(To quote today’s guest essayist, Bob Beverley, “We have a lot in common. We are both men, love Roy H. Williams, and happen to be Christians – the latter easier to say than to do.” Bob’s “a psychotherapist who has a side interest in marketing.” Bob’s also an inspirational storyteller. Thank you, Bob, for sharing this story. I can’t wait to share it with everyone else!)
My son, Aaron, and I saw “One” by Cirque Du Soleil at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, a week ago on Saturday night. “One” is an homage to Michael Jackson.
The show was far and above any other show we have ever seen in our lives. The stage, the lights, the special effects, the music, the artistry and athleticism of the acrobats. It was so spectacular that words fail me.
But words fail me even more about something else that was part of this evening. To set the tone to this story, let me simply say that my son and I experienced some dreadful customer service throughout the week in various Vegas venues.
My son and I have a rare bone disease. I have broken 26 bones in 62 years. He broke 45 bones in the first 18 years of his life. And that doesn’t count all the sprains, tears, ruptures and miscellaneous damage to soft tissue.
Therefore, it was with particularly amazement that we noticed that one of the Cirque du Soleil acrobats had only one leg and was doing all the moves and flips and rope climbing ad infinitum while operating a pair of crutches. Crutches are the sign of the Devil’s existence and a guarantor of unsteadiness, slips and falls, and ungracious movement. Not so for this man.
He owned the crutches. He owned the stage. He won our hearts.
Near the end of the performance, I said to myself “We have got to meet this man.” And so when the standing ovations died down and most of the crowd had left, I asked one of the ushers what it would take to meet the acrobat with only one leg.
He said “Lots of luck with that. They are out of here ten seconds after the performance. Besides, you are dealing with two corporations here, Cirque and Mandalay Bay, so it’s not like we can just tell any of them what to do on a whim.”
I said “What could we possibly do to make it happen tonight? We’re catching a plane in five hours.”
He said, “You can go downstairs and ask for the Manager, Olga, maybe she can help you.”
We took the elevator downstairs and another attendant found the manager for us. She came up to us and I explained who we were, about our bone disease, and how we wanted to meet this special Cirque acrobat. She said “Oh, that’s so lovely of you both, and you are amazing as well, but the guys and gals get out of here pretty quick, and I’m not sure I can make it happen. I will give it a shot, but no promises.” She got on her walkie talkie and started asking around. Suddenly she said “Oh my gosh, I think we have a chance” and started running in a direction where the public could not go.
Two minutes later, Olga and Jean Sok, two of the most gracious people in the world, came around the corner.
When is the last time you saw a manager running to do something for a customer?
When is the last time you heard a story like this?
The four of us spent twenty minutes together. He asked about us, we asked about him. While the conversation was going on, at any given point, tears were rolling down at least one of our faces.
He told us that when he was 9-years-old he was diagnosed with cancer and lost not only half a leg, but one lung to the disease. He was told that he had only a 10% chance of living. Even as a little boy, he made a vow. If he was given a second chance, he would show people that life is an amazing gift and that we are meant to live to inspire others.
1,200 performances later, he is living up to that vow.
As the conversation was winding down, I asked Olga if she could get us a pen and paper so we could get Jean’s autograph. She said “Of course” and came back with this big thick pen and two portfolio packages from the show that looked like they could cost a small fortune.
Jean wrote this to me:
“For Bob, believe in your dreams. Never give up.”
To my son, he wrote:
“For Aaron. Life is beautiful. All the best. Inspire the world.”
Aaron and I walked away. We had forgotten all about the dreadful customer service earlier that day. It seemed so pale in comparison, so insignificant. Aaron said, “Well, we’ve now got no excuse to not work for Cirque de Soleil, despite our bone disease.”
As for me, I saw something I have never seen before: grace on crutches. If grace is possible there, it’s possible anywhere!
(Thank you, Bob, for rocking our world and lifting us up today! As noted above, Bob’s website is FindWisdomNow.com. He’s a good man and a fine writer, and we were blessed to have him stop by today. I hope he visits us again from time to time. If you’re interested in submitted a guest essay, we’d love to hear from you. We’re looking for stories about management, marketing, or motivation that would be helpful to people who own or work for family businesses or nonprofit organizations. Contact us with your submission today!)