My favourite musical by the proverbial country mile is Les Miserables and the e-mail you will see to the right reminded me that it is now celebrating its twenty-ninth birthday.
Because it’s my very favourite show I’ve seen it ten times, including on the West End and Broadway, with my most recent visit to see the fantastic new staging of the production currently playing in Melbourne.
I saw it in London toward the end of its twenty-fifth year and at the conclusion of the performance the audience rose as one to give it a standing ovation. You could have been excused for thinking, that after 25 years, the production might have been a little bit tired.
But many of the people in the audience were seeing it for the first time and so it had to be as good as the first time it was ever staged. Actors had to get their lines exactly right, stagehands had to make sure that the scenery and props were in place where and when they were required and the lighting and sound guys had to make sure they produced the right effects at the right time. No getting bored or taking shortcuts for anybody involved.
It made me wonder if you’ve been in the same business for twenty-five years are you still doing things in a way that means your customers, clients or patients will give you a standing ovation? Do things happen as well or even better than you did them when you first started out in business?
And really it doesn’t matter whether we’ve been in business twenty-five years, five years or have just started, the question is are you doing it so well that people will not only start doing business with you but want to come back.
You see, as a sidenote, when I saw the show in London there were a young couple sitting next to me and I asked what brought them to see the show. “Well” the young man said, “Dad and mum saw it when they got engaged and, as we’ve just got engaged, they suggested we should see it too!”
There is a great example both of the power of referral and the value of longevity.
So, the lesson quite simply is to remember to keep doing things at least as well as or better than you have ever done before and you’ll be in business for a long, long time.
Oh, and by the way, make sure you see Les Mis in Melbourne or when it visits your city. It’s fantastic!
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