Story Time
From 2006 to 2007 (August) I was a sales tech in SM City Clark. I remember that my rate per day was PHP 230.00. The job was really hard especially for someone who was new to the tech industry. The pay was low even at that time, my expenses were way bigger than my income so I also have a money problem.
On a very particular shift, I have PHP 10 on my pocket and I didn’t know where to find money to get back home. Then few hours before the mall closes this guy who seems to work in BPO with his girlfriend approached me and asked to upgrade his laptop from 2GB to 4GB – and during that time it was a big deal. He was using Windows Vista and it was running slow so he wants to upgrade it.
Note, I have never opened a laptop without supervision at that time. Although I was hesitant I needed the sales 2 sticks of 2GB Kingston was around PHP 4,000. So there I was, sweating trying to scrape the warranty sticker to avoid breaking it. Then I managed to open the memory slot, then placed the two sticks. It was like an operation and I was the surgeon. After putting the sticker back. We tried to turn it on, I was expecting to have a blue screen as during that time Windows Vista was full of errors.
However, to our surprise, it worked. He browsed his files and he was really happy that his computer runs very smoothly. I was just happy that I made someone happy. Then he suddenly said to me that he wants to have a genuine Windows Vista which was around 11,000 during that time, so I made 15,000 sales that night. I was happy.
Before they left, the guy suddenly approached me and said this.. oh, eto pang soft drinks mo. The guy handed me PHP 50, a cheaper tip for 15,000 PHP sales but during that time, I was relieved I have money to go back home.
What can we learn?
I didn’t spend that money on soft drink but I used it for my transportation fare for the next two days. Unfortunately, I was not able to see this guy again, even though I worked in BPO after that year I never saw him again. How I wish I have the chance to talk to him and thank him.
What I can say we can learn from him is that a simple gesture of kindness could lead to big things. It may just be a small amount but that inspired me to work in BPO. I usually muse if I have made something like this to other people to become better or just to have small happiness.
As Gabriel Orozco said that believing that a small action or a subtle gesture in life can change many, many things.
Ian Tanpiuco is an ESL and virtual assistant. With a decade of experience, he has become an expert in his field. Dedicated to helping others achieve their goals, Ian works tirelessly in the classroom or as a virtual assistant.
