I finish the story, there were people who responded very differently than walk away upset or angry. In fact, these two people (one of whom was me) actaully created a pretty cool solution, so here's what happened...

Once I got over the initial surprise, I simply said loudly and clearly to the people who were working that morning, "How can we create a solution, there has to be one?" Upon this invitation to solve the situation with me I received input from three workers. The first was to get a cold drink, I did not go with that one. The next was to go to another location, I didn't feel I had the time for that and still make it to meet with my staff on time. The third was to purchase a travel cup. Initially I was not expecting to pay $11 that morning plus $3.55 for my drink, but it was an option and that's the one I went with. I grabbed a cup I liked, walked to the counter and asked for a discount. I ended up getting the travel cup for $5.50, and I found out that morning that when you purchase a travel cup your first drink is on the house. When you consider that I was planning on spedning $3.55 that morning, all in all it was actually a pretty darn good solution. Yeah I spent $1.95 more than I intended on spening, but it all worked out. I got my drink, I got a new travel cup, I made it to my meeting on time. I high-fived the people who were working that morning for helping me come up with a solution, which i think helped them turn a not-so-great situation in to a not-so-bad situation. The last person who benefitted was the guy who just happened to be standing near me as all of this was occuring who asked for and got the same deal. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good, I guess.

I'd like you to consider that this solution was in theory and concept available to every single person who walked in to this situation. In reality, though it was only available to two people, me and the other guy. In theory and concept creating successful solutions is available to everyone in every situation, but due to the perspective we bring to every event of our lives success is in reality not available to most people. I hope that made some sense to you. So are you about solutions or are you about complaining? Are you about getting it done or about excuses? We all walked out of Starbuck that morning with stories to tell, didn't we. Most people told stories about how life did it to them, again. Two people walked out with stories of how they overcame. Which story are you writing with your life? Until next time...

Live FREE!