I’ve been thinking about some of the foods that I enjoy and by no means am I some connoisseur when it comes to food. I’m a simple guy, I like simple foods, I’m not a foodie, I enjoy a nice meal every once in a while.
But it’s plainly obvious that it’s the sauce that makes all the difference.
Take for example a hamburger. A hamburger is a hamburger is a hamburger is a hamburger is a hamburger. It’s the sauce that makes all the difference whether its sauces like the Big Mac secret sauce or Tommy’s famous chili sauce. That’s what really makes it good. The other stuff like bun, meat, tomatoes, onions, – yeah, you could say it’s the best, but that’s expected.
But some people don’t even do that. They have crappy ingredients to begin with.
Italian dishes are mostly all made up of the same “base”. You strip them naked of their sauces and they’re all the same. Again, it comes down to the sauce.
Smog check stations. They all do the same routine. They’re mandated by the state to follow the same routine. They’re all the same.
Until you add the secret sauce.
I know of one smog check station that gets hundreds of reviews. Hundreds. Of a smog check station. You usually only see hundreds of reviews for popular restaurants or landmarks. But for a smog check station? When other smog check stations only have about 2 or 3? What the heck is going on?
Just from reading a couple of the reviews, turns out the owner keeps a very clean shop, is very thorough in his work, gentle with the cars, if there’s a problem with failing the smog test, he explains what he thinks the issues might be to help repair it, if you’re waiting way back in line behind other customers, he gets your keys and gives you map of the local area with interesting things to see while you wait, turns your car around when he’s finished so you can easily exit instead of backing out onto the street, holds the door open for all occupants, smiles, and waves you off, plus has pretty good prices on top of all that. He makes the inconvenient smog check as pleasant as can be.
You would think all smog check stations would do that but they don’t. That’s why this guy gets all the customers and gets hundreds of glowing reviews. He has the sauce that makes all the difference.
So the question is – what’s YOUR sauce?
Think about the sauce you bring to work.
Skills are the base. Everybody can have them and if you don’t, you can learn them. Too many people only worry about the skills. Yes they are needed, but it’s the sauce that tips the scales.
Skills alone won’t help you when you’re competing with others who have the same, if not better skills than you.
It’s the sauce that’s going to help you.
Hiring mangers can see that two people have the same skills but if one person’s “sauce” is more appealing in terms of fitting into company culture and working with others, the hiring decision is very easy.
So what’s your sauce going to be made out of?
It’s really a cornucopia of things like personality traits, aptitudes, talents, social skills, etc.
But it’s hard to articulate what the ingredients of our sauce would be when you try to do it on the spot so here’s a very simple way to find out.
List 3 people you really admire.
Then list all the qualities that you really admire about them.
The reason why you like those people is because you see the qualities that you like about them in yourself, or you at least see a sliver of those qualities in yourself that you know if you nourish, you can fully exhibit too.
As you know, I admire Steve Jobs and some of the words that would describe what I like about him are creative, different, and simple.
Other qualities I admire from other people would be structured, meaty, organized, efficient, and logical.
These make up some of the ingredients of my sauce and if you look at all my writings from articles to books and subscriptions, you’ll see that sauce poured onto them.
So find out what your sauce is. What ingredients make it up?
Pour it onto what you plan serve to others.
It makes all the difference in the world.
