Personal Experience
I was finally leaving the hospital after a painful 3.5 hour outpatient surgery, and I was feeling sorry for myself. I have been through so many procedures, and my sister died of breast cancer. I wasn’t feeling hopeful about my chances to escape it either.
But when I opened the door to the hospital parking garage, I ran into Vic, a driver for Medical Couriers. He was wearing the same blue uniform and badge I wear everyday. When I saw him, it brightened my whole day. I knew he was there to pick up my biopsy. He had a big, caring smile on his face, and when I looked at it I knew everything was going to be ok.
My biopsy results came in a few weeks later, and they were negative for breast cancer.
I’ve worked for MCI for four years. I love my job because I get to be by myself all day and I love driving. I love to be on time too—and that really matters in this job.
One day I was en route to drop off slides at a hospital in Sacramento when I stopped at CVS to get something to drink. It was then that I saw an elderly woman lying down in the parking lot next to a giant dog.
There were so many people and cars just going by as if they didn’t see her. I went over to her and asked her if she needed help.
She looked up at me and said she thought she had broken her hip. She was 83 years old.
She had just called her husband, so I decided to stay there with her until he arrived. I grabbed a pillow from my car and put it under her head. Then I put her dog in her car so it wouldn’t get hit. After a while her family arrived, and I left to continue my route.
Several weeks later, I stopped at the same CVS. One of the employees there told me the woman was trying to find me. She had even put a quarter page ad in the local paper. When she finally got a hold of me, she gave me a $1000 gift certificate for a local spa and another $1000 gift certificate for other stores.
James has contributed to a number of leading management and business journals, such as the Harvard Business Review and The Wall Street Journal, as well as given speeches at leadership conferences around the world. An active leader not only in the business world, but in the community as a whole, James is accomplishments are numerous. In 2007, he was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award from “Consulting” magazine and was honored at the magazine’s awards dinner for women leaders in consulting.