100 Business Days Out: Day 48 - Validation

Todd and I had lunch at the Peninsula Hotel's Roof Top cafe. We sat outside and talked about his job, me, life, friends and the other stuff that best friends from college talk about. What a juxtaposition with me there in my shorts and flip-flops and Todd in his very sharp business suit and tie. The power executive and the unemployed guy hanging out on a Thursday afternoon. It was quite fun and relaxing. As we were leaving the restaurant and I was walking him back to the lobby, I remembered that we should get his valet parking validated before he left. So we took the elevator back up the 5th floor and as we requested our validation we made a joke that it always feels good be validated. And it does feel good to be validated. We do that in lots of different ways. For me the feeling of validation can come from the positive word, the successful meeting, the applause after the presentation, the follow up request for more of my time. Today, the validation came not only from the parking stamp but also the follow on email from Todd that said nothing more than he really enjoys spending time together. And that not only validated the time and our conversation, it made my day. We don't take the time to validate each other enough do we? Just that one extra comment, word, note or call that says at its essence, "I like you and I like being with you" might be the greatest validation any of us can obtain. We guys, more than women, don't do it enough, but none of us do it enough. If the day was spent doing nothing else but building others up and making them feel better about themselves, it would be a day well spent. The next time someone asks, the answer should be. "yes, I do validate!".