I went into Publix Bayside this morning to buy some apples and realized I didn’t research them first. I know you use different ones for baking than for hand eating, but I didn’t know why.  I don’t eat enough apples to remember which is which.  I saw Richard Romandetti in the produce section and asked if Publix had one of those charts that show apples from tart to sweet.  He had something even better.  He knew everything about the apples, he answered all my questions and told me stuff I didn’t know.  I thought no wonder they have him here, he knows his stuff. “How do you know all this?” I asked him.  “They send us to school for it,” he said, “they teach us all about it.”  Wow.  I had no idea.  I figure whenever I walk into a grocery store, whoever is stocking the aisles is just a worker who knows how to put things neatly on a shelf.  Not so.  I told Richard my aunt was baking a pie and I wondered which apples would be best.  He began to tell me the difference and it was great, it was like an Alton Brown segment.

“Too much?” he asked.  No, I was eating it up.  It was info I could use and it was fun that he was passionate about the topic.   In my mind’s eye, I got a flash. “Did your family have a restaurant business?”  He laughed, “My wife’s family did.”  It was all over him.  He shined like a beacon when he told what he knew.  I thought what a testament to Publix that they train their staff in the little details of the job they do.  And the training pays off — I went in to buy one apple, any kind and bought a dozen mixed, knowing what they were for, plus other items.

Richard’s suggestions and his enthusiasm for the work he was doing combined to ignite me about the possibilities of apples.  Richard is like so many of us.  We may think our job is to stack apples on a table, or push a pencil in an office, but the real job is to enrich the lives of those we come in contact with.  Give everyone just a little more than they ask for, and give it freely and sincerely and with passion.  Show them, in a non-invasive way, that you love what you do; show them you’re happy in your surroundings and they’ll want to be there, too.  This is also how to build your business: love what you do so much that it oozes out of you, and soon everyone around you will want a part of it.  It’s good for business and it’s good for friendships.

Want some inspiration? Go find Richard Romandetti at Bayside Publix and ask him about apples.  How many lives can you enrich today?