Do We LACK LUSTER Or Are We Simply LACKLUSTER?

 

For one OR two simple words, there seems to be a huge mix-up between LACK LUSTER and LACKLUSTER.  And I thought we need to clear up the air for now [before this becomes like a desert storm].  From time to time in our life, either we hear someone having a LACKLUSTER performance either at work, in a competition OR even in an activity OR event he's performing.  Talk about a boxer WHO gets knocked out OR World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen tumbling down in a classic game. BUT that's fine because you can be an A-lister of a competitor BUT at sometime, it could be your 'off night' OR probably the law of averages did catch up on you.  Even in the NBA hoops world, top-tier superstars like Lebron James, Stephen Curry OR Kevin Durant would have below-par performances from time to time📗📙📘

On the other hand, you can be one of the most capable, most experienced, seasoned and skilled BUT WHEN you're thrown out there in the mud OR in a competition, you just end up like one amongst the crowd, NOT a crowd-drawer BUT just one of the thousands in the big mamooth crowds.  So WHAT probably ails you WHEN you have yet to perform?  And this is where there is that likelihood that you may LACK LUSTER💧💧💧

If you ask me, WHO has a bigger problem at hand?  Is it someone WHO just had that kind of LACKLUSTER performance?  OR is it someone WHO has yet to perform that it seems he just LACKS LUSTER even before the actual game, activity OR event commences?  I'd say the latter has a bigger challenge at hand because of two things.  Numero uno, and this is the most common dilemma amongst us.  Sometimes, we really LACK LUSTER but we're NOT aware of it at all.  Ironically, I've met close-up and first hand some folks WHO seem to LACK LUSTER but the way they strut their wares, they seem to carry too much weight, moving along and carrying on in a braggadocious manner.  Sounds more than just ill-advised moves💥💥💥

If there's something that should be the least of our concerns, it should be those LACKLUSTER performances [unless it becomes more than just outliers].  You can be the best musician BUT there will be those even 'small' moments in their performances that they wished hadn't gone that way.  LIKE an orchestra conductor, you could have practised enough on your own BUT DIDN'T get the feel for playing with your ensemble❎❎❎

Our takeaway:  Let us avoid mixing up those LACKLUSTER performances versus real-life situations WHERE we seem to LACK LUSTER, WHERE we seem to stand out in a crowd, WHERE even our expertise does NOT seem to be highlighted.  That means, you've got 'some work' to do BUT the most crucial thing here is for one to be aware that he LACKS LUSTER, so he's got to do more than just coming from a LACKLUSTER performance out there💚💛💜

Navigating Anger [CONTROL ANGER BEFORE ANGER CONTROLS YOU]!@#$%?

 

Question:  WHAT is the most complex rocket science?  YESirrrreeee, it is NAVIGATING ANGER!  And this age-old slogan "CONTROL ANGER BEFORE ANGER CONTROLS YOU"  should be embraced by us all from the time we wakeup till we hit the sack.  YES YES yowww, we all know WHAT ANGER is all about as we've felt it from time to time, either as the one manifesting it OR at times WHEN we are at the receiving end📗📙📘

WHETHER as a fleeting annoyance OR as indeed, a full-fledged rage, ANGER has always been considered completely normal and even a healthy human emotion.  In fact and in truth, the worst fears I dread to face in life [WHICH sometimes I still face these days randomly] is WHEN someone does NOT show OR express any emotion, much more ANGER❎❎❎

BUT here's the catch.  WHEN it gets out of hand and out of control and turns its ugly head of destructiveness, YES it can lead and develop to problems, WHETHER at work, in relationships and even in the overall quality of one's life.  End result?  ANGER can even make us feel as though we're at the mercy of an unpredictable and powerful emotion.  And while ANGER does vary in its intensity from a negligible slight irritation to an intense rage and fury, it is WHEN ANGER gets expressed WHEN we come to witness its ugly head💥💥💥

True, the instinctive and natural way to express ANGER is to respond aggressively as ANGER is that natural, adaptive response to threats and it inspires powerful and often aggressive feelings and behaviors, WHICH then allows us to fight and to defend ourselves WHEN we are attacked.  In the end, a certain amount of ANGER is necessary for our survival.  DON'T look far.  Let us recall those boxing fights involving Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao and even Muhammad Ali.  Once they step into the ring, they are in BEAST MODE😡😡😡

Our takeaway:  Let's take a step back and try to rationalize things.  Indeed, ANGER can be suppressed and then converted OR even redirected.  This happens WHEN we hold our ANGER, then stopped thinking about it, and then focus on something positive.  Our aim then is to inhibit OR suppress our ANGER and convert it into a constructive behavior.  No mean feat BUT if we can embrace this approach, let's go dude!!!

Where Possible, NEVER PLAY WITH FIRE

 

From our childhood years, we were always taught NOT TO PLAY with matches.  We were warned that we might get burned.  Oh yes, looking back, I was one of those recalcitrant boys WHO DIDN'T always heed and listen to my parents.  And because I DIDN'T pay attention, YES, that got me in trouble a few times.  Looking back, I could have been burnt black and blue beyond recognition if things went out of hand.  Today, allow me to do a mapping of those 'childhood' trials in our life because decisions are needed from time to time and Where possible, NEVER PLAY WITH FIRE😌😌😌

And quite a few times in our life, the decisions we made and reached will burn us.  Common culprit?  Some of our decisions are arrived at NOT out of collated information BUT sometimes out of GREED [Oooops, this reminds me of the latest corruption scandal running to hundreds of billions, ouch!].  Oh yes, we seem to be inclined to quote statistical data.  And although I was never into that Statistics field, I did hear a statistician proudly strut off that statistics can be bent to WHATEVER you want them to go.  That should make us realize as to why politicians would show off statistics always painting a rosy picture of themselves💚💛💜

These days when the buzz words are BIG DATA and DATA SCIENCE, it's like PLAYING WITH FIRE because eventually they will get burned.  Frankly, across countries and continents, if we have a commonality, it is that we live in cultures that PLAY WITH FIRE.  That culture says "IT IS ALRIGHT TO DO WHATEVER I DO AS LONG AS I DON'T GET CAUGHT".  LIKE "I CAN GET DRUNK, RUN AROUND, ABUSE MY CHILDREN, DO WHAT I WANT" and so on❗❗❗

Our common problem, though, gets exacerbated by the widespread monopoly and influence of social media across all landscapes.  Those days when 'RISK' was the buzzword and 'MITIGATION' was the fix.  So, this all boils down for us to reinforce our awareness of 'RISK' because it comes about anytime in our daily lives.  Try giving 'RISK' a lip service and knock on wood, God knows WHAT happens next.  Forget about the MILLENNIALS for now.  Instead, let us brace ahead with our Gen Z, Gen Alpha and Gen Beta💧💧💧

Our takeaway:  Let us NOT be quick to pass the blame to our Gen Z's, Gen Alpha's and Gen Beta's because the onus falls back on our shoulders.  We CAN'T run away from that innate responsibility to ensure that our latest generations DON'T get 'off tracked' in the midst of all the distractions in our daily lives.  Throw in the unabated influence of social media and we could end up either with a huge circus or a very scary nightmare that will haunt us over and again.  YES PLEASE, it should NOT be hard for us to cascade the sage messaging for our new generations to be RISK-averse and RISK-conscious before it's too late, before those PLAYING WITH FIRE GET BURNED💥💥💥

No FUN FACTS But INTERESTING FACTS!

 

These FUN FACTS seem to be all over the place [and that's perfectly fine because we need to live life that way].  BUT without belittling those FUN FACTS, if there is something more deserving and much more noteworthy than FUN FACTS are INTERESTING FACTS which can be culled from the psychology experts.  Allow me to share some of those snippets and insights from the psy experts.  LIKE WHEN we need to turn down [OR OFF] our car audio/music WHEN you're looking for something OR a location you're NOT familiar with.  That really makes sense because the psy experts tell us that our mind CAN'T focus on two things at the same time.  LIKE WHEN you are into your goal-setting and even before you're able to achieve it, you tend to sort of 'announce' it to your friends and colleagues.  Studies show that it is likely that you'll NOT succeed [as studies have proved it].  WHY?  Because most of us can lose our own motivation by then, whew😡😡😡

LIKE WHEN our mind cannot simply 'create faces' BUT studies proved that for faces we dream of, chances are we would have met them at some point in our life, even if only in passing.  LIKE WHEN everywhere and everyone wants and expects us to go multitasking, WHETHER at home, in school, at the workplace OR even in our business forays.  OH YES, tragically, you would have heard various accidents along the road [NOT even freeways] because the driver [WHILE driving] was texting OR engaged on a phone call.  Bottomline is, multitasking is simply NOT realistic.  Except maybe during emergencies WHERE you got to do it.  Other than that, zillions of researches proved that multitasking is simply NOT the way to go❌❌❌

Even in the technology space of OEMs [Original Equipment Manufacturers] like IBM, Dell, HP, etc, through the years, they tried to outsmart the competition by launching processors with computing powers double OR triple the power of the existing competition.  And WHILE I am NOT an OEM techie, allow me to share my 2-cents here.  All those ultra, high-powered processors of the OEMs pitched the 'computing power' of their processors BUT NOT much is known in public that each of those processors are NOT really multitasking BUT instead, the OEMs introduced multi-threading to kind of prove the multitasking prowess of their bandied processors!!!

LIKE that our actions toward others does impact others' beliefs about ourselves?  Thereafter, that triggers OR causes others to act in a certain way toward us, thus reinforcing our beliefs about ourselves WHICH then may influence our actions toward others.  On a positive note, this reminds me of the PYGMALION EFFECT, that psychological phenomenon WHERE the high expectations from others can lead one to end up with a performance OR result way beyond WHAT he/she was originally capable OR expected to achieve.  Think about parents WHO closely monitor their child's academic performance such that they end up setting a bar high enough [BUT in many cases, I did bear witness WHERE the child did 'over-achieved]💚💛💜

Our takeaway:  Much as expectations are proven to influence behavior, it behooves that those expectations should start from our own selves.  Meaning, it just makes sense that you expect yourself to end up LIKE THIS OR perform LIKE THAT [although preferably, those expectations should be positive enough].  At the end of the day, I'd like to go back to that age-old one-liner WHICH says:  WHAT YOU SOW IS WHAT YOU REAP.  So, here's hoping that every single iota we sow is good enough for us to benefit once we reap its fruits down the road.  YES dude, these are NO FUN FACTS BUT INTERESTING FACTS😃😃😃

Are You In That TOXIC Environment?

 

Quick question:  HOW ARE YOU RIGHT NOW?  NOT to be cynical OR pessimistic, you might feel stressed right NOW and still be forcing yourself to keep standing on your two feet despite feeling tired, drained and probably exasperated.  And I've witnessed situations in the past WHEN someone somehow feels undervalued [a.k.a. UNRECOGNIZED] by people around him, WHETHER it is at home OR at work, even after he has poured it out, giving everything and squeezing himself high and dry.  Despite all those, WHAT can be worse than NOT seeing any progress and instead, finding oneself in a reversal mode from WHAT he wanted to achieve📗📙📘

WHILE there seems many common scenarios, WHAT IF we were in their shoes?  HOW will we feel IF nobody [AS IN NOBODY] wants to acknowledge our modest achievements?  And instead, WHAT happens next is people would be literally talking right behind your back if only to drag you down?  Let's think of the unnecessary discomfort and distress we will feel every time you were in that quagmire???

SO, WHERE do we go from here?  True, working damn hard and kicking your ass and NOT complaining is great.  BUT that is a rare gem to find these days because that's WHAT many of us do lack sometimes BUT again, that should NOT be the reason for all your discomfort.  You might feel the discomfort because you DIDN'T get any recognition from other people, even for just a little bit.  WHICH means, you're NOT seeking validation❎❎❎

YES, you tried to bring about WHAT you did, WHICH is most laudable and important especially at the workplace BUT you just found yourself becoming the most arrogant person in the room for the work you have done.  People then become irritated with your work and you talk about it.  Then, they just DON'T want to acknowledge it, whew! Hey dude, at times, we got to be aware because sometimes NOT all problems that we have are because we DIDN'T do the right thing, NO sirrrrrrs😓😓😓

Our takeaway:  Fact is, most of the time, there is SOMEWHERE WHERE WE WANT TO BE.  You might be imagining somewhere else OR a place that you remember WHERE you feel peaceful and happy.  You might even think that you want to leave WHERE you are right now and believe that somewhere else is better than the place you are right now.  Hmmmm, well, that might be a sign for you because our bodies can tell us WHEN we are actually NOT in the right condition.  SO HOW?  Acknowledge the environment you are in and once you have validated it, the next best move is find a place WHERE you think you will become comfortable BUT to move forward, start by taking a small step towards that place you want to be.  Lesson is, they might dislike you BUT at the end, you are the one WHO LIVES YOUR OWN LIFE.  So, are you still in that likely TOXIC environment.  Do your thing, dude👍👍👍

Blessed To Meet GENUINELY Good People

 

NOT to be nostalgic OR emotional, BUT WHEN I sat on my laptop to draft our thread for today, I realized I've been touching on many topics and threads BUT I have one huge miss, and that is, talking about GENUINELY GOOD PEOPLE.  YES YES yowwwww, NOT just GOOD PEOPLE BUT those GENUINELY GOOD PEOPLE.  And it works both ways.  WHEN others would meet us for the first time, they would have normally have the same subset of questions LIKE: Is this a GOOD PERSON? Can I TRUST him?  WHAT is behind his smile?  Surely, when I met face-to-face for the first time the other day my latest corporate clients, it's fair enough that they could be asking themselves those questions about me📗📙📘

Oh YES, I love this Tibetan Proverb as it rings and sounds loud enough:  GOODNESS SPEAKS IN WHISPER, EVIL SHOUTS.  And I can do a mapping to draw a parallelism of this proverb with regard the people we get to know and interact in life [let's NOT talk about the outliers like one-off interactions with sales folks, with restaurant and service personnel because those are more transactional than anything else].  And I can attest on a first person basis that I've met and interacted from time to time with tons of people.  There were even cases WHERE I met a long lost cousin after so many decades.  And just last year, I got reunited with my classmate and his wife who was very much part of our closely knit group way back in school.  And I realized that even after decades have past, GENUINELY GOOD PEOPLE remain as such unfettered and unaffected even by the passing of time💥💥💥

In our cultural landscape WHERE virtue is increasingly commodified and morality is filtered via curated content, we tend to lean on signals, a smile, eye contact, even a polite gesture like those lighthouses in the foggy seas.  BUT here's something quite debatable BUT WHICH I'll push hard.  Many of the signals we rely on are actually "PERFORMATIVE".  Frankly, some of the most 'dangerous' people I have ever met [BTW that was NOT one too many] have mastered the "ACT LIKE A GOOD PERSON" persona❎❎❎

NOT so surprisingly, some of the most generous people's kindness and goodness exists behind quite and unassuming facades.  YES, I have made it a personal challenge, often by painful trial and error, to learn HOW to hear that 'true language' of character.  YES YES YES yow, GOODNESS whispers.  Go anywhere, interact with people from all walks of life.  The GENUINELY GOOD PEOPLE will remain 'true to form' despite the passing of time.  For the LESS GENUINE people, we just need to be more incisive if NOT cynical.  WHO knows, on the periphery they may manifest LESS GENUINENESS but eventually you can bear witness to their REAL PERSONA and here's hoping their 'true colors' will be more positive than anything else😊😊😊

Our takeaway:  NOT to be cynical OR negative but validating the GENUINELY GOOD PEOPLE takes various forms and ways BUT in a nutshell, NEVER expect to truly know a person via superficial interactions.  In truth, even talking about families and even your very siblings and next of kin, live with them under one roof and surely you will get a 100% accurate picture of one's persona [and NOT just via social media].  Ironically, instead of having technology help us understand people seamlessly, technology gives tons of challenges as it even ironically blurs things.  Nevertheless, we should be TRULY BLESSED TO MEET GENUINELY GOOD PEOPLE💚💛💜

Write What Disturbs You

 

From time to time, we get pissed out, we feel slighted, we get offended OR worst, we feel aggrieved.  Then things will pile up.  Respected American author Natalie Goldberg says it all:  WRITE WHAT DISTURBS YOU, WHAT YOU FEAR, WHAT YOU HAVE NOT BEEN WILLING TO SPEAK ABOUT.  BE WILLING TO BE SPLIT OPEN.  But psychologists always remind us to realize that life is crowded with stress, demanding work, gloomy circumstances and the potential for aggravation from others, both in person and even online.  So, HOW do handle things when ANGER goes beyond boiling point and overflows???

YES, allow me to share HOW I did handle things from my end from way back till now.  I got this peculiar habit of resorting to my notes WHENEVER I feel that I'm in distress and that made me improve myself [by at least a notch or two] to be masterful enough of my self-awareness and admittedly, that has worked wonders in almost all aspects of my life.  Especiall these days WHERE you DON'T have that lame excuse that you DON'T have a pen and paper.  You got your NOTES App right on your phone!!!

Many times in the past, anger, fear and resentment kept building up within me UNTIL I would realize that it's festering my body.  WHAT I always did and invoked was to summon my own mental clarity that was needed to process my pent up emotions flooding and overflowing even within me.  And those overworked thoughts were one too heavy for me to handle and I CAN'T imagine WHAT could have happened next IF I didn't managed to unload it💚💛💜

WHAT did all these bring me in [through the years]?  It brought me peace gazillion times and even strengthened my respective relationships both at work and at home.  And here's the thing.  There's something transformative about forcing myself out of an aggravated situation and into a self-reflection mode.  I admit that it made me resilient, reflecting and level-headed.  On the side, I realized that, over time [and NOT instantly], I shed off that misplaced cockiness WHICH I sometimes manifested.  And if this works for you as it did for me, it will likely result in yu becoming a more compassionate, more understanding and more forgiving person [UNLIKE prior to that, I just treated things as either a black OR white, a correct versus wrong kind of thing].  And YES, you might have people coming up to you wondering HOW you are so 'chill', having ceased to take anything personally OR too seriously ever again❎❎❎

Our takeaway:  If there's one harsh lesson I learnt the hard way [many times in the past], it is a fact that keeping things to yourself will eventually cause it to  blow up and out [even if sometimes it will blow up and out deep within you].  So, IF we're into this dilemma, let's consider it, finding an outlet, an avenue to pour things out and writing privately is NOT just about writing [BTW, you DON'T need to have dreams to become a writter/blogger] BUT making yourself a better person.  YES dude, WRITE WHAT DISTURBS you😡😡😡

Keep Chipping Away

 

In the most recent Game 1 of the 2025 NBA Finals between the Indiana Pacers and OKC Thunder, the latter were leading for more than 47 minutes of the game until Indiana's Tyrese Hyliburton unleased a jumper with 3 tenths of a second for Indiana to steal Game 1 from OKC Thunder.  HOW the latter could have led by as much as fifteen points in the final quarter and yet still allowed the Indiana Pacers to steal Game 1 from the OKC home court can only be explained in 3 to 4 words. Indiana kept CHIPPING AWAY until it was really GAME OVER💚💛💜

Much as in life, we DON'T get buried under the bushel of oblivion all instantaneously,  NOT UNTIL IT'S GAME OVER, then the game is NEVER OVER.  It is as simple as that.  You could have flunk your latest academic final exams OR suddenly you were given the pink slip with you NOT having the slightest inkling OR your partner/spouse pulling a rabbit by filing for divorce WHEN you were absolutely clueless.  BUT until that GAME IS OVER, until everything has lapsed OR expired, then you should never forget that you will always have that Chinaman's chance to pull the trick and steal the game even similarly to the jump shot by Tyrese Haliburton with 0.3 seconds left in their NBA Finals Game 1 playoff with OKC Thunder💥💥💥

Such is life exactly.  You can be penniless now.  OR suddenly jobless.  OR even homeless or abandoned by your family [even if it's your fault after all] BUT the thing is, the GAME IS NOT OVER TILL IT'S OVER.  NOT until the game's over.  Sadly, many of us would raise the white flag even before the game's buzzer sounds off.  BUT WHAT explains HOW stories like this NBA Finals Game 1 ended up being decided in 0.3 seconds out of the 48 minutes of the game?  Plain and simple.  The Indiana Pacers team kept CHIPPING AWAY [even if they were so down deep by 15 points right on the final quarter of Game 1].  This does NOT differ much from the games we face in our life❎❎❎

I remember the numerous times WHEN I was like in that situation of the Indiana Pacers.  WHEN I was penniless.  WHEN I was jobless.  WHEN I was facing challenges adjusting to live and work in an entirely new culture.  I could have easily given up WHEN my back was against the wall.  BUT I reminded myself, TO HELL, I've gone and reach this far ONLY TO GIVE UP?  No way Jose!  Instead, I told myself, I got enough time to rally up BUT if I needed to be CHIPPING AWAY, the time is NOW😕😕😕

Our takeaway:  Of all things, be fully conscious of your ballgame.  If you're into football, it's 90 minutes.  If it's the NBA professional game, it's 48 minutes.  If it's all about your life, then you got to figure out as to HOW much time you'll play on your hands before it's GAME OVER.  Forget about those technical 5-minute extensions in an NBA game OR the football penalty kick.  DON'T even wait for that last gasp of a second because that could be a hair-raising last gasp for survival BUT if at all that's WHAT remains in your active clock time, so be it, continue CHIPPING AWAY.  WHO knows you can still steal a 'W' from a foregone loss!!!

Those Double-edged Biases

 

All the while, I simply shrugged off that mile-long list of cognitive biases.  NOT until I had these realizations as to HOW they indeed help us, albeit in a low-key no-frills way.  Although we like to believe that we're rational and logical, let's accept the real truth that we are constantly under the influence of the multiple cognitive biases.  Alas, most of these biases do distort our thinking, and influence our beliefs and sometimes sway our decisions and judgments that we make.  Frankly, many of those are negatively impactful📗📙📘

Sometimes, these cognitive biases are fairly obvious as we might even find that we end up recognizing those tendencies within us.  BUT in many other cases, these biases seem so subtle such that they are [almost] impossible to notice.  One particular precious BUT limited resource we have is ATTENTION WHICH means we CAN'T possibly evaluate every possible detail WHEN forming thoughts and opinions.  SO HOW?  We then rely on mental shortcuts to speed up💥💥💥

Ironically, in the end, that becomes a trap for us because we end up with a bias.  BUT many of these biases are perilous at the very least.  LIKE CONFIRMATION BIAS where we only pay attention to information that confirms our beliefs about issues we thought we're correct.  LIKE agreeing in social media only to people WHO share your viewpoints.  So, WHAT traps people to incessant FAKE NEWS???

WHAT happens next?  People fall prey to FAKE NEWS WHEN they only choose online FEEDS or news sources that support their views.  If you are a Putin fan, you'll subscribe to the Russian FEEDS.  Of course, if you're an Arab, likely you'll subscribe to Al-Jazeera.  Experts explain that there are practical reasons WHY this happens and it's because by confirming existing opinions, it helps limit our mental resources needed to validate OR make decisions😌😌😌

Our takeaway:  Oh Oh Oh, I love this brutally honest poster telling us straight through our eyes:  DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU THINK.  And that's our deep-seated problem lying underneath near the incognito bedrock.  So, UNLESS and UNTIL we correct the very biases we succumbed to, there's just NO other way for us to remediate and RIGHT THE WRONGS.  Those Double-edged Biases!!!

When Our 'HUMAN-side' Is Not a 'Big Ask'

 

Time for light exchanges dude!  So, what are some tricks used by waiters that most people never notice?  A businessman was dining at a new restaurant and knocked his spoon off the table.

He was wondering whether to pick it up himself or leave it, when seconds later a waiter appeared at his side. In what seemed like one movement, the waiter stooped to pick up the dropped spoon, and placed another spoon on the table.

“How did you manage that? How did you know I would drop a spoon?” the businessman asked.

The waiter smirked and said, “Sir, we've been trained in efficiency and done many studies. The most common dropped utensil is a spoon, so we keep a spare up here,” as he patted his top pocket.

“Amazing” said the businessman, whose gaze dropped from the top pocket, to the waiter's fly, where a length of string was hanging. He continued, “But did you know you have some string hanging from your fly?”

The waiter smirked again, “Sir, in our endeavours to be most efficient, we seek to minimise our time away from the restaurant, so if we need to urinate, we can speed things up by not having to wash our hands, by not touching … those parts. We use the string for that purpose.

The businessman nodded as he considered this, then looked puzzled, then asked “I can see how the string helps in … pulling it out. But how do you … put it back in, without touching it?”

The waiter proudly stated “Sir, yet more efficiency. We use that same spoon that we keep in our top pocket, and is now on your table!”

On a different note, this reminds me of that subtle reminder to us all to be NICE to all.  BUT if you handpick as to WHICH ones should you prioritize, here you go.  Of all the service providers, let us be NICE [and NEVER be RUDE]  to ALL BUT most especially to food attendants and health care service providers.  Let us NOT forget that at top of the totem pole is our HEALTH followed by our FOOD intake

Sadly, WHILE these are outliers, there were reported incidents when a hospital patient eventually got injected NOT with the correct prescribed injectible.  WHILE that incident DIDN'T cause the tragic death of that patient, can we imagine the worst things happening if one day, just because we offended a health care frontline service provider, they caused something more serious OR worst, tragic to the hospital patient.  Another incident was at a restaurant WHEN a guest somehow became emotional, ending up to offend the restaurant personnel.  Sadly, that incident ended awry because the restaurant guest ended up experiencing some symptoms of possible food poisoning BUT WHICH CAN'T be substantiated that time BUT when the restaurant guest was rushed to the nearest hospital, it was unfortunate that he was diagnosed with food poisoning although there was NO direct evidence to confirm with finality the complicity of the restaurant personnel.  Long story short, maybe this snafu could have been avoided in the very first place😌😌😌

Our takeaway:  Regardless of our standing in society, WHETHER you're at the C-Suite level OR a typical rank & file personnel, there is a commonality we share and that's the fact that we are all human, living our own separate lives, grinding through every day with UPs and DOWNs much as we want to put up the happy and funny face [and aura] of a clown OR entertainer, we humans we have our unique vulnerabilities and as much as we want to put up a HAPPY FACE when we go on with our daily schedules, let us manifest that empathy IF and WHEN circumstances will call for it.  After all, we're all humans, and we got to co-exist BUT stretching a bit to be more mindful of folks around us WON'T be too much to ask for, right dude???  When Our 'HUMAN-side'  Is Not a 'Big Ask'