Je veux une note!

Translation:  Why don't I ever hear from you?  I want a note!

Someone needs to explain to me why it has apparently become socially acceptable to ignore writing handwritten notes to friends, clients, thoughtful people, and those who have done something special for you.

Years ago, when I decided I was going to open a real estate office, from Galveston I phoned Ebby Halliday to ask for her advice.  Why Ebby Halliday?  I had known her since my college days (Note: I was a student and she had already been in business for twenty years), and had long concluded that any woman who could kick the socks off of the almost all-male competition in a big town like Dallas, when women were not yet liberalized, had to know all of the answers to all of the questions.

                                                    Realtor Ebby Halliday at 96-Years  

Miss Ebby told me that she would help me get my business off of the ground.  And it was in a town where for many years no new real estate agency had been able to keep its doors open for more than a year or so.  She said, "You follow my lead, and you'll soon be Number 1."

The first thing she told me was to handwrite notes, at least ten of them every day.  Thank someone for their kindness to you, tell someone you enjoyed reading about them in the paper, attach an article from a magazine that you know a particular person will be interested in, and send it along with a handwritten note.

I've been doing that for more than forty years.  And ironically, I had already learned that lesson from my mom and dad when I was growing up.  It was one of the rules of etiquette they taught me.  Just like which fork to use, how to shake hands...you know.

Miss Ebby, on the other hand, has been doing it for at least 70 years, probably more, because she has passed her 96th birthday.  And still, everyday, she handwrites her notes.  I get at least one a month from her.  Always a compliment because frankly we admire each other.

So tell me how it is alright for you to do something thoughtful for someone, and you never hear from them?  How is it that some think a jotted email is on the same social plane as a handwritten thank you note, put in an envelope with a stamp on it, and then put in the mailbox?  How can they say they don't have the time to do it when a 96-year old lady has built the 8th largest sole proprietorship real estate company in the United States, with annual sales of $4.7 billion, and she finds time to do it?

So I know you want to know if Miss Ebby's advice worked....did we get to be Number 1?  Yup, the first year and we stayed there, and even though I later sold the company, I hear it's still Number 1.

Commencer ainsi à envoyer les notes manuscrites à vos clients et amis, si vous svp!

Meet me on the web at www.billcherrybroker.com