“If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim ….”
~ Ruyard Kipling
I actually enjoyed running retail. I suppose I just like being of help, and being able to help someone find just what they are looking for was always a pleasure. On the other hand, service customers, who usually are in pretty dire straits – ie, their computer was usually dead – can be the absolute worst of humanity. You’d think that since they truly need your help, they would be kind. But no, most of them liked to take their problems out on the front desk, retail person. It was a big life lesson in how NOT to act. Never bite the hand that feeds you, right ?!?
I came up with a little acronym to put on the service check in paperwork. It was PITA. When the customer would ask what that meant, I’d say their machine was being checked for “Potential Internet Threat Assessment”. But what it really meant to my staff was that the person was being a real “Pain In The Ass”, so to get them out of our life as quickly as possible. Yes, there is some truth to “the squeaky wheel gets the grease” LOL …
I particularly love that second line in Kipling’s Poem … So Buddha!! Coming from India, Kipling was most likely knowledgeable of the words of The Enlightened One. Did you know that Kipling also wrote “The Jungle Book”, which included “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi”, one of my favorite short stories as a kid?
So how many of you love this poem too? And for some of you, is this your first time reading it??
If you’d like, there’s a lovely JPG over at Elephant Journal (another great blog) if you’d like to bookmark it. I’ll be adding the image to my website (a place to go for inspiration and happiness) as well.
Happy Tuesday. And remember, be nice to those retail clerks. Their job is a tough one … ❤
If …. by Ruyard Kipling
———————
IF you can keep your head, when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
‘ Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!
