On the first day of this month, I met Cecil. He was the Uber driver who took me that day from my Airbnb to the PMI Summit I was attending at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The ride took about 8 minutes but I learned a lot about him during that time.
He's retired and in his sixties. But more than 20 years ago, he had spent 18 months in various countries in Africa with his wife and their two children. He also told me how he had lived in other countries in Europe and Asia which enabled each of his two children to speak six different languages.
Then he shared something fascinating with me.
The car in which I was riding was his third Tesla sedan in less than five years. He buys each one for the sole purpose of using them to give Uber rides for about two years. During that period, he would give rides to many students from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). Each time, after dropping them off, he would write their name and phone number on a small piece of paper and put it in a hat he has at home.
When the two-year period of driving the car is up, he would call his wife and adult children together, and they would have a raffle with a drum roll. Then a member of the family would draw a name from the hat he's been dropping the names of UNLV students.
He would gift the car to the lucky recipient.
He gave out the most recent one a few months ago to a student he had given a ride a couple of months before. He and his wife took the car to her workplace at a Wendy's restaurant location. His wife had called to be sure of when the young lady would be at work. Then he showed up to say he would like to talk to her outside about a problem with a drive-thru order.
When they got outside, his wife was waiting by the car with a giant bow on it. She was so overjoyed that she started crying. Then, his wife began to cry.
What I find impressive are the lengths Cecil and his family went to make the presentation of the gift very memorable for that young woman. Such a gift is something she's unlikely to forget for the rest of her life.
You and I may not be able to gift a car to someone every two years, but we can still do our best to make someone's day. All it takes is for us to put it at the forefront of our minds and be intentional about doing something special for someone.
It may surprise them, but that shouldn't stop us. They could be wondering why, but we shouldn’t worry about that. All we need to bother ourselves with is meeting a need that we know is there even when they may not have asked us for help. Or maybe they have.
So, when did you last do something out of the ordinary to make someone's day? If you have to think long to find out, it may be a good time to create a fresh experience.
To whom can you add value this week?