Last night I traveled to an event that honored my aunt. She is a very special woman and this was a great chance to show her how highly I think of her.
I noticed that the credit card machines were jamming and it was hard to process donations. Many people were desperately trying to resolve this and people were just choosing not to donate. I offered the event manager help saying that I have experience in doing business operations and crowd control and they don't need to show me anything, I'll figure it out myself and then show them how.
He appeared surprised but as we were speaking I unjammed one machine and began processing payments. I told him "Don't feel bad. I've trained men managers who never had someone above them, let alone a woman, and they did fine in the end. Often the men tried two weeks before coming to me and then were taken aback when I resolved the issue in less than 15 min."
The woman coordinator kept suggesting that it was enough and she'd manage, but each time I stepped away the line swelled. She had gotten stuck again. I reassured her not to feel bad and let me help. I offered new ways of making receipts and tracking the cash flow. People were really happy. Best of all, so was I.
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