Appreciation

[Guest guest]

Posted by Ritu Arora

 

" It Doesn't Have To Be Something Big. "

 

Excerpted from The Simple Truths of Appreciation By Barbara Glanz

 

My friend, Bob Danzig, has an amazing story. Simple words of

appreciation and encouragement changed his life. Bob was in five

foster homes during his youth, and said he spent his childhood trying

to find someone to love and appreciate him.

 

When he was nine years old, he had a new social worker. He said after

she had done all the paperwork to move him to yet another foster home,

she sat him down, looked him directly in the eyes, and said, " Bobby, I

want you to always remember these words: YOU ARE WORTHWHILE! "

 

Bob says that no one had ever said anything like that to him, and each

time they met, she repeated those words. They became an affirmation of

appreciation that he heard over and over again in his head.

 

Bob graduated at sixteen, not because he was smart, he says, but

because he got mixed up in the system! He soon took a job at the

Albany New York Times as a copy boy, and his very first boss was a

woman named Margaret.

 

After he had worked there about six months, Margaret called him into

her office one day and asked him to sit down. He thought for sure he

was going to be fired! She looked him right in the eyes and said to

him, " I have been the office manager for 15 years †" I have been

observing you †" and I believe YOU ARE FULL OF PROMISE. "

 

Those words, on that day, gave him permission to aspire.

 

Those two positive messages of appreciation played over and over again

in his head and ultimately gave him the courage to be the very best he

could be. Sixteen years later he became the Publisher of the Albany

New York Times, and seven years after that, he became CEO of Hearst

Newspapers, one of the largest newspaper companies in the world-and he

credits it all to those simple words of appreciation and love.

 

What a wonderful example of how little gifts of appreciation can make

such a difference in a life!

 

Zig Ziglar had this to say: " You never know when a moment and a few

sincere words can have an impact on a life. "