Don’t forget to say “thanks”
I receive a lot of email and most of the time, it’s people asking for advice on making a creative dream real. Sometimes, I’m able to sit down and reply to these emails, offering my experience or pointing the person in a direction of information that might be more beneficial.
To reply to these emails generally takes a lot of time; time that’s not paid, time that’s taken away from work, from my personal life, from rest. But I do it as much as I can because I believe in trying to help others.
But lately, I’ve been less inclined to reply to people because despite answering thousands and thousands of emails over the years, I’ve probably only ever received a handful of “thank-you’s” afterwards.
Some replies I’ve given have been long and detailed, with URLS, research and lots of information. However, I never hear anything back. No thank-you, thanks for the time, this was useful this wasn’t – nothing.
That seems wrong to me.
It’s not that I’m asking for praise, money or a big woo hoo but a simple “thank-you” would be so appreciated. I find that word is lacking a lot in this culture of expectation. I think that has to change.