Giving Thanks

Today is Thanksgiving in the US.  That always drives a huge number of posts on gratitude and thankfulness, including this one.  However, it strikes me as being a little discordant with what we should be doing.  Rather than reserving a specific day to reflect and be thankful, we need to create a habit of giving thanks and recognition every day.  Our people, our customers, our suppliers, our business partners, our colleagues, community and, most importantly, our families.

Maybe the habit of a daily random act of gratitude–thanking someone who smiles in the store, on the bus, in a restaurant.  Imagine if rather than celebrating our thankfulness once a year, we each made it a habit of celebrating it every day.  This would change the world!

Having said that (regular readers know I’m very comfortable with contradicting myself), today is a day that does cause us, at least in the US, to pause, reflect, and be thankful.

A couple of days ago, I had lunch with a new, but now good friend–Tim Ohai.  We were reflecting on our businesses and found a lot of similarities.  I have the great privilege of working with some of the smartest and best business, sales, and marketing professionals in the world.  Often, our collaborations focus on tremendous growth opportunities.  Sometimes, they are focused on addressing very difficult challenges.  Whether a tremendous growth opportunity or major challenge–none is trivial.  All are very complex. with difficulties, and no clear path to success.  It’s such a joy to work with so many smart people addressing very big challenges.  I’m constantly learning and developing as a result of the opportunity to work with these great professionals.  Hopefully, we contribute in a similar fashion to them and their organizations.  

My colleagues in our company, Partners In EXCELLENCE, are truly partners.  We learn from each other and our clients.  We share ideas and grow–as individuals and as an organization.  Each is a top professional, great colleagues, and treasured friends.

As Tim and I reflected, every day, we get to pursue our passions.  Imagine doing what you love with great professionals every day!  And better, imagine getting paid for it!  It really is a privilege.

Furthermore, I have the opportunity to participate in a very large social community, exchanging ideas and learning from each other.  I’m really blessed to have a great following and engaged community with this blog.   I learn from each exchange, comment, and tweet.  

Every day, I get a random comment or tweet, that just makes my day!  As an example, I just got this note from Ohiro Jude: “Hi Dave, I just love your articles.  I want you to know your are doing a great gob.  Keep it up.  Thanks.”  I don’t know Ohiro, but that random act of kindness from Ohiro is absolutely priceless.  There are thousands of you, in your kind comments, tweets, and emails that make my days!

The chance to engage and be engaged in this broad community, makes me much better.  Hopefully, it makes each of us a little better.  The chance to engage in this community has allowed me to build deeper relationships with people around the world, that I may never have otherwise had the chance to meet and learn from.

Finally, my family, not only puts up with me (not that I’m not continually testing them), but is supportive of me.  My wife, Kookie, really “gets” what I do–why I spend so many hours (because I’m consumed with doing what I love), tolerates my long absences from home as I travel, and is one of the best sales strategists and sounding boards for high performance selling.  My niece, Kacey, who in addition to being a sales person for a great Social Media start up, serves as our company’s marketing director.  She tells us what we need to be doing to more effectively engage our communities and does amazing things in extending our presence.

My sisters and their families–all participate in my wackiness and don’t make too much fun of me.  And my parents, who continue to cheer lead and are so supportive.  They read the blog everyday–my Mom’s actually becoming knowledgeable about sales.  The other day, I’m sure after conspiring with Kookie, she called and wanted me to do a pipeline review–just to make sure my business was on target.   (I have succeeded on getting them to stop leaving “We’re so proud of our little boy,” comments on the blog.)

So while I need to be thanking my clients, prospects, the community, my colleagues in Partners In EXCELLENCE, my family and you every day; on this day of reflection, I want to thank you!