What Makes Someone Good? July 11, 2008

Let me tell you what service is. It’s anticipating someone’s needs before they do and it’s being reliable and available 100 % of the time. Tim epitomises this. Tim knows what to do, knows what to say and has not let me down. Tim is my driver.  I found him when I used to travel a lot more and now thank my lucky stars for it. There is nothing worse than standing in a cab line after a flight. Nothing. Now, I saunter past these lemmings and wonder why more people aren’t on to this. This thing called a ‘driver’.

 

This is how it works: I text Tim my flight number and time. He confirms. I am greeted with a text when I land to advise he is waiting. I walk out of the airport. He takes my bag. We walk to the car which is parked 50m away. He opens the door to the comfy leather seats. My light soy latte is sitting in the drink holder. Did you get that? My light soy latte! He then puts my bag in the boot. He asks a few conversational questions to assess if I want to talk or not, if I want the heater or air-conditioning on or if I want music or talk back. Sometimes there’s a paper. He is good.

 

Anyone that’s ‘good’ at anything fascinates me. I wonder why they are good? How have they become to be good? Maybe I can understand better if I know more about them. I wanted to know more about Tim. I was so curious as to why he was a driver, what he’s really like, where he lives etc., so I investigated.

 

Tim is Vietnamese and lives in the west with his family. He was born in Vietnam, grew up in Tokyo and lived in France for four years while waiting for a visa to come to Australia. He is a very centered, down-to-earth family man. He owns the car and the business. He’s a one man (car) band. He works six days and has mostly regular corporate clients. He spends his weekends ‘eating’ with family. They all go to the one person’s house and feast. It was his turn this Saturday. He said it like it was a chore but you can tell he wouldn’t have it any other way. He is not looking forward to World Youth Day. He speaks French beautifully. He has an amazing work ethic. He truly loves Australia.

 

Now I was beginning to understand Tim. He is good because his work defines him. It’s his life, his life here in this country. He’s genuine and sincerely enjoys and prides himself on what he does. He is good because he is unique. You cannot manufacture or teach the things that make him good.

 

I am just saying that we should take the time to understand [some] people.

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