we could all learn from wally!!!

[pizzabarntn]

Harvey McKay was waiting in line for a ride at the airport.

When a cab pulled up, the first thing Harvey noticed was that the taxi was  polished to a bright shine.

Smartly dressed in a white shirt, black tie, and freshly pressed black slacks, the cab driver jumped out and rounded the car to open the back passenger door for Harvey .

He handed my friend a laminated card and said: 'I'm Wally, your driver. While I'm loading your bags in the trunk I'd like  you to read my mission statement.'

Taken aback, Harvey read the card. It said: Wally's Mission Statement: To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest and cheapest  way possible in a friendly environment.

This blew Harvey away. Especially when he noticed that the inside of the cab matched the outside.  Spotlessly clean!

As he slid behind the wheel, Wally said, 'Would you like a cup of coffee? I  have a thermos of regular and one of decaf.'

My friend said jokingly, 'No, I'd prefer a soft drink.'  Wally smiled and said, 'No problem. I have a cooler up front with regular and  Diet Coke, water and orange juice.'

Almost stuttering, Harvey said, 'I'll take a Diet Coke.'

Handing him his drink, Wally said, 'If you'd like something to read, I have  The Wall Street Journal, Time, Sports Illustrated and USA Today.'

As they were pulling away, Wally handed my friend another laminated card.  'These are the stations I get and the music they play, if you'd like to listen  to the radio.'

And as if that weren't enough, Wally told Harvey that he had the air conditioning on and asked if the temperature was comfortable for him. Then he  advised Harvey of the best route to his destination for that time of day. He  also let him know that he'd be happy to chat and tell him about some of the  sights or, if Harvey preferred, to leave him with his own thoughts.

'Tell me, Wally,' my amazed friend asked the driver, 'have you always served customers like this?'

Wally smiled into the rear view mirror. 'No, not always. In fact, it's only  been in the last two years. My first five years driving, I spent most of my time  complaining like all the rest of the cabbies do. Then I heard the personal  growth guru, Wayne Dyer, on the radio one day.

He had just written a book called You'll See It When You Believe It.  Dyer said that 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.''

'That hit me right between the eyes,' said Wally.

'Dyer was really talking about me. I was always quacking and complaining, so  I decided to change my attitude and become an eagle.  I looked around at the  other cabs and their drivers. The cabs were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and the customers were unhappy.  So I decided to make some changes. I put in a  few at a time. When my customers responded well, I did more.'

'I take it that has paid off for you,' Harvey said.

'It sure has,' Wally replied. 'My first year as an eagle, I doubled my income from the previous year.

This year I'll probably quadruple it. You were lucky to get me today. I don't  sit at cabstands anymore. My customers call me for appointments on my cell phone  or leave a message on my answering machine. If I can't pick them up myself, I  get a reliable cabbie friend to do it and I take a piece of the action.'

Wally was phenomenal. He was running a limo service out of a Yellow Cab. I've  probably told that story to more than fifty cab drivers over the years, and only two took the idea and ran with it. Whenever I go to their cities, I give them a  call. The rest of the drivers quacked like ducks and told me all the reasons  they couldn't do any of what I was suggesting.

Wally the Cab Driver made a different choice. He decided to stop quacking  like ducks and start soaring like eagles.

 

[Charles]

Good story. I cannot stand “motivational” speakers, though. Just grind on me. I would rather read people of experience or research.

 

[GMAC]

What a great story! There are so many things to take from it that we can use in our businesses.
Thanks!

McKay said he gave this info to about 50 other cabbies and he saw only two do anything with it. They say that only 10% of the people are successful and the rest of us just muddle a long, or worse. They say that only 2% of the people are REALLY successful. It has also been said that you could line up a hundred people and give them a hypothetical list of 10 items that would guarantee them success IF they did them. Out of that hundred people only 10 would do anything with the list and only 2 would maximize its value. Interesting how this correlates to the 50 cabbies McKay talked to about the story.

Everything I have ever read about people, businesses and methods for becoming successful make it abundantly clear that we, individually, are the key elements to our own successes, or not. The information is there, the necessary reading material as to how to do it is there, the examples of those who have done it are there and although many countries might be good places to achieve it might be said that the United States is perhaps the best country to achieve.