West Ham united shirt
Last Fri morning at around 9:30a.m., one of my bosses gave me a special mission at work. It turned out to be helping some senior executive to search for a "Premium West Ham united shirt in Claret and Blue colours" and a "captain arm band". And need to print a number "9" at the back of the shirt. Immediately, two big question marks popped up in my head. I was clueless on what these things were in Chinese terms. Worst, I am not a soccer fans at all, which made it even harder for me to relate anything within my own knowledge. And I was given the deadline of getting it done by 12:00noon.
One very helpful colleague suggested me to call the sportswear specialty shop Umbro nearby. Another colleague advised us to call the sports wear shops in Times Square. My boss kept chasing me but the shops did not open till 11:30am or 12:00noon. I searched on the internet for a long time only to find that the only Umbro shop was far away in Kwai Fong. To speed up the search, I asked my boss's secretary to call the sports wear shops in Times Square. Well, she needed specific and clear instruction. So, I had to search on the internet the Chinese terms e.g. "West Ham=韋斯咸". To many football fans, it was as easy as breeze. But to us, two football-illiterate ladies, it was a lot of effort. The secretary called the shops and found that the Premium "Claret & Blue" West Ham shirt (韋斯咸主場球衣) was out of stock! And I reported to my boss the result. At the same time, the knowledgeable and smart colleague helped ask his friends who were West Ham fans. They previously tried to search the West Ham shirt everywhere in HK but failed to get it because West Ham was not a popular team in HK.
For most people, it could be the end of the story, full stop and no more trouble. Only that it was just not me to give up so easily. Digging further, I found a website of a shop in MongKok which seemed to have a wide range of soccer shirts on shelf. Amazingly, they did have the shirt in stock and provide number printing service. Perfect! Without hesitation, I told my boss the good news. Never could I expect that my reward for all the hardwork/effort was indeed another request "Can you go to MongKok to buy the shirt?". I asked the secretaries but they refused to go. After some struggling, I told myself, "I was almost there. No matter how much effort was put in it. If it's not done, it's not done. All previous effort would be wasted. It's no point let time go by hesitating, JUST DO IT." So, finally I bought the shirt by myself and passed it to my boss at Admiralty MTR station. His gratitude and happiness became my best reward.
Big lessons were learnt through this incident.
Was it worth to walk this extra mile? I cannot conclude at this stage.
