Page 261 - The Apple Experience

other workers. What was an average performance in the past will not earn an
average grade, an average wage, or a middle class standard of living.”

Friedman believes that everyone should be asking if what they are doing is

unique and irreplaceable. “Am I putting some extra chocolate, whipped

cream, and a cherry on top of whatever I do?” he suggests asking.

In the hyperconnected world that Friedman describes, anyone who wants

to start a business has more resources available than ever before, far more

than Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak had in 1976 when they started Apple in
the garage of Jobs’s parents’ house in Los Altos, California. But unless that

entrepreneur offers something “extra” or above average, it doesn’t matter.

Even those who are not entrepreneurs must reinvent themselves within

their companies if they hope to remain relevant in an increasingly complex

and competitive global environment. “For many others it will mean

becoming a creative server and bringing a special passion or human touch to

a job in a way that truly enriches the experience for the person paying for it,”
3
says Friedman.

You see it when you are waited on by a salesperson in the
men’s suit department or the women’s shoe department who is

so engaging, so up on the latest fashions and able to make you

look your best that you’ll come back and ask for that person by
name. You see it in that trainer or Pilates instructor who seems

to know exactly how to teach each exercise properly—the one
everyone is standing in line for, even though he charges more

than his colleagues. And you see it on Southwest Airlines,
where they manage to take an economy seat and give it

something extra.

And you see it in the Apple Store and in every retailer in the past ten years

that Apple has inspired to raise its game.