Page 12 - December PPIAC Newsletter FINAL w Links

Little Things Are Important

This is a personal story, not about my business.

While cleaning up for a home refinance appraisal in mid-November, I
found some unsent thank you notes. They were written by our kids for
Christmas gifts that relatives gave them for Christmas in 2015. I was
embarrassed and felt terrible about misplacing such important
correspondence. Having our kids write thank you notes for gifts they
receive is an important part of trying to teach them good manners and
gratitude.

I felt like a failure. For a moment I thought about what to do with almost
a dozen unsent thank you notes. If I put them in the trash nobody but me
would ever know it. Nope. Hiding a problem that was my fault seemed
cowardly and I knew it was the wrong thing to do. I considered letting
the kids decide, then realized that their pandemic-amplified apathy
toward everything would probably result in a unanimous vote for the
trash can, so I didn't even ask for their input. Instead, I did the same
things that regularly get me through challenges big and small: admit that
I made a mistake, take action to correct it, and then accept the outcome -
good or bad.

First, I told everyone in our household about my error and apologized
for how it also impacted them. Next, I addressed the envelopes, stamped
them, and got them in the mailbox that evening. Then, I waited for the
inevitible phone calls that I knew would come. And they did. I've gotten
phone calls from every single recipient telling me the same story: they
just got a thank you note that must have been lost in the mail for years.

To each caller I explained that I, not the USPS, was to blame. After
telling them what really happened, nobody was upset or critical. The
story behind the delay seemed humorous to some of them. Many
expressed how nice it was to get something personal in the mail, even if
it was several years late. Most importantly, the calls led to better
conversations with those relatives than I've had in a long time. The
phone calls refocused me on how easy it is to lose touch, even in the era
of Zoom, and how important - and easy - it is to stay connected or get
reconnected with people we care about. Aloha!

Sam Petitto

PPIAC Chair of the Board

chair@ppiac.org