We’ve heard many times that it’s important to focus on the long-term good rather than a short-term quick profit. While doing business in Australia, I was reminded of an important principle related to that truth.
We were having lunch at a sidewalk café in the beautiful city of Cairns, which is located on the Pacific Ocean in Northern Queensland. This tropical environment is designed for relaxation, with plenty of sunshine, and lots of tourists.
When you visit one of their sidewalk cafés, you wonder what kind of service you will get. Our server was a gentleman who I estimated would be in his early 20s.
There’s a chance that this gentlemen was working there part-time, or working his way through school. His job as a server might have been his full-time job while he plans for something later on down the road in his career.
Whatever the situation, he seemed to be more interested in lots of details of the moment rather than being of service to us.
He was late in taking our order, did not engage in any conversation to get to know us, and seemed rather distant in his approach. On top of that, it took 45 minutes from the time we placed our order until we were served. He had no apologies, but only a feeble “We’re busy” as an explanation. He even walked away in the middle of a conversation that I was trying to have with him.
