The Power of Thank You

1) Yesterday morning I went on an early morning run with Vivek Viswanathan, a classmate and close friend from grad school, around Washington DC. It was a fun run as we visited many of our nation’s national monuments. Our capital is a beautiful city filled with history.

We are both getting older, but we still enjoy running. These days, it’s less about our mile times and more about getting in the miles.

2) After the run we were talking about the power of thank you notes 🙏📧.

Specifically the power of sending a thank you email after meeting someone. The power of the thank you note comes in the FOLLOW-UP (one of my favorite words, we shorthand this to FO as opposed to FU). We like to FO with people not FU them. Lol but not lol.

3) We both exclaimed that when one sends an FO email months, years, or decades after the initial thank you email, the return response is incredibly high and receptive.

I believe the reasons for this are manifold:
➡ People can quickly contextualize who you are.
➡ They probably have built a better understanding of who you are between when you first met them and when you sent them another note.
➡ They can compare what you said you would do versus what you have actually done.
➡ They instantly have positive recalls/memories of you simply based on the thank you email.

4) Saying thanks is, first and foremost, the proper thing to do. But the proper thing to do is oftentimes also the right thing to do when it comes to business too.

One of my mentors, David Hornik, is one of the best practitioners of this and he’s famously and well deservedly highlighted in the Adam Grant book “Give and Take.”

Important note: We live in a capitalist society and LinkedIn is capitalism embodied online. I recommend saying thank you, full stop, simply because it’s the right thing to do. But if one was ever in doubt as to why say thank you, I want to provide even more reasons to feel and express thankfulness.

5) Please also note that I wish I embodied and followed all of the advice that I dispense.

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” - Maya Angelou