Ego - Self-interest

The Surest Way To Gain Influence

Is Your Ego Showing? Many people attempt to gain influence by calling attention to themselves–things they’ve accomplished, places they’ve been, things they own, people they know and so forth.  While such behavior comes quite naturally to most of us, it does little to improve your standing with those around you because most people tend to…

Southwest Airline

Some Airline Employees Really do Care

I was reading the Southwest Airlines in-flight magazine during a recent flight from Chicago to Phoenix when a “praising letter” from a Southwest passenger caught my attention. The letter, from Delores Sutton who was traveling in a wheel chair, said such good things about Southwest Airlines that I wanted to share it with you. It…

An Example of Perseverance Paying Off

By slgckgc on Flickr (Original version)UCinternational (Crop) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons A few nights ago, Toledo Mud Hen’s player Mike Hessman set a minor league baseball record by hitting his 434th minor league homerun—a grand slam. The record had stood for 80 years! This is his 20th year of professional baseball and nearly…

Good Behavior

​An article by Christopher Elliott titled, “Good behavior is your most valuable travel asset,” appeared in a recent issue of USA Today. The gist of the article was that polite travelers who demonstrate kind behavior to travel employees are treated better while those who demonstrate rude behavior are treated worse and, in some cases, much…

Blueberries

People Remember Acts of Kindness

I grew up in southwestern Michigan where a lot of farms grow blueberries. My cousin Chris grew up there too and then moved to central Illinois where no farms grow blueberries. Every year during blueberry season Chris would go back to Michigan to visit her parents and she would bring blueberries back to central Illinois…