FREE Pizza Part 2 - A SMASHING success story 🍕🙌

FREE Pizza Part 2 - A smashing success story 🍕🙌

When last we left them, the swim team concessions crew approached the end of a busy, exhausting day with ALMOST just the right amount of pizza.  It would have been a shame to waste what remained, especially given the numerous calorie-starved swimmers in the vicinity.  So they hatched a bold plan to give away the remaining slices.  But they needed a leader to step up and swiftly put it into action.  Who would heed the call…?

I knew I could make this happen, and I wanted to get it done quickly.  I also knew it would take considerable energy to do it.

And so I changed my energetic signature.  Whereas before this I was a mere mild-mannered money box manager, I immediately enacted a dramatic growth in salience and became the pied piper of unpaid pizza.

I stepped into the middle of the sleepy gym with the remaining slices, raised my voice, and carefully articulated “FREEEEEEEEEEE PIZ-ZA!  FREEEEE PIZZA!”  Then I stood by, gauged the reaction, and engaged with interested parties through intentional eye contact to entice them over.  Gradually they started coming - it took a while for the energy of the culture around the pizza box to build and flourish - eventually there was a small crowd - actually the PERFECT number for what remained. Everyone got what they wanted.

I triumphantly returned to concessions and threw the box on the stack of empties.  One of my teammates said “We still have one sub sandwich”, and handed me a by now day old, slightly soggy ham & cheese hoagie.

Emboldened by my recent victory I again raised my voice.  “FREE SANDWICH!  FREE HAM & CHEESE SANDWICH!”

This time no one came, even after an uncomfortable number of dozens of seconds.  I heard someone wryly comment “Much less interest in this offer!”  I quickly retorted “All I need is one.”  And it was true.  Sometimes you only need one.

I began to widen my territory, leaving my comfort zone, and traversing more of the gym in search of that one person. Eventually I found him, a shy and lanky teenager weary from the day’s exertions.  He almost wasn’t sure, like he was embarrassed (people often don’t like to stand out in such a manner), but I eventually made the deal and saved those valuable calories from going to waste.

Get it? We have the opportunity for leadership all the time, and we often shrink away.  It would have been easy to throw that food away, but also deeply dissatisfying to the team.  This was a real task born of frustration and aspiration, as all leadership is.  It required marketing, sales, agreements made with many parties, significant energy and vulnerability to step out and make it happen, and vulnerability on the part of the interested to investigate the too-good-to-be-true offer and navigate the agreement as well.  This act of persuading the right people, in the right volume, to take the right actions, at the right time was leadership, and I accepted the call.  People saw it, and it left a positive impression on them, as all successful acts of leadership do.  There was a collective sense of increase.

And it required energy, but it came back.  I felt MORE energized afterward, even though I had to put energy into the system to make it go.  Where does this energy come from?  How does it increase and magnify after positive interactions and success in a way that seems to defy physical laws?  What even IS this mysterious energy stuff?  I don’t know.  It’s above my pay grade.  But I do know it’s related to this abundance we’re all seeking.  And it’s everywhere.  It is attracted to acts of leadership.  Pay attention to the energetic signature within and without you and you’ll start to get a sense of it.

Tomorrow - a few lessons from the FREE Pizza incident that you can apply to your own leadership and creation.  Tune in next time for the thrilling conclusion 📻