The Restaurant Critic
When I was first getting into real estate I worked at a restaurant to support myself. It taught me a lesson early on that I think applies to every industry; everyone is a critic, and just ONE bad experience is often the ONLY experience people will focus on.
You can serve five hundred meals in a row, and that five hundred and first meal that does not deliver on quality, timeliness or service could be the one that becomes the focus. That dissatisfied customer will be unhappy, write about it on review sites, tell their friends and still may never return even after multiple satisfying visits. It's a lot of pressure to be consistently perfect.
The expectation of humans and others to perform perfectly without fail is at an extreme. We expect much from one another. We hold each other up to high standards. We tend to focus on those things that don't work or deliver fully more than the thousands of things that do work and function beautifully.
I'm not advocating burying your head in the sand about things that don't work or perform perfectly at all. In fact, I am the first person to encourage all problems and fixes to be identified with urgency. Alerting all to a problem quickly is positive for all as it allows us to remedy a situation or problem. But I do think we owe it to all ourselves to give one another a break and acknowledge all the things that we do get right.
Today, if you have a moment or two, reach out to those around you and acknowledge all that they are getting right. Including yourself! You truly do deserve a pat on the back. And then lets get back to work and make things even better!
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