I've been thinking about the definition of 'professional'.
The other day, I went back to my favorite liquor store to exchange a bottle of red wine. This is rather unusual since there is usually a wine specialist I've acquainted well with and he is very thorough and accurate about his recommendation. However, this bottle I purchased was through someone else's advice. Luckily, I located this wine specialist whom I don't know very well and explained the situation. The wine was too sweet. When I first brought it up, he seemed to be in disbelief. Then I remembered how confident he was when suggesting this particular brand over the other one I had liked in the past. Without hiding his disbelief, he bluntly said, "you can choose another one." After picking up the one I always liked, he guided me to the casher and glanced at the bottle I picked up. "You like that one and not this one?" "this one is too sweet" "it's not sugar sweet and this one is smoother" "I'm just used to drinking this other one." Throughout this exchange, he kept looking unsatisfied as if I knew nothing about wine.
Recommending a certain taste to someone you don't know very well is tricky. I remember the wine specialist I've acquainted in this same store and how he approached his work as an advisor. He always listened to me very carefully and selected several bottles and gave me very detailed explanation about each one. From the second visit and on, he remembered my face and came to help me with the selection. And his selection always hit the mark. I compared these two specialists and wondered why this new one was less successful in 'discovering and satisfying' my preference, which is his job. Perhaps it has something to do with 'service' - the spirit to 'serve' people. In order to truly serve people, you have to examine your ego. You have to disappear in service of others' needs. It requires deep study of the information you are sharing. It also requires deep study of who the people are you are serving. It's not an easy job to be a wine specialist. Whenever I am with my favorite wine specialist, I feel well taken care of. I have the trust and can even enjoy other conversations with him since I'm not worried if the one he recommends would be overpriced or not suited for my palate. He has cultivated an air to ease the customer who comes to his store, share his knowledge, and always gives room for the customer to make a decision. I sense his pride in his work. I haven't yet had to return anything he recommended to me, but if that ever happens, I'm sure what he would do is to listen to me, consult me, bring three more options to choose, and say, "don't hesitate to bring it back if you don't like it". He sure is in my eyes, a true professional.
I encountered another professional on TV. A while ago, I watched how an autism specialist works with children in a TV program called "Professional." She had opened a center, like a nursing home, where the autistic children can stay and spend time with other autistic children and the caretakers. There was one impossible child who kept escaping from this home. Noone seemed to have a solution to solve this child's problem. His manner was violent and his situation was clearly severe. After about the third escape of the day, the reporter asked the specialist, "what are you going to do now?" Without changing her facial expression a bit, she replied," I'm going to keep working with him until he becomes well because I'm a professional. I will never give up."
Am I professional? When things don't go well, am I not finding the excuses? Am I not making a leeway for myself? Being a professional means to be able to take responsibility for your work. Professional means to pursue the goal of your work no matter how long it takes or how complex it is. Also, professional means to think about your work and its relation to the people who are affected by your work. It means to invest in the question, 'what is the relationship between my work and the world's present?'