A Real Concierge Offers Advice to the Dream Concierge: Just Do It!

Good morning, Live Better than a Billionaire-a-Holics!

One of my fun activities this month is teaching a class on small businesses for those who want to start their own. It's a great joy to meet with these budding entrepreneurs and to hear about their dreams and plans.

To encourage them, I talked about my business of providing dream concierge services. Last night one student told me that he has been a concierge for eight years at one of Boston's finest hotels and offered to share his experiences.

First, I asked him the question that almost everyone does: "What's the most unusual request you've ever had?" Nothing really stood out.

Then I asked him what he liked about the job. It turns out that it's a high pressure job, and he doesn't enjoy the work very much. With the trends in downsizing in the hospitality industry, he finds himself doing the work that 2 or 3 people did when he started . . . and with lots of pressure from impatient guests.

When a guest wants something, they invariably say, "Just do it!" And they don't want to hear about the details. The hotel, naturally, is reluctant to order $1,000 worth of tickets for a concert unless the guest knows this in advance and has authorized the expenditure in writing. So the frustrated concierge spends more time getting authorizations than actually providing services. And the guests don't like it either.

Next, I asked him what surprised him the most. He found that one easy to answer. Guests are willing to routinely pay $40 to have something done for them that they could do for themselves for $3. Obviously, these people really dislike these tasks!

Since I heard these fascinating comments, I've been thinking about what they mean. First, a lot of people want it fast and they want it easy. Second, people don't want to change in order to get what they want. Third, people assume that the world will bend to their will if they simply throw money at the problem.

As a non-billionaire, the lessons are different. The billionaire probably feels desperate to grasp more time and control over his or her life. Much of that time sensitivity probably relates to all of the time demands created by wealth such as managing the money or business, minimizing taxes, keeping people from stealing, listening to those who want the money for donations and other purposes and dealing with invitations from people who want to connect to the wealth. When does the fun begin?

The non-billionaire, by contrast, has the choice of how much time to spend on all of those and other activities unless she or he decides to maximize their income. The person who wants to live better than a billionaire can opt instead to maximize their life by spending time on what brings them joy and their dreams to life.

I suddenly realized that like I do for my business students, I need to help people free up time for more delightful activities if they are going to be able to embrace the live-better-than-a-billionaire life style.

Here's a good place to start. Write down how you spend every moment, 24 hours a day for 7 days a week for two weeks.

Then analyze how you spent your time.

How much time did you spend doing things that you don't like to do? How could you get rid of those activities?

How much time did you spend doing things that aren't important? Many people find that they are devoting over 10 hours a week to watching reruns on television that they don't really care about.

What would you rather be doing with both sets of time?

How can you get more benefit from time you have to spend now, such as commuting to and from work? Can you listen to self-improving CDs related to your dreams in your car that you borrow from the library?

When can you have uninterrupted time to work on your dreams? For many Moms, this is late at night. For many Dads, this is early in the morning. But pick the times that you have available and use them for your high priority purposes in creating your dreams.

Be sure to spend some time reading this blog daily. It will help you to focus on choices you didn't know you had. As you focus on those choices, soon you'll be able to -- well, Just Do It!

Here's another tip: Get a partner for your dream activities. Ideally this will be your spouse or significant other . . . but it may also be a friend, sibling, parent or a cousin. If two of you work on developing a dream, you'll make much faster progress. Each of you can focus on what you like to do best . . . being a dream concierge for one another. A great way to begin is to e-mail this blog to those you want to partner with and suggest that you work together on a dream that you share.

Donald W. Mitchell, Your Dream Concierge

Copyright 2005 Donald W. Mitchell

Be sure to check out my blog dated May 16, 2005 on how to plan Your Dad's Best Father's Day! and May 30, 2005 on Plan Your Best Fourth of July!