"You encouraged people..."

Yesterday I had an interesting lunch date.

It all started a couple of weeks ago when I received a call at the office. It was a bad cell phone connection, and the person on the other end spoke with a bit of an accent so I wasn't able to pick out everything that was being said. Towards the end of the phone call he said, "I would love to invite you to lunch sometime to talk face to face." I heard the words "Invite" and "lunch", which immediately translated into "free" "food" in my dictionary, and promptly said "Yes!".

Over a delicious meal of Indian food, my friend told me that his agency is very interested in having me involved with them. Apparently I gave a speech at one of their sponsored public events, and afterwards the staff and leaders of the agency all wanted me to come on board with them. I expressed how honored I was by the invitation, but was curious of what was it about the speech that drew such a response. He thought about it a little, and said, "You encouraged people. And we want you to keep doing that with us."

I guess during this time of global economic doom and gloom, a dose of encouragement goes a lot further than in other times.