At a business networking event today, our moderator asked each of us if we had anyone to give thanks to. An entrepreneurial woman I gave some advice to last week stood up and publicly thanked me for the advice.
I can’t tell you how much that meant to me. Though I routinely give people advice in the few areas I know something about, it struck me that very few of those folks have ever thanked me publicly. In this case, 30 other business people were not-so-subtly told that I’m a decent guy who’s willing to help out.
Not that my helping is without a degree of self-interest. I know that if I am friendly and informative with people on a regular basis, for a long enough period of time, some of them tell others about my company, and some will actually hire my company.
But doggone it, it was nice to be thanked so sincerely and so publicly. For today, that was as much reward as I needed to get!
