Why We Do What We Do
People I regard as friends have asked me for years “Why the beauty industry?”. My answer is always the same – “It’s about the people”.
It’s about our Guests that come to us tired, frustrated and sometimes even scared – and leave our spas feeling self-confident, refreshed and grateful.
It’s about each of you that truly love what you do like no other profession I have observed.
It’s also about being on the front lines of health and wellness which has become not only the new luxury for consumers, but a necessity for their mental and physical health.
That’s why I have proudly locked arms with beauty professionals for the last 42 years. Given the choice, I would do it all over again.
Without question or exception I can tell you the pandemic of 2020 has been different and more difficult than any social or economic calamity we have faced in my lifetime and, some would say, in human history. Why?
We are fighting this battle on three fronts simultaneously;
– A Worldwide Healthcare Pandemic
– A Worldwide Economy – shaken to its roots
– A Social Justice System challenged
Any one of these battles would have absorbed us. Together at one time, they seem almost insurmountable.
When I see real difficulty of the sort I have just described, I am reminded of the words I heard Nelson Mandela utter when I sat in an audience shortly after he was released from prison after 27 years for doing nothing more than asserting his rights as a human being.
It was a bit of a surreal setting. Me, a middle class, public school educated kid from the Midwest sitting in a small group listening to the words of a man known around the world, uttering this simple sentence;
“It always seems impossible, until it is done.”
Those words moved me then and continue to do so today. They are exactly what each of us must remind ourselves as we take on each new day – committed to make a difference – for our families, our guests and ourselves.
How has Trilogy as a company lived Mandela’s words?
First, our story begins (as it should) with the spirit of your leadership – Michelle, John, Brennan and too many more to name including, of course, each of your Spa Directors – the bedrock of our Company. As a group they never wavered in their belief they could find a way. They never failed to ask in a kindly way, not demand. They never failed to rise above whatever they were asking of others – “ going the extra mile” – knowing that lane is seldom crowded.
For all the wonderful things I could go on for some time recounting about our Corporate team and Spa Property management, they would be the first to tell me “they” were not the reason we have been, and will be, successful. No, they would to the person say we are no better or more successful than our Employee Partners whose responsibility it is to bring hope, inspiration, confidence and ultimately good health to our Guests by providing “Flawless Service; Every Guest, Every Day”.
You are the HEROES. On behalf of each of my partners, none of whom perform massage, facials, nail services, hair or make our Guests beautiful and proud every day, I want to thank you for the smiles you have brought to the faces of countless Guests, most of whom were frightened even to cross our thresholds.
Your heroics began the day you made the affirmative choice to return to work. You furthered your contribution by listening to the needs of one another and work as a team as well as by using the magic in your hands to make our Guests lives better, if only for a finite period.
You may ask yourself why I would call you out and thank you for performing your duties, as you have for years… and sometimes decades? The fact is I am writing you today not because the service you performed was so unusual. I am calling you out and asking you to stand up and accept praise because you are practicing your craft under almost impossible circumstances without a whimper or even a question.
We are fighting a plague the greatest medical/scientific minds in the world have never encountered, and still do not fully understand. It used to be we were judged by how we changed our Guests’ physical appearance. Now we are being asked to put that standard second to assuring our Guests are safe. And when science tells us the methods and precautions you employ in a seemingly effortless manner must change, you rise to the challenge, as devoted care takers always do, for the good of others.
You have lived the spirit of Nelson Mandela’s words. You have concluded no road is too long, no hill is too high. Why? Because you love what you do and the Guests you bring joy to. And, for that reason I, and everyone entrusted with management responsibility, wish to take a moment to thank you.
Today we choose to think about how you instinctively do what you do on behalf of others, which allows us the privilege to support you and your gallant efforts.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for jumping into the arena every week. I trust you will understand and take the credit you richly deserve.
Yours,
David