Reach Out

I took a chance.

As I was leaving the stadium after a football game at my alma mater (#GoIrish), I saw a man that reminded me of a college professor from undergrad. That was more than three, ahem, decades ago.

I decided to approach him and ask if he was who I thought.

My intuition was correct!

I found out that he only recently retired (2019) after 50-ish years in the classroom. Wowza!

As one of hundreds (thousands?) of students in his past, I did not expect him to remember me (he didn't).

However, as we strolled down memory lane together, he did recall some of the then-groundbreaking things he was teaching - spreadsheets!

As a marketing professor, he recalled the accounting profs asking him what he was teaching because they had not yet begun using the tool in their classes.

He recalled the project we helped him build, including writing macros to help create and automate what we were building.

He took great pride in knowing that I started my career using the knowledge I learned in his classes.

He also took pride in knowing that his project laid a foundation for a lot more technology and software development work throughout my career.

He was blown away that I remembered him.

My intuition said that I probably made his day (my wife said the same thing).

My takeaway from this encounter is to reach out to others.

Take a chance at being wrong.

More important, take a chance getting it right.

Say "hello" and share why you remember them.

Share a little about their significance in your life.

You never know the impact you might have on them when you reach out and share their impact on you, whether it was decades ago or just yesterday.

Create your life.

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