Oct 27, 2022
Puerto Escondido, Mexico – “That’s too cute, ladies!”
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We’ve made it to the south of Mexico, on the Pacific coast. Once this was a sleepy fishing village
with poor roads and little connectivity to the main country – or anywhere else for that matter.
Now, it’s quite a hopping little town, renown for its beaches and the surfing.
And it’s hot! And humid.
This white, Canadian’s body is suffering.
They say it will get better in a couple of weeks – once the dry season kicks
in. One can always hope. Like so many places – there are always many ‘cons’ to go with the ‘pros’.
I expect I will uncover many business lessons to relay to you in the near future. For today, however, I’d like
to share a little story of an experience I had getting coffee at the Toronto Pearson Airport, while we waited for our hopper flight to Boston a few weeks ago.
As it was a
morning flight, I still hadn’t had breakfast, nor my fix of espresso. So, once we had made our way through the laborious process of getting cleared through security and found our way to our gate – I began my search for a decent cup of joe.
By good fortune, there are a Starbucks chain, in the farthest wing of our departures area.
And the line-up wasn’t bad.
Behind the counter, taking orders, were a couple of young women, keeping an ongoing banter of fun with every customer.
Finally, it was my turn. I put in my order of a short cappuccino with extra espresso and the girl asked for my name.
Now, you may not know this, but unless English is your first language, and you are of a certain age and education – the name “Hugh” is very difficult for many to both recognize and spell.
I’ve had “Hue”, “Hew”, “Q” and others, written on my cup.
This time was
even more different – but with purpose.
I muttered something like, “aren’t you guys too cute today…” with all the laughter and fun
they seemed to be having. And with that, the one girl said something like “cute”, that’s perfect.
I didn’t think much about it. And
yes, I had told them my name. When I received my cup – guess what was written on the outside?
