How You Make Them Feel

A couple of days back, something interesting happened as I was at the Kenyatta Airport in Nairobi to board a flight back to Kuala Lumpur. Someone working with my previous organization recognized me and called out my name I walked towards the boarding gate. The embarrassing part was that I had no recollection of who he was. He introduced himself to me, saying that he used to work in one of the branches of the Bank, and reminded me of an encounter he had with him when I was working in Dubai way back in 2005. He referred to something I had done: “In those days, not many seniors used to spend time or pay attention to junior officers in the Bank. You spent time with me to discuss some problem I was facing in the branch, and you resolved it for me.” 

I sheepishly thanked him for his kind words because I had no recollection even after he narrated that incident. 

This morning back in KL, as I remembered the incident, I was reminded of the quote- “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” It was not what I had done that the gentleman was remembering. It was how I made him feel !!

How true this is. I am grateful that, knowingly or unknowingly, I did something that made someone, somewhere, remember me with fondness.