To Insure Prompt Service

There’s a story ([apocryphal, it turns out](http://www.snopes.com/language/acronyms/tip.asp)) that “tipping” at restaurants first emerged as a way of making sure you’d get good treatment, hence the word “tips” itself–“to insure prompt service”. A friend uses this strategy at hotels, tipping on the first day so that he will benefit while he’s there.

Today [President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize](http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2009/), and while there is certainly celebration among his supporters, the predominant reaction is “for what?” He is just a few months into his time as president, and has yet to finish any of his ambitious goals.

It’s interesting to think about how this will affect Obama’s remaining time in office (and afterward). It is a validation of what he’s done so far, but he now has even greater expectations to live up to, and risks more disappointment if he fails.

My wife had a fascinating reaction to the news: “I think everyone should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize early in their careers.” Receiving such a large, historic, and public honor forces you to raise your ambitions. Whatever plans you had before the prize, you must now take to a higher level of morality and effectiveness.

In Kurt Vonnegut’s [Player Piano](http://www.ryskamp.org/brain/?p=159), a character named Alfie shares a powerful philosophy of work:

Pick out something impossible and do it, or be a bum the rest of your life.

If you were [woken at 4am](http://nobelprize.org/prize_announcements/magic_call.html) by the words “Congratulations, you have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize”, what impossible things would you start doing?