Today is my 14th anniversary at my place of business. I love my job and I love the people I work with. Over my 14 years I have met many-a-people, but I’m pretty sure this one person ranks “Best in Class” if not best ever. For this example we will call him John. John was a sales guy at our organization and I had the opportunity to go on many a sales calls with him as the tech rep. I loved going on the road with John has he always made the trip pleasurable. John has shown by example how to excel. I think you’ll see why.

After each business trip I took with John, he would always send a hand written note on personal stationary. This is just the coolest thing ever. Its amazing to get a note saying thank you. Who many times do you help someone and not even get a smile or thank you.  I have worked with sales people who would not even pick you up at their airport, let alone send a thank you card. Little notes of appreciation really make the difference!! This example has shown me how to be a better person as I now send out thank you cards from time to time. The impact of a thank you card is HUGE!

The second example that John is to me brings me back to my 14th anniversary. John left the company a few months back, but this AM, I received a personal email from John congratulating me on my milestone. John is always good for a birthday wish and an anniversary phone call or email. Even away from his old job, he still remembers his co-workers. What a shining example.

The last example of how John has influenced my life took place about 5 or 6 years ago. We had the opportunity to fly to a customer site together. Nothing very remarkable about that… it gets better. While on a layover in Chicago‘s O’Hare Airport, we had some flight issues. I’m not sure exactly what took place but we need to get re-ticketed for our flight. John asked for my ticket and graciously took care of the heavy lifting. After a few minutes in line, he handed me back my boarding pass and I didn’t think another thing of it. Well that was until the ground crew started boarding and asked for the first class passengers. Oh course I paid no attention until John punched me in the arm and said “Hey that’s you..look at your ticket man.”

No sooner did I look at my boarding pass and I noticed I was seated in seat 1A. What the…how did I get a first class ticket? Well here’s the back story. While taking care of the re-ticketing, John used some of his frequent flier miles to upgrade to first class, but he used them on my seat. He sat in coach and I sat in first class.

John has to be the classiest person I have ever worked with, bar none. He is a shining example of a great father, husband, co-worker and I’m proud to call him a friend. There are so many ways he has influenced my life. All who know him know exactly what I’m talking about. While I sat in first class, the real first class sat in coach! Thanks John.