Does this have the “touch of Dey” on it? Many years ago, when I was a young trainee in the world of public relations, a senior colleague (now friend) asked me this question. My friend, let’s call him David was trying to tell me that I needed to find a way to leave my signature on every task that passed through my hands, however big or small.
I was sitting behind a press registration desk in a hotel waiting for the media to show up. Making a few half-hearted last-minute ” follow-up calls” and wondering to myself, “Did I do my MA in Economics and then an MBA to do this…. collect visiting cards and hand out a press kit?…”
David appeared and noted my grumpy demeanour. “What’s up Dey…” he asked me. I gave him an ear full of my grumbles and taunted him with his advice. “Please tell me how I leave my mark on a media registration desk?”
Without a word, he silently went to work. In under 5 minutes the space that I was so carelessly manning was transformed. The cardboard box of press kits and media giveaways was pushed under the table. A crisp, white starched tablecloth brought in to camouflaged it. Pencils that were just lying haphazardly on the desk were sharpened and arranged in two glasses. The notepads earlier strewn in an untidy stack were beautifully arranged in a fan-like pattern. A vase of flowers was placed next to an empty bowl that now had a sign in front of it saying “please drop your visiting card here…” and just like that, David showed me what could be done if I approached every task with care and the desire to leave my signature or my unique fingerprints on it… the touch of Dey.
Maybe my friend David had read this beautiful passage from Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, that I chanced upon last week. Written in 1953, it spoke to me just like David did in 1996. Words are important, they time travel with honesty and a desire to show me what really matters is who we are, when we are doing what we do.
“Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you’re there.
It doesn’t matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that’s like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.”
David’s advice to me as I sat behind that press desk showing me how to bring the “Dey touch..” to anything I laid my hand upon. Ray’s writing reminds me about the importance of knowledge and the ability to express my individuality in a world that is always trying to shape me into something other than who I am. Finding my unique flavour and allowing it to touch the world with care is what to me now appears to be the recipe for a life well lived.
The views and opinions published here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the publisher.
A trusted coaching and communications professional, Nikhil Dey is a certified life and leadership coach (International Coach Federation - ICF). Nurturing talent and helping clients achieve their goals is what makes him happy. He loves learning from students of communication, teaching courses and guest lecturing at various educational institutions. When he is not working you will find him on the tennis court or out for long walks with his family and four legged friends.
Previously he has held senior leadership positions at Weber Shandwick and Genesis BCW.
He can be reached on twitter @deydreaming
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