Follow them: People Who Piss Me Off, Volume 2!

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A few years ago, I wrote a piece about people who piss me off. I think it’s time to revisit this theory.

Essentially, people in this world can piss you off for two reasons:

1) They’re mosquitos. These aren’t the people I’m talking about in this blog. Mosquitos annoy you simply because they annoy you. They aren’t good people, and they don’t do anything to improve you or the world in which we live. They simply exist to annoy.

Or

2) They motivate you. They’re doing something you want to do. They’re doing something that you do, but they’re doing it better. They’re doing something they make seem effortless, while you’re doing it and feel like you’re going to pass out by even attempting it. You know those types. Those are the types I’m talking about here.

If you couldn’t tell, when I say “they piss me off,” I mean that I’m so thankful to have them in my life in some way, whether in person, digitally, or virtually. They make me strive more, push harder, and force myself to not quit. They push me to strive to do things I never thought I could do, and they prevent me from ever “half-assing it.”

So: People who piss me off: Volume 2:

Erica House, you piss me off. Erica is one of those incredible fitness junkies who makes a seven mile run look effortless, and as important, makes you believe you can do it effortlessly, too.  Before I go out for a morning run or bike ride or swim, I tend to look at what she’s recently posted – Once I find it, it usually encourages me to do just a few more miles than I was planning. And when I get to the point where I was originally going to stop, I I usually shout out Erica’s name, with a few other vernaculars that aren’t printable here. But when I push through and finish the workout, I feel amazing, and I’m thankful for Erica. We should all strive to have an Erica in our lives. It occurs to me that Erica has a twin, as well. Her name is Abbey Eldridge.

Mike Odea, you piss me off. Whenever I get home late, or don’t know what to eat, or am about to eat some crappy fast food, I take a look at your twitter stream before I do. 99% of the time, you’ve just posted something healthy, something with meat, something you’ve cooked, and I don’t give into my cravings, but rather, make something healthy. So Mike, my need for burger king french fries is really pissed off by you.

Jeremiah Owyang, you piss me off. You understood the sharing economy before it was the sharing economy, and the work you’ve put into learning about it and researching every nook and cranny has made you to go-to guy for all things sharing. I can’t hail an Uber or use any kind of sharing service without thinking of you. Every time I talk to a company about customer service, or go on TV to talk about a company’s screw up with their customers, I ask myself what you’d say. Simply put, I want to be the you of the customer service world, and you inspire me to work even harder to get there.

Ryan Shell, you piss me off pretty much every damn day. You took an idea you had and turned it into a company. OK, I’ve done that. You’ve made it successful. Well, I’ve done that too. But you do it with a level of number-crunching, testing, and data-analysis that this ADHD poster child couldn’t even DREAM of. I treasure our morning bike training rides together because I get to spend 90 minutes working out and learning more during my ride than I could ever learn by getting an MBA. Thank you.

The Ritz Carlton pisses me off. If you’ve ever stayed at a Ritz, you understand what “by any means necessary” means when it comes to service. You ask for anything, they’ll do it. Their only desire is to leave you happy. Whenever I work with a client, on a speaking gig, or even take a first meeting, I aspire to reach the greatness of service that The Ritz-Carlton achieves daily. Because only then will I make sure that I’m better than everyone else.

Sarah Needleman, you piss me off. You’ve taken writing to an art form, and I rely on you to find out news that actually matters, before it’s news that actually matters. And you do this all with a smile and grace that most journalists lack. It’s awesome.

Aliza Licht pisses me off something fierce. This woman isn’t a model. She isn’t a runway walker. She isn’t a fashion designer. Yet one can’t think of fashion in NYC (or for that matter, the world,) without thinking about Aliza. As head of social for DKNY, she has pretty much redefined how high-end brands talk to their consumers, and is known for it around the globe. I aspire to do for customer service what Aliza does every single day for fashion.

Finally, Kira, Jessa, and NASA Shankman piss me off 24 hours a day. I know I’m fortunate enough to have married way above my pay grade, and to be blessed with a smart, beautiful, tough, and funny-as-hell child, and a furry, purry, and slightly stupid cat. So every day I’m alive, I strive to be better, to be the man, husband, and father that’s worthy of them.

How about you? Who pisses you off? Tell me in the comments, and as always, thanks for reading.