A blonde, blue eyed little lesson

I’m at the airport once again and this time I’m on my way to Durban. We start boarding and I’m seated in one of those middle seats with a person on either side. As the first to arrive in the row, I take my seat crossing my fingers that my neighbors don’t pitch today.

Just before boarding is complete a mom with a 3 month old baby stands next to me trying to balance her baby and put the bag in the baggage compartment at the same time. I offer to help her with the baby and I pick up this bouncy blue eyed, blonde haired little boy as he smiles broadly and gets excited while kicking his little feet. Mom is meant to sit by the window but this now seems a little bit impractical so we decide that she sits on the isle seat and she would ask whoever is sitting there if they can move to the window. Makes sense as she may need to stand and rock him or something right?

Now poor mom is very tense as the baby hasn’t flown before. She is nervous that he might not like it, cry the whole way and disturb me and the rest of the plane so she apologises repeatedly in advance. I assure her that I am fresh from living this life and really don’t mind. It’s only 45 minutes after all.

Two minutes later, a serious looking gentleman and a young family arrive. “This is my seat he says”. “Yes it is” the lady responds. “I was hoping we could swap seats so I could have some space for the baby” she continues. “No!” he responds firmly. “I’m with a family too and I don’t want us to sit apart. These 4 seats are reserved for us so please move” he says.

Now his kids look about 5 and 7 so I’m quite sure they won’t need the same attention as a 3 month old for 45 minutes but he insists and the lady gets up. As she does so, I offer to move to the window seat so she can sit in the middle. She agrees, says thank you, and the man’s family sit together with his wife occupying the isle seat. The wife apologises to the mom for having to move her and shortly, we are in the air and the baby now thinks we are best friends.

During the flight, we play little games, he laughs his lungs out, I give him his bottle, rock him a little bit and 20 minutes later he is fast asleep. I gently hand him back to his mum who clearly needed a break, and she says “thank you”

So where am I going with this story?

As much as the temptation in this sort of situation is to focus on the gentlemen, I’ll ignore him and learn from the real hero of the story. The little baby. Before I ignore him though, there is one small lesson here... Never put anyone in a position to have to apologise for your stupidity.

Now moving along, like many of us, this baby had every reason to complain, to cry, to throw a tantrum and to make this trip an absolute nightmare for everyone around him and of course for himself in the process. It was his first trip, the plane was noisy, there were people all around him, he had to wear a seat belt... and besides, everyone can see he’s a baby right?

Wrong... the baby chose the path that most of us should choose on a day to day basis despite having every reason to do otherwise. Choose to smile, choose to ignore distractions, choose to positively influence those who you come into contact with and choose to respond calmly to uncomfortable situations. Why? Because the stranger sitting next to you may just be the source of your next opportunity and pick you up like I did this little champion.

Today when someone looks at you at work, in business or in life, do they get the natural urge to pick you up, to encourage you, to promote you, to want to do business with you, to keep you as a friend or do they immediately want to give you back to your “mommy”?

Don’t be that person who loses opportunities just because you couldn’t resist the urge to throw a tantrum even when you're right. Like that baby, be ready, easy to lift up and for goodness sake, smile! It's free.

Some food for thought for the week...