Today, we're going to talk about how being boring can be a huge advantage.
Big Corporations! We just love big corporations! They turn everything they touch into mountains and mountains of wondrous prosperity and rainbows and platinum yachts. At least for shareholders.
When they touch employees, they turn them into nameless, faceless cogs doing meaningless busy work until the day they can be replaced by robots. And even better is when they touch customers. If they could, they would turn us into paralyzed lumps of flesh connected to feeding tubes mindlessly clicking our little Amazon "reorder" buttons until we shrivel and die. Ah, 21st-century paradise. I feel all warm and fuzzy just thinking about it. Although... that feeling could just be a fungal infection.
While we long for the days of the mom & pop stores where everybody knows your name, those are gone. Even in the places where they aren't gone, real estate prices are going up so quickly that soon mom & pop will be replace by WalMart Outlet 56,813. The personal touch will be gone forever, unless you start being boring.
I'm Boring, You Can Be Too
Life is lumpy. In some areas, you can be fabulously interesting. In others, you can be fabulously boring. Take me, for example. I co-wrote a musical about personal productivity and Zombies. That's interesting. I also work out at the same gym, shop at the same bookstore, eat at the same restaurants, and order the same dishes, 99.999% of the time. That's boring. That's really boring.
The thing that's been so surprising is how very useful it is.
You See People Over and Over
When you frequent the same places a lot, you see the people who work there over and over. And over. And over. It may not be your intention, but repeated contact is how relationships form.
On the 20th or 30th visit, you read their nametag. By the time you've been there 60 or 70 times, you work up the courage to say "Have a nice day, Courtney." And ultimately, you and Courtney start a friendship.
Special Orders Become Easy!
It's not a share-your-deepest-desires friendship. But it is a share-your-special-order friendship. Over time, this friendship streamlines your ability to order.
Soon enough, Courtney knows when you walk in that you're going to want your special order of a super-avocado crepe with extra avocado, two eggs substituted for the cheese, plus salmon. And to drink, an iced-tea lemonade with black tea and no ice. Oh, yeah, and you have a 10% discount card that you bought at a fund-raiser for a local high...
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