Friends don’t let friends…

There is Friends don’t let friends drive drunk, the campaign that saved numerous lives.
And there is Jon Stewart’s much lighter version, Friends don’t let friends drone drunk.
(Stewart was “inspired” by the White House drone incident.)

Friends don’t let friends…
How would you fill in the blanks?

I would say it differently:
Friends DO let friends know when they do something right.
And Friends DO let friends know when they can do better.
As in, “I know you can do better than that”.
Or, “Did you mean to do that?”

A good example of this is my unintentional double posting on the Facebook.

How did it happen?
My presence on the internet is “young” – only a few months. And there are still glitches that need to be worked out. For a while the blog posts from my website were not transferring to my Facebook page. And I did what I thought it needed to be done – write the posts directly on the Facebook page.
When the glitch was fixed, I didn’t notice and kept doing it. That led to double posting…

Indirectly, a friend from Portland brought it to my attention – or I would still be double-posting and annoying everyone.

(Or at least the ones that read the posts : )

What I find interesting is that the double posting went on for a while.

A simple, “Did you mean to do that?” from a reader would have eliminated that much sooner.

Is it because we absent-mindedly just scan instead of reading?
Is it because we are afraid of hurting feelings if we say something?

I do not know.

I do know I’m grateful when someone cares enough and lets me know when I need to improve what I’m doing.

Years ago, shortly after I moved to the States, I was on the phone trying to find out some information.
(My English was limited but I didn’t let that stop me : )

At some point in the phone conversation, I said, “It’s located on the Island Drive”.
(I pronounced it ICEland Drive.)
The voice at the other end said, “Miss, the “s” in Island is silent. You don’t pronounce that.”

That was thirty years ago and I still remember it.
I remember it because that’s when I said to myself, “This person cares. And this is my new home.”

Mariana Fieraru

Mariana Fieraru, an Eastern European transplant, fell in love with her new home shortly after landing in New York. She "discovered" pizza! Years later she still loves pizza. And so do her two feathered-kids, Sunny and Flipper

Mariana worked on both, the east and the west coast.
Big or small, each project she worked on helped define the importance of gaining and sustaining a competitive edge in an increasingly complex business environment.

Business know-how, love of teaching and writing – all combined in 2006 to form OBI.
Its mission: to make learning fun! And easy.

Through its training, consulting, and publications OBI builds bridges of knowledge to take you from where you are to
where you want to go. Using a mix of serious, informal, analytical, and optimistic approach, OBI truly makes learning fun.

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