One of the most inspirational and impactful stories I have read is in a short, easy-to-read book called “The Fred Factor,” by Mark Sanborn. Fred is the ordinary-looking postal carrier with a small moustache who once delivered mail to Sanborn’s house in the Washington Park area of Denver. But Fred is no ordinary U.S. Postal Service worker. According to Sanborn, he is the kind of worker who exemplifies everything that is “right” with customer service and is a role model for anyone who wants to make a difference in his or her work.
Sanborn describes that when he first moved into his community, Fred stopped by to see how he could help his newest customer. When Sanborn would travel for work, Fred would suggest ways to ensure that piled-up mail wouldn’t alert unsavory passersby when the home was vacant. As Sanborn got to know more people in the area, he soon learned that Fred the postman provided extraordinary service for all the customers on his route. Time after time, neighbors recounted tales of the many ways Fred went above and beyond in his job. In his book “The Fred Factor” Sanborn describes how each of us can become a Fred.
After observing Fred the Postman, Sanborn came to a profound realization: anyone can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. It applies to your work, to your relationships, and to your Judaism as well. Think about what Fred did most of his life. He delivered mail. And where others might have seen monotony and drudgery, Fred saw an opportunity to make a greater difference in the lives of others.
Mediocrity is our silent opponent. At the end of the day, the only question that matters is, what kind of difference did you make?
After reading this short book, you will quickly realize that if Fred the postman can excel at bringing creativity and commitment to putting mail in a box, then every single one of us is certainly capable of doing as much or more to reinvent and rejuvenate our efforts, whether it be as a parent, as a spouse, as an employee or as a Jew.
As Sanborn writes, “Mediocrity is our silent opponent” and “nobody can prevent you from choosing to be exceptional. At the end of the day, the only question that matters is, what kind of difference did you make?”
He quotes Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who once said, "If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause and to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.'"
If there is one idea that captures the holiday of Hanukkah, it is this notion of being exceptional. The Talmud tells us that while the commandment is to light one candle per house, there’s an even more beautiful way of performing the mitzvah: to light one candle per person in the household. And then, the Talmud tells us, there is an even more beautiful way to do the mitzvah: light one candle per person, per night of Hanukkah.
We call this hiddur mitzvah, which means that I am not simply performing a mitzvah, but that I can beautify my service of God by putting in the time and effort to perform the mitzvah exceptionally.
While beautifying the mitzvah applies to Hanukkah in a unique way, the holiday also challenges us to apply this notion of beautifying to every aspect of everything that we do.
After all, we all wear many hats and play various roles in our lives, be it as a parent, a spouse, a child or a coworker. Why not give push ourselves to be just a little bit more like Fred, live with a little more beauty and do things exceptionally?
If Fred could bring such beauty to putting mail in a box, how much more could you and I bring beauty into our lives? I’m sure I’m not alone in experiencing days when I wake up tired. I do everything I can possibly do but sometimes I’m still fatigued and unmotivated to do much with the day.
Hanukkah challenges us to bring that excitement, creativity, enthusiasm and exceptionalism to every aspect of our lives. So think about Fred. Because if Fred the Postman could bring that kind of creativity and commitment to putting mail in a box, then you and I can do as much or more to bring creativity and commitment to our lives.
The choice of being ordinary or exceptional is yours.
Photo credit: Mick Haupt, Unsplash.com
(5) Anonymous, December 20, 2020 3:29 PM
what are a couple of other examples that fred did....i would have liked to see that in the article
(4) JANIS SILBIGER, December 16, 2020 7:49 PM
Amazing
This article is so very true. The article was written beautifully and with so many everyday examples of looking at ourselves and our lives in relation to making a difference and really being exceptional!
(3) Jane Ackerman, December 15, 2020 4:15 PM
beautiful
Thank you for sharing such a simple yet endlessly complex way of sanctifying the mundane. I found it uplifting and motivating. Yasher koach!
(2) Anonymous, December 14, 2020 3:23 PM
Elitism?
I might misunderstand the article but to me too it sounds derogatory and condescending toward the 'hero'. It implies/says so explicitly repeatedly that if 'the postman' can do that, how much more could we (intellectuals?) do. This is hardly praise, it rather belittles the accomplishment/merit of ordinary folks/people with no high-powered jobs. I seem to encounter this not so subtle intellectual elitism in many orthodox Jewish articles (not to mention the absolutely outrageous attitude toward work in the kolel world) and I don't understand where it comes from: most Jews in the Torah, in the times of the Talmud or in Europe even just a hundred years ago - religious or not, did not think it beneath them getting their hands dirty, learn a trade and make an honest living from that. Intellectuals even among them were the minority. In any case how does such language make members of their own communities feel? Why would anyone be a lesser person who has no university education? So do we look down on Abraham or Yitzchack 'the shepherds'?
Gary, December 16, 2020 5:04 AM
Interesting Idea
I paused after reading this comment, and realized that there was some sort of judgment of Fred's occupation. However, I quickly looked up the book on Amazon and felt this was coming from the author, and was just being reflected in the Rabbi's comments. Indeed, the author's premise was one of the foundations of his book--that being a postman is sort of an "ordinary" job which could be elevated into something more. But the author himself was also reflecting a stereotype. Would he (or the audience) respond to
"Fred the Attorney" or "Fred the Dentist"? Rather than the Rabbi or even the author being the creator of an elitist stereotype, the issue may be that society has placed a certain value on occupations that reflects some measure of elitism that is somewhat problematic, and I appreciate the comment pointing this out.
Nancy, December 16, 2020 12:10 PM
To commenter #2 Anonymous
Your perspective on the article was interesting to me. As I read the article I thought of the word ostensible. Fred's work only SEEMS to be ordinary, but in fact he treats his customers with respect and dignity. This may sound cliche, but I personally do not believe in labels such as ordinary. Our jobs BECOME ordinary when we are burnt out. If we put forth effort and dedication towards any job we have, then there is nothing ordinary about what we are doing.
Anonymous, December 16, 2020 1:29 PM
I still detect elitism
Hm, I am still not sure where this attitude comes from but I still can't shake the feeling that referring to someone else's job as just putting mail in a box and assuming it must be monotony and drudgery implies that we look down on this kind of job as brainless and boring and way below our abilities. Instead of considering it an honest profession that requires training skills and specified knowledge like any other (more than some and less than others no doubt) and that can give people as much satisfaction and dignity as rocket science can do and can make people proud important and equal contributors to society, we talk about it as if somehow we all agreed that being a blue-collar worker were something beneath us, a bad joke or a sad excuse for a job. I feel that talking about the jobs of maybe 70 percent of Americans this way is quite hurtful and humiliating to most members of society, many of whom do find pleasure and challenge in their jobs without having to make extraordinary efforts to make it bearable or enjoyable. And many of them don't, of course, just as there are burnt out lawyers and engineers, too, I agree. So if a speaker wants to make a point it can just as easily be done by the example of 'Sam, the geologist around the South Pole measuring things day after day year after year'. :)
Dvirah, December 19, 2020 5:37 PM
A Matter of Placement
Sam the geologist at the South Pole may be heroically measuring things day after day, but that work does not and will not affect people on a daily basis. I think the point is that Fred's job may or may not bring him into contact with people, and that Fred made sure it did, in a way that benefited the people contacted. After all, he could have just shoved letters into the mailbox and walked away, without caring about the recipient - and still be considered to have done all that was required of him as a postman.
I think the Rabbi's point is that whatever job we have, we can work selfishly or we can work in a way that benefits those we have contact (or potential contact) with as well. In other words, we can be caring on a daily basis or not. Fred chose to be caring, and that is what the book celebrates.
(1) Harry S Pearle, December 13, 2020 7:40 PM
But We Don't Have to be Exceptional to Matter. (Think of Virus Protecting)
Nice story, but what about the people who serve us, in very ordinary ways?
Think of all the people, we meet, every day, who simply MASK and DISTANCE.
Can we be grateful for the small effort they make to protest us and others?
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On Friday, a man came to my house to deliver food for me for Chanukah.
He called up to let me know that he was at the door, and I appreciate that.
I think we can fall into the TRAP of only recognizing SUPER - SERVANTS.
Another TRAP is to look down on a person, like a letter carrier, for his job level.
(Mark Sanborn is a famous speaker. Does that make him a better person?)
Happy Chanukah H www.SavingSchools.org