Just returning from attending an event hosted by Dixie “Dynamite” Gillaspie in St. Louis this weekend I sat down to catch up on some of my favorite blogs and read the following phrase: “quite often it’s the obscure things that we do…that we don’t even notice…that are meaningful and memorable to others…” this saying, from one of my new favorite blogs by Jane Carroll, a dear and inspiring friend, really got me to thinking about the weekend and an incredible thing that happened. It seemed like such a small thing unfolding, kind of like the phrase above, it really wasn’t a part of the big picture, yet it made a huge impact.
One of the other attendees had spoken with one of the presenters, Tom Ruwitch, who happened to remember meeting him just over two years ago. Tom being the amazing person he is started the conversation by asking about the project he had been working on at that time. Yes, Tom remembered the details of a project of someone he had not seen or spoken with in over two years. In fact, the attendee himself had actually forgotten the project. Today, he was at a point where he was struggling with how to put together what he was doing with what he loved, that was one of his motivations for even attending this event. Once Tom reminded him of the project it was a total lightbulb moment; he now knew exactly how it all fit together and what he wanted to do. His vision had returned, he was excited and completely focused. Amazing isn’t it? Something so small as remembering a detail about the other person totally impacted their life.
This had nothing to do with what Tom was presenting on, his specialty is marketing, yet Tom wasn’t thinking about himself or what was in it for him. Two years ago when he met the attendee he took the time to really listen for a few seemingly insignificant moments and those few moments would eventually make a tremendous impact.
Sometimes it’s the little things we do that make the biggest difference, has this ever happened to you?
