Unappreciated Efforts

One oft-repeated recipe for success is to deliver more than you promise and to take the initiative to make life easier for your clients, your boss and those whose help you seek. However, some people demand precise adherence to their instructions and react badly when you deviate the slightest from them, never mind the reason.

I recently ran into just such a situation. A friend asked me about an exciting new business opportunity that has come his way. It's in a field unfamiliar to him, and he asked me to track down some expert guidance. I contacted such an expert on his behalf via e-mail. He instructed my friend to call him.

Hoping to save this expert significant time on the phone, we e-mailed him a background briefing to read at his convenience in advance of the call. It was less than twice the length of this blog post. We thought we were doing him a favor. Wrong.

Instead, the expert was very unhappy with this deviation from his instructions. Short as that background e-mail was, he shot back a terse reply that chided us for imposing unduly on his valuable time. I thus feared that he would be very abrupt with my friend during the subsequent call. To my extreme surprise and great relief he gave my friend all the time he needed to discuss his situation, and the call lasted well over an hour. Go figure.

Lesson: sometimes going the extra mile is a wasted trip.