TREAT EVERYONE AS IF IT’S THE LAST TIME YOU’ll SEE THEM

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My Aunt Laney Royal taught me something that changed my life.  Okay, so she wasn’t my aunt–she was my Mom’s first cousin & her best friend.  Here was her advice, “Treat everyone as if this will be the last time you will see them.  I think about her words often and try to live by them. 

A number of years ago I went to a conference that was highly attended by care givers.  I had an opportunity to talk with a hospice nurse.  I told her I thought she had the most challenging job in the world since she had to deal with people who were dying.  She said her job, in deed, was difficult, but not because of the relationship with her patients, but because of the patient’s family.  She said much of the time, the family members were plagued by guilt for how they treated their late husband, wife, child, or parent.  It was her job to make them feel better.

On the date of my grandmother’s funeral, I asked my Mom if it would be okay for me to go for my daily jog.  She gave permission by saying, “It’s not important how you treat someone when they are dead…its important how you treat them when they are alive.”  Obviously, Aunt Laney’s wisdom rubbed off on her.

I know this seems like a strange topic for a podcast on how to build your social and business network.  But it really isn’t.  We sometimes think of our life as achieving goals, meeting the right people, getting where we want to go…forgetting people we touch are real people with real problems. 

If we are truly interested in others & try to help them, these relationships will send us in the right direction.

Maya Angelou summed it up best when she said, ”I’ve learned that people forget what you said; people forget what you do; but people always remember how you treat them.” 

This is David Sher your WeMentor Guy saying it’s not what you know, but whOO you know.