About High Aspiration

Today, I had a pretty horrible experience at a laundry.

Multiple things went wrong continuously during my interactions:

• Calls weren’t picked up reliably
• Pricing was ambiguous
• Delivery timing wasn’t honored
• Some of my clothes were lost
• Customers were made to wait for no fault of their own
• Etc.

I started thinking: how does a business manage to get so many things wrong in such a simple and short transaction?

Problems Show Up in Clusters, Not Alone

You may have noticed this in unhealthy people.

Those with a poor immune system or predisposition often suffer from multiple diseases, disorders & bad habits— not just one disease or issue.

Similarly, problems, like diseases, tend to appear in groups of at least four or five at a time.

Looking back at the laundry business, just a few weeks ago, I had a stellar experience with a similar laundry:

• Same neighborhood
• Similar socio-economic conditions
• Lower price
• Better responsiveness
• Better quality

How could that be?

Why did Laundry #1 create problem after problem for me, while Laundry #2 delivered a spotless service?

Either You're Healthy, or You're...

That is, in business, either you're healthy, or you're struggling in many different ways.

That seems to be a pattern.

In more concrete terms, what differentiates a "healthy" and an "unhealthy" business to a large extent is the aspiration of those operating it.

In my particular case—Laundry #2—the owners and employees seemed to care. They aimed high.

Their intent toward high standards was visible every step of the way:

Their high aspiration showed up as:

• Extra care in how they received the customer
• Extra care in how they priced the product
• Extra care in tracking, delivery, fulfillment, etc.

Essentially, they aggressively and proactively tried to make things go right for the customer. And so—they did! (mostly).

In Laundry #1, there was no such intent.

There was no care, no concern.

There was no aspiration in the first place, rendering the whole experience of working with them futile.

The Lesson for Me?

Always cultivate an extremely high level of aspiration within myself and my teams.

Aspiration comes with a whole lot of care and concern, but the alternative is not acceptable—a horrible experience for the customer.

Therefore, the best way to solve business problems is to continuously raise standards and maintain a strong intent to improve the customer experience.

And put practical effort toward that every single day.

Given enough intensity and time, this approach will yield great results for all involved.