Intro cont.
I’ll tell you why, because he knows the value of professional
courtesy!
He knows that every person he comes in contact with might someday be valuable
to him. Or maybe he’s less selfish than that and just feels that everyone
deserves respect until they prove otherwise.
Throughout my life, I’ve always found that it is the most successful people
that treat even a stranger with respect.
Surprisingly, they are the people that return your calls, answer your emails,
and give you a straight answer when asked a question.
Is it a surprise that they are leaders in their field?
Of course not! That is WHY they are leaders in their field.
It’s called building a network. It’s called, knowing that the person
who is attempting to communicate with you may be the next Bill Gates, Steve
Jobs or Bing Gordon.
Or maybe on a much simpler level, that person might just be someone that you
need something from someday – especially how often people change jobs
these days - especially in the video game industry.
I personally make a day-to-day, hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute, deliberate effort
to extend professional (and non-professional) courtesy to whoever makes an effort
to communicate with me. I think people deserve that.
It’s a running joke in my office about how I take unsolicited sales calls
and welcome door-to-door salesmen. While most people treat unsolicited communication
as an interruption, I see it as a potential opportunity. An opportunity to meet
someone new - an opportunity to learn something that I didn’t know - an
opportunity to save $5 on an ink cartridge.
But most of all, I get great pleasure when I hear the excitement (and shock)
in a person’s voice when I return a phone call or see the surprised look
on their face when I tell them to come in and have a seat in my office.
I don’t know, to me, courtesy is what it is all about.
I understand that people are busy and pressed for time, so am I, but you’d
be very surprised at how little time and effort it takes to respond to an email
or take a call to say, “Thanks for contacting me, but I’m just not
interested at this time”. A 30-second call may open a door for you that
you never knew existed.
Both by way of example and instruction, the staff at PRICE has embraced my feelings
towards professional courtesy. You will be hard-pressed to find a time when
you don’t get a call back or a prompt response to an email from a PRICE
employee. We respect people and their time regardless of whether they are a
client or a guy knocking on doors selling paper clips.
Remember, a little courtesy goes a long way. Give a little and you’ll
get plenty in return.
I heard that MC Hammer was making a comeback, maybe professional courtesy can
make a comeback too.