Change the Course of History, Make the World a Better Place and Never Run Out of Coffee

I was desperate for coffee.

It was 5:30 a.m. and I had slept only 2.5 hours. I stood in front of the Delta lounge coffee maker and read the flashing message: “The dairy handling mechanism has not been properly cleaned with XYZ product, and the machine will lock after 4 more attempts.” I flagged an attendant for help, but she didn’t know what to do. So she called over a colleague who glanced at the screen, shrugged, and pushed the reset button.

Problem “solved.”

I was grateful I drink my coffee black and pitied the poor souls desperate for caffeine in the future. For sure that machine was going to shut down, because no one was going to clean that sucker anytime soon.

Then it was time to board my flight.

Uh oh. Lots of discussion with the ground crew as to whether a lavatory should have been serviced and what to do about it. The pilot announced a delay, explaining that he’d decided to take care of the problem. The toilet would have been OK for our flight but become a mess on the return trip (our destination did not have servicing capability) – better a small inconvenience now than a big one later.

It’s easy to change the course of history.

Be the future’s Mr. Fix-It. It may not be as dramatic as cleaning up a big mess — no one will know that a crisis got averted thanks to you, but YOU will, and that’s what matters.