Seeing how I am sitting in a coffee shop killing time while I am waiting for the call to pick up my car, I figured I might as well write on a topic I have been thinking about this last week.
At the change of seasons I started a new job. Before I was just working at your average retail store, giving the classic customer service and all that crap that goes along with retail jobs. Now I am working at an outdoor leisure job that is essentially exclusively a customer service job but without really selling any products. And regardless of the most obvious differences, I started to notice an underlying trend about the people I was serving.
It is no secret that money doesn’t buy happiness. Yet consumerism is such an ingrained philosophy of our society that most of us are unconsciously trapped in the cycle of trying to buy our way through our numbness. The spending only medicated the problem, temporarily hiding the discontent under the surface only to appear later and it shows.
See I love my new job. In fact I had done it two summers ago too and that’s how I knew I would want to do it. And beside the obvious reasons of it being outside and a pretty chill job, it is actually really satisfying dealing with the customers on a daily basis. Not something you can say about most retail jobs. And why is that?
I believe it is because of the differing nature of the two jobs. Experience vs consuming.
At my current job, one of my favourite positions is a the end of the experience. Partly because it is the least stressful position but largely because I get the happy customers who had just experienced something thrilling, often with their family’s.
And that is the big difference between my job and a retail job.
I’m not trying to sell you an item that will eventually degrade and constantly remind you that you’ll always need something you. I am in the business of selling a memory something that doesn’t degrade. And if it does, it won’t matter anyway cause you can’t remember.
One of our flaws in society is the pressure to uphold the latest trends, constantly driving the need to be a consumer. Yet it is superficial, unfulfilling, and is eating away at our lives without us really recognizing. But imagine if we flipped that to a pressure of experiencing life. How many people would be trying new things with new people, creating a long lasting satisfaction that doesn’t undermine our happiness and enjoyment of life.
Because you don’t need to have anything to have the best experiences.
Toby Breckenridge 