I am a firm believer of practicing random acts of kindness, although I am not sure how random they wind up being. In life, as in business, I put my best foot forward in treating everyone as I want to be treated, not because I expect to gain something in return, rather it is (well I believe it is) part of being a good Samaritan, being good natured, whatever you want to call it.

The other day, I was on a flight back from Florida (coming home after attending to an ill family member) and our flight was delayed (surprise, surprise, I was in Florida in the middle of the summer, what could I have expected). Nonetheless, an hour and fifteen minutes later, we boarded the plane. I was sitting towards the front of the plane, and I noticed a family of five board, and they seemed frantic. The father wound up sitting next to me, so I struck up a conversation, and found out they were headed to Naples, Italy (they were just stationed there), and they had a connecting flight in Dulles, with 5 minutes to spare. I offered to help out however I could, giving his son my window seat, and even offering to help carry their bags to the next gate when we arrived so they could make their flight. Now, I did not do this because I thought there would be something in it for me, I did it because if I was in his situation, I hope that someone would do the same for me.

This mindset is not specific to life in general, but can also be applied to the business world. How many times does it take for something bad to go wrong before we stop and say, hey, perhaps if we changed our mindsets and stopped thinking with the “us first” mentality, that maybe, just maybe the outcome would be different. So many times in business we operate with blinders on that we neglect to see that we are being brash, forceful or down right rude to those that we rely on to get things done. The next time you are in a situation where things are not getting done, or your product launch is being held up, take a moment and think about how you have treated others, and if it is not the way you would want to be treated, try changing and see what the outcome is. You may be surprised.

To Ron and his family, I hope that you made your connecting flight and are in Italy now enjoying your new chapter of life.