A new time of thinking

First and foremost, I have to give a huge shout out to Jen Marsh.  Without her constant belief and friendship I probably wouldn't be sitting here. She constantly reminds me of what a great person I am and builds me up on my down days.  She pushes me to be me and doesn't have an expectation of what our friendship will ever look like.  She helped me to self publish my fathers book, The Ruination of Dylan Forbes.  Without her guidance and friendship, I would be light years behind so thank you Jen for your support.

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Now on to conversational pieces.  Last night I was talking to one of the hotel staff here and shared with her my feelings on VIPS.  This is not going to be a subject that everyone is going to agree with me on and I may lose more business than I gain, but I think it is about time that we set the record straight.  As you all know I work events for a living.  I have seen big and small, well run and not so good and pretty much every facet in between.  One of my moral sticking points is the idea of "singled out" VIP's.  As I get older and my consciousness changes, as it is changing all over the planet, I realize that I don't care for the term VIP.

You may ask why or even say that I am committing career suicide, and to that I say, If i must sacrifice for the good of man, then I am doing it now.  I have seen far too many times people coming into facilities and just because they are CEO or SVP of sales or CFO of a company, feel they have a right to serious VIP treatment.  They wear the crown and walk around as if to say, "Look at me and do this and do that", and whats worse is we cow tow to them and wash their feet and bow to their every whim.  The logic behind it is "Well they pay your salary" or "It is job security".  I am going on record and saying, No one pays my bills but me!  I don't care what your "title" is, in my book we are all equal.  I don't care that you made your company "x"billion dollars last year.  I think that is a great accomplishment, but the truth is you better look around you and be more thankful of your organization than your status.

My father always taught me to treat people with respect.  He told me that no matter what the color of your skin, nor the job that you do, nor the money in your bank account, we are all equal.  He taught me to respect my elders and open doors for others.  This idea of VIP treatment is going overboard and we need to really evaluate what VIP constitutes.

I shared with the hotel employee that in my mind we need to eliminate the term VIP and treat everyone with respect and courtesy.  What is really interesting is she brought up the fact that often times people yell and spout their authority and truth be known, when they walk into any facility, unless there are posters all over the wall with their photo and title, we as staff don't know their title.  Truth be known, should we really be so concerned with their title.  She then said, we should be treating everyone as equals.

I shared with her that our consciousness is changing and that we are starting to care less about your status and more about what you are doing in the world as a change agent for good.  We continually reward money and the power that it brings and in reality, we need to show respect to the individual for what good they are doing in the world.  You could have all the money in the world and it doesn't change the fact that you are an asshole.

Richard Branson was one of the first executives that I worked with that didn't like VIP treatment and made a point of telling everyone about it.  I have always admired that about him. He is just a guy who built an amazing company and employs amazing people.  People want to be around him because he has amazing energy and the power does not go to his head.

So in conclusion, I don't like the term VIP.  I don't buy into it and it means nothing to me.  All of my brothers and sisters are VIP and therefore we are all equal.  Don't flaunt your power at me or "expect" exceptional service because of your title.  You of all people should be respecting your place in life and being thankful for what you have and not what your title should get you.  Its called ego trip and in my book, it's bullshit :-)

We need to move forward with conversations about what is and isn't important in our world.  We need to really evaluate popular media and culture and stop idolizing people just because they are on TV or have lots of money.  We need to stop putting our kids in front of televisions and teaching them that this is what is important in society.  We need to give them a book or better yet, sit down and read it to them.  We need to talk about our future and how we can make this an awesome place to live for the generations coming up.  We need to talk!  We really aren't as VIP as we think we are, yet we are all important if we choose to be.  What is your passion and how are you making the planet great?

Lets discuss.

Comments

  1. Chad:
    I don't think this is career suicide at all - I think it is purely a statement of your career philosophy. Having seen you at work, I know that you treat everyone with care, respect and honor, the things people who "think" they are VIPs demand as the norm.

    From my own experience in the entertainment and events industry, I've seen people who really do deserve special treatment (for security reasons) defer or stay as low profile as possible - they are the ones who make me want to go out of my way to make their experiences extra, super, amazingly special.

    Those who demand special treatment are, in my opinion, reflecting their own lack of self-respect. We need to stop enabling that!

    Thank you for your thoughts and your service.

    -Julie

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