It’s Friday … and … T.G.I.F.!
Here’s to hoping your weeks have been productive. Sometimes, it is hard to be productive if one doesn’t have many goals. Just yesterday, a “friend” whom I have only “met” on a social network who was a co-classmate of many of my former students, told me something that made me smile. Now, I remember a while back this woman, “married with children”, had told me that I was a great motivator for her as my consistency and quest for good things to do with my life impressed her. Just yesterday, she mentioned that she had returned to practicing yoga and was eating better and feeling a lot better, too. She also said “thank you” to me on this social network to let me (and others!) know that she appreciated me and that I was indeed a real inspiration.
Have you ever had “times” in your life where one person was utterly impressed by your mannerism and choices in life; then another person may find the same respectable behavior actually “offensive?” Most humans have been in front of that “door of life” many times. It seems that no matter what you try to do, there is ALWAYS someone who feels that their opinion of you is more accurate than others’ opinion of you, and seek to make you feel bad about something you do, right?! Here of late, as I seek to develop a clientele for tutoring and keep the volunteer stuff going, I have encountered several such situations. I can offer to pick someone up, take them to handle some of “their things,” and then be told something like “you’re cheap” because I don’t spend my last monies on them!!
One client who had hired me, then fired me the next day, then … the following day hired me back with an hours notice, pulled a fast one. They went on a trip to the Caribbean and left the “boat captain” to handle the tutoring schedule. I was told that “the boat captain” of their personal vessel would call me this past Sunday for a possible tutoring session. I didn’t get a call. Monday, I usually put in an hour or two with the family’s two boys. But I hadn’t heard from anyone though I had sent texts and left several voice messages. It was raining Monday almost all day and an associate asked if I could take them to Palm Beach County to pick up something from a friend, and I agreed. I was waiting for a call or text or some communication from someone in the family to confirm the class that normally started at 8pm. Nothing . . . So, I told my friend that I would take her. On our way back, around 7:40pm, I get a text from the boat captain saying, “Just wanted to be sure that you are on your way.” I text him back that I was in Palm Beach County and it would probably take an hour to get there in Fort Lauderdale, and, that I hadn’t heard back from the “Mrs.” so I assumed class was canceled. When she returned from their trip yesterday (she and her husband), she asked the boat captain to tell me … NOT to come to tutor her sons! I text her saying, “Please let me know if you want me to return or if the message from the boat captain meant you were no longer going to need my tutoring services. I want to work and need to find other clients, perhaps.” She text me back, “Yes, find other clients and I have found a tutor who is reliable.” I thanked her for her reply and let it go . . .
Now, I was shocked … but not too shocked … as she had stated earlier that she could find a tutor that charged ten dollars less an hour than I did!!! Here’s a family with a near mansion on the waterways in Ft. Lauderdale with a personal watercraft, jacuzzi, swimming pool and humongous aquarium downstairs, not to mention a theatre as well! So, I wondered if it was really about the ten dollar difference per hour in tutoring costs or something else. Well, I have to look for other clients since I was planning to do three days per week with these kids. I also learned a valuable lesson …. again! Trying to please everyone can be difficult . . . so . . . try to please oneself … and ones Creator. Have a great Friday, a wonderful weekend, and “try to be as you would seem to be.”
Peace,
John I. Cook, Director
Educational Excellence 