We’ll be sharing here stories from our many mystery experience travelers as well as ideas to make your Mystery Experience even more magical and memorable.
The Gift of Nicholas
Recently, our group embarked on a mystery experience trip. We gathered early at Hopkins Airport with our carry-on bag packed for a three day getaway. We were all excited and looking forward to our trip and time together, but there was one difference between us and everyone else (I’m guessing) at the airport – we didn’t know where we were going. That’s right – we did not know where we were going for our three-day trip. This is the mystery experience. Standing together at Hopkins Airport we opened a large envelope that contained seven boarding passes to – drum roll – Boston. This is what makes it a mystery trip because we didn’t know where we were going, and there were no other arrangements or plans made, so the following is a partial list of what we didn’t know or have:
· We didn’t know where we were going
· We didn’t know what the weather would be like (so we didn’t know how to pack)
· We didn’t know where we were staying and we had no hotel reservations
· We didn’t have transportation arranged
· We didn’t have any schedule or plans
In short, we had a boarding pass to a city that any of the seven of us may or may not have ever been to. And this (the unknowing and non-planning) is the part that makes the trip an experience generally and why (we believe) the entire time away is more an experience of the city, rather than a trip to the city.
There were so many amazing elements of our mystery trip to Boston, but one stands out above all the others. We had decided to have lunch at the No Name Restaurant in the Seaport area of Boston. One of our group had eaten there years before. It was there that we met our most memorable person (we always meet a memorable person on every mystery experience trip), and his name is Nicholas. Nicholas was ostensibly our server, but he was our gift and teacher on that Thursday afternoon. Nicholas is a short, thick and smiling man, approximately 70 years old, with a heavy European accent. We learned that Nicholas was born in the United States, but he was raised in Europe by his Italian mother and Greek father. He is a retired school teacher who taught special needs children for his entire teaching career.
To say that Nicholas gave us great service is to damn with faint praise. To even say that Nicholas delivered a great experience would be to say too little. What Nicholas did over the course of our lunch (in dozens of different ways) was to love us up. From the ways that he helped us place our orders (suggesting certain meals because they were the freshest seafood, even if they were less expensive), to humorously delivering drinks to bantering with us throughout the entire experience, Nicholas made us feel more like friends than customers. He also brought us several complimentary food items “on him” just to enhance the experience. He personally oversaw the cooking of one of the meal for one of our group who has extreme gluten allergies to make sure that it was properly and safely prepared. At every step of the way, Nicholas made us feel like we were the most important people not only in the restaurant, but in the world. Most important, you could see only one thing in the way that Nicholas lives and serves – joy. This was the magic of Nicholas.
When we walked out of the No Name, one of our group talked about what a great server Nicholas was, but we quickly corrected that description to say that what we had just experienced was a true servant leader. Someone who humbly and without title or position had modeled what it means to care about others and to serve them from a place of love (for us and for his job). We all learned so many lessons from Nicholas that we will carry forward with us forever.
Incredibly, the mystery experience trip makes me a better person, teaches me more, expands my thinking and understanding, and helps me going forward as a person, leader and contributor. I encourage all of you to create similar experiences for yourself, your friends and your team members. As you go forward with your day and week, keep in mind that life and relationships are meant to be experienced, not just lived or had.
Jeff N
