Genuinely nice things said to you
I was fired from my very first job out of college after just 6 months. That is a story in and of itself, which I may blog about.
As I made my way out the door, struggling to maintain balance with a box full of belongings, Linda who was the company's secretary came to hold the door for me.
She then gave me a warm hug, and after sharing a brief moment together, said, "I am not going to wish you good luck."
Huh?
"You are a good person, David. And good people do not need good luck."
What are some really nice things people have said to you? I am not talking about canned and tired cliches people like to spit out just to do their part to sound nice. What Linda said to the kid dispirited from having blown his first gig in the professional world was original and genuinely nice, and it still brings a smile to my face nearly two decades later.
*******
So a few months later, I decided to use the line with slight modifications tailored to a different situation.
It was this really hot girl's birthday.
"I am not going to wish you a happy birthday because happy people don't need happy birthdays."
Ummm.. it spectacularly bombed and a painful lesson was learned. The moral of the story? When people say nice things to you, just treasure and share them with others. Don't try to recycle them.
posted by David Cho @ 11/02/2007
16 comments
16 Comments:
Well, at least the hot girl will probably never forget you :)
Glad you wrote something, I was gonna drive up the 405 and make sure you were still alive....
Aren't you a little to sick to do that, Barb?
Maybe the hot girl will stumble upon this blog and your post and...give you another chance?
That was nice. And it is rare. I can remember my 2nd gig. I had left a pretty good paying job to learn a new trade and had moved up the ladder very quickly. I thought I had arrived.
It was around that time that one of my vendor/partners asked me why I was wasting my time. He has seen something more in me and decided to get me out of my comfort zone. He followed up with giving me a shot at a job with his company. And the rest is history.
Sometimes the nice thing just doesn't sound very nice.
At my present job, I have had 13 supervisors in 24 years of service. My 13th supervisor just left for another position and I am now in the process of getting used to yet another one.
The supervisor who just left nominated me for an annual employee award that are given each year plus $1,000.00. Many nice things were said in the typed nomination. I was not selected for the award and when my supervisor expressed her disappointment, I let her know that winning the award did not disappoint me, it was the fact that she and a few others nominated me for it and they thought I deserved one. In actuality, the person who got it really deserved it much more than I did.
Looking back, the genuinely meaningful things that people said to me, things that meant a lot and that I remember with such feeling, mostly sound like cliches - now. But they weren't at that moment, they were thoughtful and came from the heart.
I can't even repeat what they said, it would sound trivial. I'd have to write a whole post just to set the scene and the tone.
Nice post - good memory.
Brian,
Nah... She was hot for like 3 months. Besides, not a nice person at all.
Mike, I agree. Nice things often don't sound nice, but in retrospect they do. Getting fired was the best thing that happened to me at the time.
mama bear, Those awards can be tricky and sometimes are really indicators of popularity, not performance. But you deserve a big one for your graciousness.
Laura, I will be looking forward to the post!
I shouldn't have painted cliches with a wide brush, because some people are genuine about them when they say them. That they may not be good with words shouldn't really be on them.
I worked for 15 years as a cubicle-rat in a Dilbert world, filled with engineer/scientist drones. So one of the nicest things one person there could say to another was, "It's cool to find another human being here!".
That meant that jokes did not have to be explained to you, you "got" even subtle social cues, and you did not get sweaty palms thinking about bioflocculation flow schematics.
Nice post, David. You are SUCH a good writer . . . not that I even had to tell you that. That is not to say I didn't WANT to tell you that, because you ARE a good writer-and funny, too. Not funny as in funny-LOOKING. Your stories are funny.
Yeah, compliments can be tricky.
lol. Oh, David. Wow. Well...what can I say. I have nothing to say. That is too bad but too funny.
The best one I can think of...I went to a birthday party of one of my friends twins. It was at a skating rink, so I took my roller blades. A young boy came up to me as I was gliding oh so gracefully around the rink.
He said, "YOU have rollerblades?"..to which I replied "Yep, that must me make me pretty cool huh?!"
With pure shock and amazement in his eyes and voice, he then said, "You're the oldest person I know that has rollerblades!" and skated off.
I was an elderly 25 at the time, but I still choose to believe he was just so very impressed with my level of "COOLNESS".
I am laughing at you!
You are a smooth operator....NOT. You are still funny and a great guy anyway.
NICE TRY with the birthday girl...oops that was a typo...I meant to say NICE FRY.
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