Last night I got a call from an old business friend. I say “friend” because over time we became more than typical business acquaintances. Our two companies did business together for a number of years and eventually we got to know about each others families, interests and goals. I found his company had genuine integrity – rare today — and seemed to be driven by more than bottom line profit though they of course are in business to make money.<\/p>\n
At the heart of this business philosophy is one of the owners whose first name is Gary. My friend called to tell me that Gary had just suddenly died; gone in a moment of time by a massive heart attack. We talked about how they will ever continue to function with Gary’s outlook and values but without Gary.<\/p>\n
I had only spoken with my friend once since I left my old company. I had called to tell him how and why I had left and what I thought I might be doing next. Yet he thought of me at this time and felt I would want to know about Gary’s death because he said Gary spoke of me often. In fact, Gary had mentioned me again a few days ago. He told me that whenever they were dealing with a particularly unreasonable or difficult customer, Gary would always say; “Well so-and-so is no Barbara Lardinais.” That was his way of saying what a tough relationship he was having with the current customer and that I was the standard against which he measured those sorts of things.<\/p>\n
I smiled. I had no idea Gary felt that way about me or ever spoke of me. I hung up the phone pondering two thoughts. The first is that we have no idea how much time we each have left on this earth. James 4:14 says; “For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”<\/strong> The second thought is that we have no idea what influence and effect we have on others. We make a difference for positive or negative in other people’s lives. Each day, for however many days I have left, I want to remember that I matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last night I got a call from an old business friend. I say “friend” because over time we became more than typical business acquaintances. Our two companies did business together for a number of years and eventually we got to know about each others families, interests and goals. I found his company had genuine integrity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n