A Smile, a Handshake, and a Hello

"You know, Hauge, all it took was a smile, a handshake, and a hello. We knew immediately that Mike was in the right place. We knew he had found his new home."

Steve was telling me this thirteen years after the fact.

The Mike in question is Mike Dizgun, my high school roommate. Steve and Anna, his parents, are talking about the day they moved Mike into the dorm — a day I happened to be on the same hallway, doing nothing more than helping him carry boxes up a flight of stairs and saying hello to his family for the first time.

I was at their son's wedding this past weekend in a small village outside Montreal — the first time I'd seen Steve and Anna in seven or eight years. The ceremony was gorgeous: Mike and Spenser at the altar, orangey yellow leaves fluttering in the wind, Anna shuffling across the floor in stiletto heels to give me a hug that nearly suffocated me with love.

Later into the evening, Steve told me the story of Mike's first day at high school. This one I had never heard in such detail before.

Driving two hours back to the airport on a crisp Sunday October morning to catch my flight back to Shanghai, I kept repeating those words to myself and couldn't help but smile.

Thirteen years later, this gentleman, Steve, remembered a smile, a handshake, and a hello. He felt his son was in the right place. He felt his son had found a new home.

How easy is it for us to do the same to all of our clients when they are in the building? It costs us so little, and a smile, a handshake, and a hello can mean so much.

Half a lifetime later, what do you want people to remember about you?