Maruping Phepheng
I believe every encounter with anyone, be it your child, wife, friend, colleague, mentor, stranger (especially the stranger) is an occasion, a break, to sell oneself.
The interview continues even when one is busy dreaming about nothing. The fact that you and I like our endless cat naps does not mean everybody else is fast asleep.
So, I’m afraid the clichéd truth applies: since one never really knows who is watching, one needs to always put in her best effort.
Here is a very short story.
“I need someone I can trust to welcome my guests, you know, show them where to park, help them with their luggage, and even wash their cars. Business is not growing fast enough, but I want to keep my regular customers happy. I am prepared to pay,” said an acquaintance the other day.
He owns a flourishing lodge somewhere in Mpumalanga.
A few hours after that conversation, I stopped at a garage to buy a newspaper and this man (it said James on his name tag), always flashing a smile and going the extra mile, appeared and received me like he has known me forever.
He looked fortysomething, but displayed a marvellous gait of a spirited young adult. I tried to equal his smile and walked away.
On my return, I found my windscreen spotless. Pleased, I smiled and looked probingly at the nearby attendant, who, in turn, replied by shrugging James-ward. I wanted to thank him, but he was already helping another motorist. So, I left, aiming to thank him on my next trip to the garage.
As I drove home I remembered the conversation I had with the lodge owner and immediately placed a call. A week later, James started working at the lodge for more than three times what he was earning at the garage.
The point of the story is that simple, albeit hackneyed truth: always put your best effort in whatever you are doing.
Life is an interview, one that never stops.
Flashing a smile should come naturally. We should smile when we come across other human beings. It tends to soften hearts, I have found, and sometimes that is all one needs for that big break – a softened heart.
Let us not appear presentable only because we are, for instance, going for an interview or to church. Instead, we should always make every effort to look presentable because that is how we want to be remembered.
Respect time – yours and that of others. We should do this not only because one has some special event to attend, but because it is the way we are.
We would, for instance, wait to be offered a chair at the beginning of a job interview.
This is so because firstly, we do not want to deny the host the opportunity to exercise courtesy (to offer us a chair).
Secondly, if one just arrives at the interview and grabs a chair without being offered to sit, one is already dropping points.
Manners. Good manners cost nothing. Greet people, why not? The old man we find in a lift might be the one holding the key to what we are dying to have.
But he will most probably understand us to be wanting where social etiquette is concerned because we treated him like a lifeless lamp-post back in the lift. Bad.
One should be the best advert there can ever be of oneself. We should always be ready to impress, always ready to find ways to appreciate our brand value, and we sure will enjoy the rewards.
And, oh, the lodge owner called the other day, happy: “James is a champ, I tell you. I had four new customers last week who told me they were encouraged to come to my lodge because their friends spoke highly of the service they got from James.
“He is a winner!”
l Phepheng is the author of Nightfall, Of Anger and Revenge and What Happens In Hankaroo