Never one to thrive in a traditional classroom setting, I have always been an experiential learner. I seem to learn the most when I am hands-on, or can see and engage with a new topic rather than just hear about it. As a result, all of my best learnings in business have come from being involved in hyper-growth companies, where one survives by rolling up their sleeves and be forced to figure it out. I’ve applied the same process to my personal development through life. I don’t want to read about the world around me; I want to walk through every open door I find and experience what’s on the other side.
My oldest daughter leaves for college this fall, and with limited time for vacations between my kid’s school schedules and my own commitments, we selected their February break as a time to celebrate what might be our last vacation together as a threesome (though I’m sincerely hoping this is not the case). I let them pick where we would go, and they selected Africa. Not an insignificant pick by any stretch of the imagination, but one that was sure to be memorable if we could pull it off. It took about nine months of planning, but well worth the effort. We just returned from what might be one of the best adventures of my life.
Anytime you step outside of your comfort zone, I’ve learned you can either try to hold on to whatever control you can muster and aim to make the experience as relaxed as possible. Or, you can throw caution to the wind, and push yourself in the unknown world to gain new knowledge and experience. I prefer the latter.
I went to Tanzania this month with two goals; to help my children and I continue to broaden our world view, and to have some fun experiencing new things together. The trip wildly exceeded all of my expectations. And while I could regale you with tales of elephants walking in front of our tent or observing that zebras are so omnipresent that we began to think of them as the squirrels of the Serengeti, there were far more meaningful takeaways.
One of the biggest learnings I walked away with was a new lens on customer service. At Rapid7, we’ve been spending a lot of energy ensuring that our customers aren’t just “serviced,” but have the best possible experience we can provide. Arriving in an unfamiliar country not entirely sure what to expect of our adventure, I immediately noticed nearly everyone we interacted with operated with a lens towards creating an exceptional experience as well.
Though Tanzania is a relatively stable country, many of its inhabitants still live well below the poverty line. They rely heavily on agriculture, tourism, and mining to fuel their economy. While I’ve traveled to other lands that also focus heavily on tourism as a major source of revenue, I’ve never encountered one where the people seem so genuinely keen to create an experience of a lifetime.
It started with our guide, who met us early our first morning and made us incredibly comfortable by explaining exactly what our upcoming several days would look like. He set our expectations about everything from being stopped on the highway multiple times by police to how bumpy our journey through the Serengeti would be in our jeep. He took the potential fear of the unknown out of the equation and set the context that essentially even though we were about to experience some things out of our everyday norm, he’d be there to guide us every step of the way.
And as we traveled over the coming days, each one a new adventure, I was struck that it wasn’t just an exceptional guide with an eye towards making this experience a memorable one; each person we interacted with operated in a similar manner. On our stay one night at a farm, one of the workers there took the time to tour us through the fields, proudly pointing out all the vegetables that we’d be eating that night. He taught us how to milk a cow, and let us check for eggs their chickens had just laid. He turned an overnight stay into a fun adventure and helped us appreciate our meal that night all the more because we understood exactly where each item came from.
Moving into the Serengeti, losing all connection to the real world was a disorienting feeling. No more email, no more texts for several days. And yet, once we got over the initial shock, we quickly recalled the true meaning of being in communication - it’s about connection. We pulled up to our first tented camp after a long day out in the plains and were greeted with staff singing to us as a form of welcome. They had been in contact with our guide throughout the day, so knew exactly where we’d been, and a little bit about each of us. They made us feel welcome immediately and treated us as though we were the most important guests they’d ever had. At one point, my overly picky eater of a daughter was noticed to be moving her food around her plate at our communal dinner. The infectiously kind manager pulled me aside after having noticed and asked what they could prepare for dinner the following evening that she would get excited about eating. After I had said not to go to any trouble for her, he engaged her in a conversation about her favorite foods. To my shock, the following night, the twelve guests around the table were eating many of the items she had shared with him.
Our final night provided yet another example of this incredible focus on the customer experience. Our last two nights were spent at a camp run by all women. They were just as welcoming and hospitable as the primarily male-led camp we had stayed at the previous two nights, but they did something which to me was a complete standout. After dinner, their approximately 20 person staff entered the dining tent, and began to sing and dance. Within minutes, they pulled every guest into their circle and began to get each person involved. Most guests were shy and intimidated; there was some hardcore African dancing going on, and we were arguably clueless. And yet somehow, they didn’t just manage to get everyone to participate - they turned that one experience into one that was discussed later by the guests as one of the highlights of their entire trip. They had someone managed to make something foreign and different feel like it was the most natural and fun thing to do within a matter of minutes.
This trip was exceptional and arguably my favorite vacation ever. While I will forever remember the children we played with in the orphanage, the beauty of the wide open plains and the encounters with the incredible animals we saw, the Tanzanian people we met along the way will remain the most etched in my brain. While the service to their customers was fantastic, the experience they created was just beyond anything I’ve ever experienced.