To this day, close to ten years later, I still have no idea what I did.

Act as if what you do makes a difference. Typography poster. Motivational background.

His name was Kevin. He was a sales representative for a company that I worked for. I was his sales manager.

I had been working with Kevin for several months. He was a rep that I enjoyed working with. He worked hard. He didn’t make any excuses. He was personable and wanted to do a good job for his customers and his company.

I made a trip to spend a few days in the field with Kevin as I did with all of my reps at least once per quarter.

He picked me up at my hotel on my first morning in his town and we started making calls on customers and prospects. It was a typical day in the life of a sales manager.

After one of our calls Kevin said we needed to run by his home, which was about ten minutes away.

When we got there he invited me in and gave me a quick tour. We ended up in his home office where he grabbed the materials he needed for our next call.

I thought we were going to head back to the car and get rolling but Kevin said, “Sit down for a minute, Dave.”

At this point, I got a little concerned. Usually when a rep starts a conversation like that they are about to resign for new opportunities.

Now, this will be a bit of a paraphrase as I don’t remember his words exactly.

Kevin started, “Dave, I just want to thank you for making a huge difference in my life. You did something for me that I can never repay. I can’t tell you what it is but just know that my life is better because of what you did for me.”

He quickly said there was nothing else that needed to be said and that we needed to get going to our next appointment.

I was speechless. I didn’t know what to say. My first thought was that I had done something incredibly stupid and he quickly learned something he should never do.

Why couldn’t he tell me? I’m still puzzled by that!

As we got into his car I asked, “Was this a good thing I did?”

“Yes, a very good thing.”

I started a game of twenty questions, “Did this help you in your personal or professional life?”

“Both. That’s it. No more questions. I’m done answering,” and Kevin was done.

At the end of our second day together, Kevin took me to the airport. When he dropped me off he said, “Thank you for making a difference in my life.”

Selfishly, I wanted to know but Kevin didn’t want to tell me and I needed to respect that.

You just never know how and when you will have an impact on others.

I have a friend named Ron. Ron told me recently that whenever he engages with someone who is wearing a name tag he is very conscious to call them by name.

He says that our names are important and that using someone’s name when you address them is good for their soul.

Ron believes, and I do as well, that he is making a difference for those people in simple everyday interactions.

When you encounter people in everyday situations do you leave them encouraged or discouraged?

Do you engage with people as though they are the most important person in the world at that moment or does your level of engagement depend on what that person can do for you?

Do you lift people up and make their day better or do you tear them down and make their day longer than it already was?

You just never know the difference you might make in someone’s life, either good or bad.

Do you have the courage to be a positive difference maker today?

Galatians 5:22-23

Have a STRONG and COURAGEOUS day!

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