When my car won’t start I’m an innocent. I always guess it’s the battery, and usually I’m right, but that’s the extent of my automotive knowledge. So when the Brent Air Towing /AAA truck answered my call this morning I was prepared to shell out $100 to $150 for a new battery.
Brent’s serviceman, Adolfo Jimenez, lifted the hood, looked intently at the battery, then gave me a quick and easy jump start. To my surprise and relief he told me I didn’t need a new battery, just run the engine until the battery was recharged.
I thanked him and told him how relieved I was not to need a new battery. His response:
“I could have told you you needed a battery, and you wouldn’t have known any different, but that wouldn’t be right. I’ve always tried to be professional and have ethics, whether training horses or mopping floors or rescuing stranded drivers.
“The important thing in life is to be happy. You can be happy with one dollar, or you can be unhappy with a million dollars.
“If you’re ethical, and if your children see you’re ethical they don’t say, ‘I want to be like Batman or Superman.’ They say ‘I want to be like dad.’ That’s happiness.”
Thanks for the lesson, Adolfo. I’ll use it in my next business ethics class.
Ethics Bob 