Random Acts of Kindness

Edward de Bona in his book H+ describes them as pons, random acts of kindness to other people that you do not necessarily plan to do when you wake up in the morning. An attitude that you take into your day that requires you to be on the look out for opportunities to do something for someone that is not expected.

My story during the last week covers just that: On Saturday our family went down to the Cape Town Waterfront to just hang out and enjoy the day. We dropped in at a coffee shop in the Musica building and sat down for coffee and a snack. Under the table was a small camera bag, obviously left by someone before us. I searched the bag for some identification but only found a very expensive camera and a Budget car hire key. So I call the car hire company who put me in touch with the person who hired the car and they come running back to the coffee shop and claim their bag.

The next day I see that someone had dropped their flash card on the floor at church and left it when they got up to leave. I retrieve it find the owner and give it back to them.

Tuesday, waiting in line at the airport, a lady moves on in the queue and forgets her handbag and jacket on the floor. I stop the queue, ask around and get the bag back to the lady.

Just yesterday, I load up my car with a baby pram, cot and wall cabinet to deliver to our housekeeper’s home in Kommetjie. Not knowing where exactly she stays I offer to collect her from her client when she is finished for the day. I park my car and enter the home on the lake edge to knock on the door and from around the corner come four growling dogs. The homeowner screams for me to get out but too late I am trapped and mauled by the dogs before I can get back out of the gate.

Bleeding and shaking I still deliver the goods and our housekeeper to her home and make my way back to my wife to explain the loss of not only blood but also a very good pair of pants now in shreds. So do random acts of kindness pay back? Well not in this story you may wonder but out there is a lady with a camera and her car keys, a person with his flash card returned and a lady who had a better day for not loosing her bag and my housekeepers sister has stuff for her baby that she could never afford to buy. All this brings a warm glow to my heart knowing that I could be of help to make the world just a little better for a few others.

Today I am going shopping for pants.

Is it time to sell and buy new or to do alterations?

Like so many other people in Cape Town, we are affected by change. The constant change of life, prices and situations seem to be a bit overwhelming at the moment. It seems that if I miss a day by not listening to the news or reading my selected blog news, I almost have to begin from new and catch up on the changes.

We have started the project of house hunting and looking for a new venue to live and run our business from. Looking around at what people are doing in their lives and homes has been fun but now the second wave of callbacks from agents and builders has begun. We are still undecided as what to do. Moving is easy and we could just up and move into a perfect new house with minimal disruption, or we could decide to add on to our existing home, with months of workmen, noise and mess in our lives.

Change is here to stay, how we adapt to it is up to us. Making the choice of how to change with the change is not an easy task and as we walk this road I will definitely be using all the tools I have in decision making and project management to make sure that the changes do not bring the same amount of pain I see happening in other peoples lives.
Give me a click or call if you can share some light on our situation or help with some suggestions. www.hep.co.za

Follow Through

Finish your shot with follow through and your game will improve – Gary Player

Gary player was speaking about golf when he made this comment, or was he? In the golf instruction video he commented that people played the perfect shot until they put a ball in front of them and then all their technique went to pot and there was hardly ever any follow through.

How similar is this in our dealings with the people we meet and interact with on any one given day. We have all the good intentions of having a great day and closing deals and making friends, then we get out of bed. From that moment on we fail in our follow through.

We speak phrases like:
I will call you
I will get right back to you
I will send it to you now
My guys are on their way now
The cheque is in the post

But all of it falls dead even before the last word has left our lips and we do not follow through on what we intended to do.

Do something new today and do what you wanted and need to do. Make that call, send that email go and visit that person, follow through and your game will improve.

Passion and Purpose

This week has seen some interesting developments in the Entrepreneurial side of our business, with our assessment modules and Coaching module brochures going to print.

I have been able to help 3 different people discover what their passions are and walk the road to discovering their niche in a potential market. This is the first step in moving from the life of employment to the fulfillment of self-employment.

I hear the same story of people just existing in their lives operating in survival mode and living without any plan or action related to a future. Life should be lived with passion and purpose. To know what your purpose is, is to know one of life’s greatest secrets. To live your passion is one of life’s greatest pleasures.

The life of an Entrepreneur is one of ups and downs but even a bad day of self-employment can be better than a good day working for someone else.

Our website has been updated with pics and profiles of our team, check us out on http://www.hep.co.za/contact.html
Give us a call or click if you need some passion and purpose direction, we are fully equipped and ready to walk the road with you.