I love reading. I love the idea of books, to the point that a small, always ongoing vanity project of mine is a library of books I find special. This means there are always a few books in flight (I should probably practice better focus and work on only one book at a time).

So anyway, I was reading a memoir from someone in the restaurant industry. They were recounting an interview they had early in their career. The position was for the serving staff. Of all the questions, one stood out to the author (I'm paraphrasing):

What's more important at a restaurant? The food? Or the service?

He flunked the answer and didn't get the job. But take a second and think about it. What's your answer?

The answer is "The Service. It's always the Service".

Think about it. Do you want every time in a restauarant to feel like it's your first time? Or do you appreciate that the staff remembers you? Remembers your favorite drink? To be clear, a restuarant with low-quality food is a short-timer, no doubt. No one comes back for mediocre food. But if the staff is friendly, cracks jokes with you, remembers that your kids were having their final little league game and asks 'did they win?'... That's what you're going to come back for. To be part of the family, part of the crew. That's the whole reason we go to these places anyway. If it was just avoiding having to cook, you could order fast food and call it done.

I hope you've figured out by now that this is not relegated only to the restaurant business. This matters with everything, including your career. You interact with people, even if you don't interact directly with "customers" of the paying type, you do have customers. Everyone does. Someone consumes your work, whether it's a presentation, software you wrote, or a spreadsheet you curate. And this isn't just office work. Remember "bedside manners" when we're talking about doctors? How about the landscapers, pavers, construction workers? Everyone has a customer. Everyone has to interact with other people.

When you make those interactions enjoyable, you get remembered, you get the repeat business. You get people who smile when you enter the room. Not because you got them a good deal on the last job. But because they get to work with you, and they enjoy that time. Remember this the next time you're having a day that's not going according to plan. It's worth the emotional effort.