Just a good egg

I enjoy watching people who are good at what they do. It inspires me to try to be better at what I do. It doesn't matter how much money they make or how prestigious their job is. The only thing that matters to this special breed of people is being excellent at what they do.

Mrs Planner and I were in Chicago over the weekend and we went to a local breakfast place called the West Egg. Very good short order breakfast spot. It's a pretty popular place, and when we arrived we were greeted by a brutal line. There had to have been 25-30 people in line to eat breakfast. This is both good and bad news. The good news is that it is probably pretty good food; otherwise why would people stand in a line that long. The bad news was that I was starving and a line 30 people deep was quite discouraging. I went to the front of the line to put my name in with the host.

"How long of a wait?" I asked.

"20 minutes, sir." He replied.

"Okay", I said as I gave him my name.

I went back to Mrs. Planner and told her it would only take 20 minutes. We both stood in disbelief. How in the world were all of these people going to be seated in 20 minutes? We stuck with it, and by God he called our name in exactly 20 minutes. Exactly 20 minutes! We went inside and were seated near the host stand. I got to watch this guy work for the next 35 minutes as we ate. He was incredible. He started telling people, "17 minutes" or "18 minutes". And he nailed it every time. He had a huge smile on his face the whole time and he made sure that everyone's experience was great. He was truly great at what he did, and it had a huge impact on everyone he encountered.

It makes me want to be the best when I meet people like that guy. Does this sort thing inspire you as well? Does it inspire you as much as money and prestige? Be on the lookout for people like this, and make sure to let them know that they are doing a great job.