Last week I completed a whistle stop tour of the West Coast of America launching “DO! the pursuit of xceptional execution.” The tour included keynotes, media, and mentoring sessions.

In the rush to get to the airport, I forgot to leave one of my keys at home. Coming through Shannon Airport, I approached a customer service attendant in the Duty free and sought her help. I wondered could she put the key in an envelope and post it the same day. Mary Lawless was happy to go one step further and deliver the key personally to Galway that day. It transpires she was collecting her child from college and volunteered to leave the key wherever I wanted in the city. Problem solved. What a fantastic example of xceptional service.

Even though I purchased nothing, Mary treated me as a long lost friend and was more than happy to help me in my time of need. When the time is right, it is my strong intention to return the favour. Imagine having customer service staff with the same mentality?

Hours later, I was settling into my hotel on Venice Beach where the receptionist welcomed me with an unusual choice of words – “Welcome to weirdness!” I really enjoyed Venice Beach. Every morning I would walk the promenade about 7.30am and get myself a coffee and take in the sites, sounds and smells! For a self professed people watcher it was a treat. You could take any five minutes of your time there and look, listen and smell and your senses would reach overload stage! Take Saturday morning. I stopped close to the Freak Show building on the promenade. LA Leggers were out in force as little armies of joggers past by. Before this two ladies had passed by – one confessing that she had finally stopped internet shopping as everyday something new and often useless appeared in her cluttered house. Going the other direction were two men who were discussing the merits of a $300m takeover. These confessions was broken by a loud cheer as one of the multitudes of homeless people informed his friends that the store was now open – time for their quick fix.

And to finish the five minute segment in a scene reminiscent of “Pretty Woman” a man clearly high on life and a lot more was repeating the following mantra in an endless loop “ YA , focus on your dream one hundred and ten per cent….ya focus on your dream one hundred and ten percent…..ya focus on your dream one hundred and ten percent…”

On Friday morning, I was interviewed on the Business Rockstars programme followed by two keynotes the following morning in Santa Monica for www.metalinternational.com and then in Malibu that night. The pace was frenetic. On Sunday morning after an enjoyable meeting with the brilliantly talented Tim Sanders, I boarded the plane for my old home San Francisco.

Within an hour of touching down I was again in meeting with some of the top start up minds in the bay area. Within the next forty eight hours, I had conducted a keynote for www.Globant.com which was warmly received (see testimonials) two mentoring sessions and four different meetings! I was living the DO! ethos.