(originally published June 2nd, 2005)

I am a big time creature of habit. It would surprise no one who knows me well if I mentioned that once I decide I like a restaurant, I’ll go there often, and eat the same thing every time. Well, there’s this Japanese restaurant that I’ve decided makes the best salmon teriyaki and beef negamaki in the area. I go at least once a week, and have done so for the last three weeks. Tonight, the waiter saw me, came over immediately, and asked if I were having what I usually do; I told him yes. He wrote it up, got it right, and I gave him a nice tip afterwards for it.

How many of us remember the preferences of our clients, co-workers, subordinates, friends, family, etc? I have a friend who remembered many years later, when he got married and I was in his wedding, that my favorite baseball player was Roberto Clemente, and he gave me a collectible baseball card; I was greatly touched. I have one friend who always remembers my birthday and anniversary, and I remember the same for her as well.

There are many things I don’t remember, unfortunately. However, I replace what I don’t remember with as much courtesy, respect, and honesty as I can muster. I think it’s telling that the majority of my friends have been so for more than 10 years. I had someone say to me the other day, when I said in a meeting that I didn’t know something, that she had never met anyone honest enough to admit that they didn’t know something in public, and she was impressed by that; of all things!

All of us are continually making impressions of some sort on those we know and those we don’t know. Isn’t it better to try to make positive impressions rather than negative ones, in hopes that the waiters and friends in our lives will hopefully remember what we like and don’t like, and maybe we’ll remember those same types of things in return?