Touched My Videographer's Heart

I engaged Tham Wai Keen, as my wedding videographer last year & I must say that he did quite a good job from the start till finish. To cut the long story short, he initially promised to give us our DVD so that we could show to our relatives during CNY. However, this had to be delayed by an additional month because he fell very ill for 2 weeks, resulting in a lot of backlot cases. I guess many customers must have got angry, that's why he sounded so apologetic when he called me, asking if I would like to have a short unedited clip to show my relatives first, while he work on the full edited version.

When I received his call, I wasn't annoyed that he had to deliver his DVD one month later, but rather, I was actually concerned for his health. To be ill for 2 weeks such that he can't even work means that he must really be ill! How can I bear to demand anything? Not that I'm a person who demands things anyway...

Compassion set in (as Rebecca would put it), which made me ask 2 questions. The 1st question was - Is this additional DVD something that we had paid for, or is this something extra? Wai Keen replied that this is something extra, as an apology for not being able to deliver our DVD on time, as he had promised. My 2nd question was - How long do you take to do this one extra DVD, since you have other customers' DVDs to do as well? Wai Keen replied that each DVD would take about 1 day to do. When I heard that, I had made up my mind.

So I told Wai Keen that I do not need to have this extra unedited DVD and told him to use my extra 1 day to rest and spend time with his family. I sensed that at that moment, there was a silence, as he probably wondered how to respond to me. If I remembered correctly, I think he tried to ask me again if I would like to consider his suggestion. But I told him that its ok because not many relatives come over to my home during CNY anyway (coz most of the time, its the young people that visit the eldery). I urged him to take a rest or settle his remaining deadlines instead, as this extra 1 day could be well spent on something else more important... like health & family... noting that he has been working so hard...

When I received the final version of the DVDs from Wai Keen last night (he was meeting his friend for dinner & happened to be near my home), he passed me 3 copies of my DVD with very nice hard cover packaging! I was stunned... Wow... I wasn't expecting that. And he told me that he had upgraded my package by giving me a higher quality packaging. That's nice of him... but what touched my heart was that he personally wrote a card to me, thanking me for my kind gesture... & it meant a lot to him. I felt moved when I read that he welled up with emotions when I told him to use my extra 1 day to recover & spend time with his family. He told me that he was going through a difficult time & was depressed too... & I guess my kind gesture cheered him up.

Thinking back, I'm also not sure why I responded with such promptness when he suddenly called me out of the blue. I mean, its not like I had time to consider & re-consider before I made my decision. It was on the spot.

I guess its just me... I'm like that lor... compassionate guy... more or less lah. I can't change this part about me, & since it makes people feel better... its good that I don't change. I want to touch people's lives... or at least try to... although sometimes I accidentally do so without knowing. =)

Well, it goes to show that I don't have the heart to do business coz business is about getting what you want at the expense of others... & sometimes even to get more than what you initially had. I'm not like that lah. I will fail as a business man... my company sure close down... coz I would easily want to write off debts, than collect them. I don't like to be calculative about money. Its important to have money, but its not important to have more than necessary, especially at the expense of others.

Aiyah, this wedding DVD is for remembrance & sentiments only. Maybe when I grow old & lose my memory... this would come in useful. But in the end, ashes to ashes... dust to dust... but lives touched will never be the same... =)