So I arrived late to the campus cafeteria (a military campus, no less!) for breakfast–I had the credits on my card, but the card-swipe lady had closed her station, and the staff were sitting in loose clusters taking their breakfast. I suppose I was looking a little miserable, because one of the staff, an older lady, came up to me and ushered me in.
Most of the stations in the serving area had been shut down already, in anticipation of lunch prep, but managed to find coffee, cottage cheese, and some eggs the cook made for me on a griddle the size of a twin bed.
I sat down and started to eat, when the older lady who had ushered me in came over. Oops, now I’m in trouble! She said my glasses and hair reminded her of someone she had seen during the winter term. But since this was my first time to that campus, clearly it was a case of mistaken identity. She was nice to me anyway though, and we had a good chat. It was a touching example to me of the importance and possibility of personal relationships even amid the clatter and bustle of an impersonal work environment.
Anyway, usually my hair gets me in trouble, but today it got me breakfast.
And Tom Peters is correct–having just heard his talk on excellence the day before, this scene in the cafeteria put the period at the end of his sentence: “It’s all about relationships.”