Erhan the taxi driver
Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay
Last Tuesday I went to Stockholm to do field measurements. I took the first flight down and had booked the last one home. I wanted to minimize the time away from home, but I learned the hard way that it is not worth it. When you are leaving with the first flight, your night sleep is severely disrupted. I woke up before my alarm clock at 04:00. Isn’t it funny how we tend to wake up without an alarm when we have some important appointment in the morning? Anyway, the trip went fine, and I met up with my colleague at the construction site and we worked all day. When at a building site, you are obliged to always wear protective helmet and glasses. I am not used to that. After lunch time, the slight pressure on the sides of my head in combination with the sleep disturbance had set off a headache. A really bad one, that got worse by the hour.
We were planning to measure until about 20:00 in the evening, but by 17:00 the headache was so bad that I was struggling to keep my lunch, breathing slowly. I had to give up. A construction site is not the right place to be if you are about to throw up. I just had to get to the nearby Taxi stand and get to the airport. In Stockholm, you must be careful when selecting a taxi, because there are many scam drivers out there that will charge you insane prices. I asked for a fixed price and got into a Mercedes, because then at least I could have a comfortable ride. As it turned out, I had hit the jackpot. The car was piloted by Erhan the taxi driver, an angel on earth. I was looking so pale by now, that I started to wonder whether they would even let this zombie board the plane? I told Erhan about my headache, because in these times people are nervous enough as it is about sick people.
When Erhan heard about my headache, he told me that he used to have serious migraine about 30 years ago. He understood exactly what I was going through. “Can I get you anything, would you like a coffee?” he said. I was a bit surprised, because I am not used to this option. “Sure, that would be great” I replied. He immediately did an improvised pit stop at the closest gas station and got in and bought me a cup of takeaway and gave it to me. I was really surprised by this spontaneous act of kindness. The key here is that it was 100% genuine and I could feel it. You can fake a smile, but you can’t fake an act of kindness that comes from the heart. We continued the trip to Arlanda and Erhan told me more about his personal story with migraine. He got cured from it through some kind of treatment where you are isolated in a dark room without sound or other external impressions, for a long time. I think he mentioned a whole month (!). So, this guy really understood the torment of migraine, and knew exactly what I felt like. I noticed something interesting. The cup of coffee and the kindness had re-configured my mind. I felt really happy and this was without a doubt the best cup of coffee I have ever had. My headache started to go away! When we arrived at Arlanda I paid my fare and gave him the largest tip I have ever given a taxi driver. He cured my headache with a cup of coffee, isn’t that amazing? I didn’t even take any pills.
Negativity tend to resonate more than positivity, i.e. you need a lot more of the good stuff to balance out the bad stuff. Like when you are giving feedback to someone and use the word “but”. You did good on x and y but… And when you utter the word but, the recipients mind erases all that came before and focuses fully on the negative stuff that comes after the “but”. Instead, just replace “but” with “and”. Another example is that a discontent customer tells ten other people about their bad experience, whereas a happy customer only tells one. This puts things into perspective for me. If such a small act of kindness like noticing that someone needs a coffee can change someones world for the better, just imagine how much potential that remains un-tapped!
After the taxi ride with Erhan, I feel a strong need to pay it forward. The universe works in mysterious ways. Do good things and more good things will happen, to everyone. Now, who can I get a cup of coffee?