How You Do Anything is How You Do Everything

“Oh, well, that doesn’t count.”

I remember reading about someone who took potential employees out to lunch and observed how they treated the wait staff. He wanted to see how they treated “anyone” because, in this employer’s eyes, that was indicative of how they were going to treat “everyone.”

Think about this. Think about someone you work with or a friend, or, gulp, your family.

How do they treat others? How do they do the “job that doesn’t matter”?

Or take, ahem, yourself. You know those times when you only give it 50%? It’s not even so much that no one is watching but you are watching.

You know when you’re doing “just anything” and you also know that it’s the same as “everything.”

Your work, your relationships, your ethics, morals, etc.

You can’t just turn it on and off.

Wanna get nastier?

What about our prejudices? Our pre-conceived ideas? Are we nice to someone to their face and then mean when they turn around?

Think of the potential boss in the restaurant scene. What if you didn’t know you were being “monitored”? Who is the real you that’s going to come across? People notice. Not just the potential boss.

I remember a guy who would buy the party tent and then return it the following week (to the (American) store who very readily accepted returns with little-to-no questions asked). It made me think twice, “Hmm, he’s abusing the system. He’s doing something because he knows he can get away with it.”

How You Do Anything is How You Do Everything

I’m filing this (also) under “Parenting” because my son says, “Well, that’s school (as in, that doesn’t matter), the other one is my work (that matters). I think it had to do with being late. Of course, I hear you, no, of course, he shouldn’t be late to either one but hey, yeah, there’s that. He’s a boy, he’s 16, pick your battles.

Nope, I’m afraid to say, “How You Do Anything is How You Do Everything.”