Love is a four letter word that gets tossed around so much that it has become almost meaningless. I love chocolate. I love this TV show. I love you, man!
I love my job
This is usually said with a great deal of sarcasm. It’s usually said after a particularly difficult request by the boss, an angry encounter with a customer, or an empty 2 hour meeting with the team. It’s why many of us left those cushy, well paid, but ultimately unsatisfying careers to become massage therapists.
Do you love your job?
Mark Sanborn thinks you should. He also thinks you should be unafraid to show it. Love is what makes your customer service remarkable. He thinks this enough to have written a manifesto titled The Four-Letter Word That Makes You and Your Work Irresistible.
This is a short ebook, about 14 pages, filled with some great examples of people who love their work and the impact it’s had on their customers.
“Love is choosing to accept someone—imperfections, weaknesses, demands, and all—no matter his or her circumstances or needs.”
We see people as they are.
We see the scars, the tattoos, the hair, the acne, the imperfections that make them who they are. As a therapist, you can either see these as flaws or you can see them as the things that make each individual unique. You can either sit in judgement of them or accept them. Sanborn makes the case that you should accept them, meet them where they are.
Mark Sanborn takes the reader through 9 ways to add love to your work and create something meaningful.
Should you get the book?
Yes. This ebook is well written, well thought out, and professionally edited. Mark Sanborn makes a compelling case to love what you do and gives you 9 clear ways to do it. I’ll be re-reading this book regularly to refresh myself on the concepts and make sure that I’m working towards making my service remarkable.
My favorite line in the whole book is
“I don’t think Mother Theresa woke up in the morning and mourned, “Oh Lord, not more lepers!”
If you ever wake up in the morning thinking, “oh Lord, not more clients”, it’s time to take a step back and think about why you are a massage therapist. Do you love some part of what you do? Sanborn isn’t pollyanna enough to suggest that we have to love every aspect of our jobs, but that we must love some part of our jobs and make the effort to put that love into practice.
The best part: It’s FREE
This ebook is available on Change This, a website dedicated to support and spread great ideas. There are ebooks by a number of people, like Seth Godin and Richard Florida, and the topics range from business to society. Some are short, 14 pages, some are not so short, more than 100 pages. You don’t have to sign up for anything and you don’t have to pay anything. I’ve downloaded 6 manifestos already for some light reading.
So download the book, read it, and let me know how it will change how you do business? How will you put these ideas into practice to make your massage remarkable?
In which she makes the rules and breaks the rules….
Warning. This post has a bunch of links. Read once. Then read again and click away. You’ll get more out of it that way Wow, Allissa, you got a lotta rules. -Words spoken by my step-daughter when she was about 12. We walk out of massage school all shiny…
Thanks for the nice review, Kelli. Glad you enjoyed.
Mark –
Thanks for making this available to everyone to read. I plan on referring to it in the future.
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