Billionaire shares the greatest correspondence lesson ever

My big bro Adam (pictured) has become a budding businessman after several years of thumbing his nose at commerce. This is a good thing as he’s very talented and competitive.

Adam now has to deal with frustrating client emails, the way I used to in spades running Pacweb.co.

I made a million mistakes as an entrepreneur in my early 20’s dealing with client emails emotionally. But then a few years ago I met an extremely successful real estate financier who taught me a different approach.

“Hi Tommy, Thanks for your email” he started every message he wrote to me.

“Wow, that’s nice,” I thought. It didn’t matter what came after those first words, I was completely disarmed by his gentle opening.

This man had been around long enough to know that he would catch more flies with honey than he would with vinegar, as the saying goes. And he obviously caught a lot of flies. Here was a billionaire becoming completely humble to a 25-year-old.

I have adopted this lesson for my own emails, and I haven’t had a blow-up since. The minefield of client correspondence is no longer an issue for me.

I now share this lesson with anyone who will listen, including my bro, the budding entrepreneur. He was sitting beside me in Brooklyn this morning putting it to practice as we laughed together about this simple trick.

Writing “Thanks for your email” will solve a lot of problems even before they start. Detach emotionally from corporate correspondence and you will win more business.

Even when you’re right, and they’re wrong – let it go. 

Do you want to be right, or do you want to be happy?

What do you think?

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