August 5, 2010

you just have to do what you do with reverence

[Ori­gi­nally pos­ted Sept., 2004]

There are a lot of great mar­ke­ting books and blogs out there. That being said, I still think the best mar­ke­ting sto­ries come from per­so­nal, first-hand experience.

Here’s a favo­rite one of mine:

Back when I lived in New York there was this fabu­lous, crazy-ass juice bar on West Hous­ton called Lucky’s Juice Joint. I think it’s no lon­ger there. I hear it’s moved.

It was the most out-of-place busi­ness south of 14th Street. Hard to des­cibe, except as a “hard­core hip­pie haven”. Just had this weird, crazy, psychedelic-rainforest vibe. But damn, it had the best juice in town. It was ama­zing stuff. Tas­ted like the fruits and vege­ta­bles were pic­ked that mor­ning. Fresher than anything else I found in New York. And yes, I had searched high and low for even bet­ter alter­na­ti­ves, but never found one. In New York, this was really it.

The boss was this crazy loo­king tie-dye wea­ring guy who loo­ked and tal­ked like he had done too many drugs back in the ’six­ties. A big ol’ middle aged, acid-head teddy bear. One day we struck up a brief con­ver­sa­tion. I com­pli­men­ted the hell out of his pro­duct. “Wow,” I quietly gushed, “Your stuff is the best. It really is…”

“Sure it is,” said the guy. “That’s because we make it with reverence.”

You don’t have to get a job with a famous com­pany or hot-shot industry in order to have a spec­ta­cu­lar career. You just have to do what you do with reverence.

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4 Responses to “you just have to do what you do with reverence”

  1. Kevin says:

    Maybe there was more than fruits and vege­ta­bles mixed in that blend.

  2. Julie D'Arcy says:

    I appre­cia­ted that story a lot. I strug­gle to teach my tee­na­gers that was­te­ful­ness is more than just thro­wing things away that you could have recyc­led or reu­sed. It is impor­tant to live with reve­rence, appre­ciate that even the cheaply made stuff in this world were made by some­body and repre­sent the limi­ted resour­ces on this Earth.
    My daugh­ter is a vege­ta­rian because she does not believe that it is right for us to kill ani­mals for food. I have tried to point out to her that plants are living crea­tu­res as well, and that so long as we honor the source of the resour­ces we use, it shouldn’t mat­ter if we are eating plants or ani­mals. Who’s to say that plants don’t have souls?
    Okay, that’s my total tree-hugging-hippie crap moment for the day, and I don’t even know you! Thanks for a great story! (Now I’ve got to go back to pain­ting my house, but I pro­mise to do it with reverence!)

    Cheers,
    Julie D’Arcy

  3. yes, bet­ter results come up, when you do job with passion.

  4. Roy Jacobsen says:

    Basi­cally, Colos­sians 3:23.

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