Seth Godin bought a mattress from Sleepy’s the other day and mentions the owner of the entire chain, Harry Acker, who takes care of anything in any of his 400+ stores that’s not fixed within 3 days (dial 300).  That’s amazing!  I bought  mattress from Sleepy’s last year and another several years ago; Sleepy’s is the biggest mattress chain in NY.

Our sales guy, who was outstanding by the way, explained that all 400 stores in the chain are owned by one guy, and that the instructions are clear: if there’s anything in the store, anything important, that’s broken and not fixed within 72 hours (including policies, prices, inventory, whatever), his job is to pick up the phone and dial 300.

And Harry Acker, the owner, the billionaire, answers. "This is Harry." And you tell him and he fixes it.

I love that.

Even better… every once in a while, the phone rings. It’s Harry. "What’s up?" he asks. And if you tell him good news, he hangs up on you.

I think I’m glad I don’t have Harry’s job. But I was (amazingly, surprisingly, shockingly) glad I shopped there today.

I can believe that.  People who are successful are usually very driven - in this case, Harry’s life is his stores.