The 178 pages book starts with a quote
by Dr. King “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets
even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote
poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth
will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job
well." Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In a way that quote summarizes the
entire message of the book. I borrowed the book from my friends and when I did,
my friend told me that the author gave him and his other coworkers in one of
his trips to their work place. I got the impression from my friend that he took
the book not because he wanted to but rather to be nice and avoid rejecting a
signed free book by the author himself. The very fact that knowing this book
was acquired effortlessly made me feel as if it was not worth reading,
considering there are plenty of other books that I have been recommended to
read. Nonetheless, I found the title so powerful I decided to read on.
There is no much in there that, you don’t already
know, the author simply just stresses the importance of what we already know is
important and basic building blocks for success. He stress the need to
continual try to get better at what ever it is that you do, and that
success & excellence are choices that we can either choose to excel at
and we can most definitely achieve it if we chose to be persistent and we make
the needed practices a habit rather than a sporadic practice. Take the element
Diamond for instance and think of the process it goes through, it doesn’t
become a shiny and valuable rare element over night; Diamond goes through a
long process changes from a piece of coal to the most valuable element on the
face of the earth. Yet often times we forget that, Diamond goes through
metamorphosis (so much change, adversity, pressure etc before it become the
rare Diamond we come to know and value it.
Change is an ally not an enemy; so embrace it
says Mr. Jolley, remember service is an honor. The author lays out 10 pillars
of commandments.
1.
Serve with smile
2.
Go the extra mile
3.
Be really sweet
4.
Sa thank you &
please a lot
5.
Apologize
quickly
6.
Anticipate needed
service
7.
Do what is necessary
not what is comfortable
8.
Take
responsibility
9.
Lighten the lines of
waiting
10.
Constant &
never ending improvement you will find profound impact on your reputation,
productivity & profit.
If need be think of the deductive logic (if I
love success & if I must work hard to succeed then I love working
hard).
At time it felt the author was reflecting a lot
to his other works such as previous books and presentations and felt a bit
redundancy, but since I am not familiar with his other works I can not judge
whether if he was just promoting his other works or if he was finding it to be
a useful reference.
In summation it is a good reminder of the law of
attraction, which states by focusing on a specific thought, one can bring about
such result. “Don’t wait for your ship to come in…swim out to it…He who
waits for roasted ducks to fly into his mouth…waits a long, long times!”
Chinese proverbs on P. 104,105. I think the following three points are a good
summary of the book.
1. Develop the leader with in
2. See change as an ally, not as enemy, change is
inevitable but progress is optional
3. Develop the team…good teams care for each
other, cover & encourage each other. “Service is the rent we pay for
living on this earth” says Mr. Jolley and what a better way to close this than
inserting the renowned Maya Angelou quote, “If thee is some thing in your life
you don’t like, then you should change it. But if you can’t change it, then
change your attitude.”
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