Sometimes it feels weird mining your life and experience for moments to blog about. I mean, if you're trying to write a blog that's of some 'use' to your readers that is.
It's not all about me--'cause it's ultimately for you--but it is all about me in a way 'cause it comes only out of my life experience.
So what I'm about to write is slightly embarrassing and I get it and I know it's strange to talk about yourself like this and I realize that some of you will mock me for it but I hope--even in the midst of my cringing--that some few of you might take something good from this.
Making all the mocking worthwhile.
So, without further ado...
My wife made the cake and cupcakes you see above.
I iced them.
And here's the story. We were at our friend's place for our second annual 'Canada Day' bbq--I posted about it last year in fact--and Niki asked me if I'd ice the cake and cupcakes 'cause she hadn't had a chance before we left.
No problem, I'll ice 'em.
So I get to it. And I just do what I always do. I try to make 'em as nice as possible given my limited talents and the resources on hand.
When I finished I heard three things:
1) They look SO nice!
2) I can't believe you were icing those for AN HOUR!
3) Typical Todd.
And this is a humbling lesson to me--if for no other reason that I know how precarious positivity can be--in what it takes to make a good impression on people over the long term.
Here's what hit me and what might prove useful to you.
You build your reputation over time and with every little thing that you do.
How you ice a cake preaches. How you treat a PA speaks to how you'll treat your starlet.
Everything preaches.
And with people who are somewhat outside of the norm in terms of generating results that have long-term impact it's my bet that you'll find that those people ice a cake just as carefully as they write a sermon or edit a television special.
It's attention to detail and it's caring about the end-result and it's having a sense of love for your audience.
I wanted my friends to love the cake. Not 'cause I wanted their props, I just wanted them to feel like I cared enough to make 'em something beautiful.
And I did genuinely care. And that scares me 'cause that means I have to have a lot more caring in my life. I've got to care about so much and that caring has got to drive me to work very hard for a very long time.
Plus, if you ever take your foot off the gas you don't get to coast for long.
Sobering.
And motivating.
So on that note--for me and for you--I say...
Back to work.
T
2 comments:
Hey Todd,
That was quite a hard hitting piece for me. I struggle with expectation management issues on an almost daily basis. I've got way too many cupcakes of my own that are going stale, waiting for me to take a risk and ice them.
Incidentally, this is a voice from your distant past (although 19 years doesn't seem to be as long as it used to be). LIT, summer of '90 at Pioneer Camp. I was the guy in the shades with the headaches. Give me a shout, I'd like to get back in touch. I've thought about looking you up for years now, but always seemed to put it off.
Well, at least this is one cupcake we can finally call iced.
Thanks again.
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