I remember when e-mail was new. It was this random form of communication that you checked a few times a day, because those were the days of dial-up and three or four people in the office had different user names on the same account. I now have half a dozen e-mail addresses, three of which I can check on my phone in a matter of seconds. My, how far we have come in the last decade.
Back in the day, the best thing about e-mail and its most widely used purpose was to send/receive jokes and stories. Now, I delete 99 percent of forwards without ever opening them. Every once in awhile though I will read one from a close friend or family member anticipating that it is a picture or real information. I received such an e-mail the other day and after sitting in my inbox for a day or two I opened it and started reading. It turned out to be a story, which I quickly got sucked into because it was about customer service, this month’s feature topic, and I was of course in the midst of seeking a message for this note. Perfect timing!
Unfortunately, I do not have enough space to reprint the entire story here. So instead, I will encourage you to Google “Ducks Quack, Eagles Soar.” You may have already seen it as it appears to be very popular and has been featured in many blogs. I did a quick search to see if I could find out the author of the original piece and got over 28,000 results. Since I cannot reprint the entire piece, I will try to summarize it for you.
The story is about a cab driver who heard a writer (Wayne Dyer) on the radio promoting his latest book, his a-ha moment, and the changes he made as a result. The example the writer gave on the radio that spoke to the cab driver was “… If you get up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, you’ll rarely disappoint yourself. He said ‘Stop complaining! Differentiate yourself from your competition. Don’t be a duck. Be an eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles soar above the crowd.” The cab driver took this to heart and starting making changes in his business. He cleaned up his car, dressed professionally, created a mission statement, and began providing other amenities to his passengers. The result – he doubled his income the first year he implemented these changes and quadrupled it the second year.
That is a pretty nice return on his investment and efforts, in my opinion. Wally, the cab driver, made a different choice. So, what will you do now that you’ve read this? Will you actually Google and read the story in its entirety or will you turn the page and not give it a second thought? Will you choose to soar like an eagle by looking around and at yourself to see if there are changes you can make, or will you complain and quack like a duck?
“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain.” ~Vivian Greene
Best,
Saundra
