The Art of Appreciation and the Exponential Returns!

As we touched the Leh airport , me and my cousin were overjoyed and thrilled at the pilot maneuverability to land the plane at Leh on a small runway . Till the last minute there was no sight of the landing strip, but the dexterity of the pilot , made us get an unbelievable experience .

After two days of acclimatisation at Leh , the very first morning as the shuttle bus arrived , the bus driver happened to be a young, female. The shuttle bus would pick us up from the home-stay , make a number of stops along the way for sighting the flora and fauna and the animal and bird species -Bharal, Ibex, Urial , Marmot , Yaks and then drop us off at  village Nimuru , where we were to sight the snow leopard . I was hopped up with energy and enthusiasm for the day of ahead. My cousin and I were seated in the very first row, right next to the driver . All the way from our home-stay to the village , I was hassling and kidding the driver in a fun way. My cousin , wary of my over friendly nature told me to cool it and leave her alone. During the entire trip, which took about two hours, the bus driver, the lady , did not say a word. 

When we arrived and started to leave the bus she said, “I just want to tell you how much I appreciate your talking to me. I drive this bus all day every day and no one ever talks to me. You made my day!” 

And then she shared her best experience of sighting the snow leopard , which was not only valuable ,and helped us to sight it within 4 days against an average sighting of not less than 10 days .The BBC team had been camping there for the last 40 days to shoot an entire footage of the snow leopard making a kill, but had been lucky only enough to sight it couple of times.

The moral of the story is, with the right attitude and enthusiasm you can make a person’s day. In business when you can do that you will build rapport. The more people within a company, that you have rapport with, the easier the sell- right from the door man , to the receptionist ,the guys at the shopfloor, the operators , accounts guys , the design product development and manufacturing team members etc 

As W C Fields said , “Attitude is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than what people do or say. It is more important than appearance, gifted-ness, or skill” .

Think Bigger, Better, Bolder, Beyond and Before Others !