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On the 24th of December, on Christmas Eve, a customer emailed me and asked when she could drop off her sofa. When I heard the notification sound on my phone, I picked it up because I was sure it was either family or a friend who just wanted to wish us a Merry Christmas.
My morning turned out great! An older man, sadly I can not call him a gentleman because he was all but gentle, called me. He had found my business number online, which he explained to me later. But first, he came straight to the point. With a hoarse voice, and without wasting any time on manners or nonsense like saying ‘Hello’ he told me he had a cigarette burn in his couch and he wanted me to come by and fix it.
“Respect has to be earned,” one of the many wrong statements I made when I was younger, and which I now would like to retract. I didn’t know it better, had been blinded by the vanity and confidence of my youth. Now, years later, getting older has given me a different outlook, perhaps even a sprinkle of wisdom.
One day a poor soul somewhere in a call center far, far away will record a conversation with me and the next day, a video clip will be made public and people all over the world will listen to me, in one of my darkest moments.
I do everything full heartedly, always give my best, even when I am wrong, even then will I do everything I can to outdo myself. And I am telling you, I do have my moments. I wish I could blame it on age or missing hormones, I wish I could blame it on somebody else -anybody else- but often there is just no way out.