So I’ve been reading “Minding Your Business-Profits that Restore the Planet” by Horst M. Rechelbacher (Founder of Aveda and Intelligent Nutrients.) This book is full of very wise ideas about social responsibility in business as well as a personal manifesto about managing ones personal life as a holistic corporation. He calls this corporation “I, Inc.” which exists within a larger conglomerate-the ecosystem of all our relationships with others, with society and with nature itself. It’s pretty heavy reading at times!
There are so many good ideas and principles presented in this book, but the one that has really got me thinking is “The Art of Service.” I can relate to his experience of having a service job at a young age and how it taught him how to treat customers, relate to them and show them respect. “When we serve without expectation of reward, everyone gains. And those who serve in this fashion benefit the most, often in unexpected ways.” These words really rang true for me. I have spent my entire adult life in some sort of service industry. As an esthetician, I have found that when I provide service in earnest and really put my entire focus on my client and meeting their needs it can be rewarding and sometimes in very unexpected ways. The feedback I receive from clients can be so insightful and helpful to me. I am also blessed with some of the greatest people as clients, which I believe is part of my unexpected reward for all my service.
He makes an interesting point as well about the decline of service in today’s world. “The ideal of service has been greatly devalued, and those who serve are often viewed as lesser or even lower class. As a result, the quality of service has declined.” Please try to think about the people in your life who provide you service and really think about how it makes you feel. Whether it’s that voice on the other end of the customer service line you waited for on hold for a while to talk to or the waitress serving your lunch or the nail tech giving you a pedicure or the guy who fixes the brakes on your car.
“When service is devalued, life and relationships are devalued, and an essential quality of our humanness and our business is lost. When service is devalued , work and business are engaged grudgingly, regarded merely as ways of getting by or getting rich. And the higher purpose and spiritual opportunity of service that work and business are called to, that are their very reason for being, are lost.”
Mr. Rechelbacher makes an extremely valuable argument about serving others and the effect that this art has upon us. Service through altruistic acts bestows immediate and long-term emotional and physical health benefits upon the giver and receiver, with the giver benefiting more than the receiver and it even transforms the personality over time. In many studies altruism is specifically cited in alleviating ailments including, insomnia, migraines, ulcers, arthritis, anxiety, depression, lupus and even cancer.
I think I’ve always had the spirit of service in mind in my career. Now having seen the idea depicted so articulately in this book, I think I will be view the “art” of my service in a whole new light with much more intension and conviction. I hope you’ll do the same whomever you serve and as Bob Dylan said “You gotta serve somebody.”
