I’m so sorry I had no idea who you were…

A few years ago I was introduced to someone “important”. He was “important” due to all that he’d achieved in his career – some fairly impressive accolades. I was excited to meet him.

He was… less excited to meet me. We were introduced, he briefly said hi and then left while I was mid sentence to talk with someone “more important” than I.

I was a little disappointed, but, thems the breaks right? Not everyone is going to want to have a yack. I soon got over it.

The next day, I got on stage and gave the speech I’d been flown into the country to perform for the organization this important fellow worked for. Later that day Mr. “Important” asked to take me aside. Suddenly – he was excited to talk to me. He even went so far as to apologise for his rudeness the day before. He said “I’m so sorry, I had no idea who you were”. He didn’t realize I was the guest speaker. He didn’t realize I was “worthy” of his time.

I worked with this company for many years and never formed a close relationship with this chap. In that initial interaction he’d told me so much about himself. When he thought I was no-one, I wasn’t even worthy of a minute of his time. When he thought I was important, suddenly I was worth common courtesy and more.

It's been a great lesson to me over the years that every person I interact with no matter how "important" others might think they are deserves my attention, my respect, my common courtesy.

By Kirsty Dunphey with 2 comments