Of Airport Bathrooms, Eric Blackwell, and Paying It Forward

* note - My webmaster and husband Tom is the guest writer of this post today...

How many of us have had this experience ….

You travel overseas for a few days. When it comes time to catch a flight home to the US, you rush to check your bags, get through security and find your gate. When you finally get home, you empty your pockets placing the contents on top of the Dresser. It’s then that you realize that you forgot to exchange the foreign currency in your pocket back into good old American dollars. (“D’oh!”)

Those colorful bills and aluminum coins will now reside forever in the bottom of a desk or dresser drawer. If you have kids, you give it to them (“look what I got for you on my business trip. Isn’t it cool?”) and it ends up in the bottom of their dresser drawer.

Either way it’s money wasted, but let me suggest a different outcome.

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Real Estate Webmasters Summit in Nanaimo, BC. Morgan Carey and his team put together an outstanding conference.

One of the speakers was Erick Blackwell of Eric on Search and Bloodhound Blog. His topic was “SEO is a Team Sport”. He provided many great insights into blogging, social networking and link building. But the main point of his class was the importance of building relationships rather than focusing on building links. “Build the relationships and the links will follow” was the lesson. He spoke of the “Pay It Forward” concept and shared with us a post by Dave Smith on the Real Estate Blog Lab about the benefits of sharing and not being selfish, of not asking “what’s in it for me” before deciding to post a comment on a blog.

Erick spoke of sharing your time and your expertise with no expectation of getting a link in return.  This was heavy stuff that I had not expected to hear at a “techie conference”.

So the conference is over and there I am sitting in a major Canadian airport waiting to catch a flight back to the US.

I go over to the airport café and grab a pack of M&M’s to munch on while I wait. I reach into my pocket to pay for the candy and realize that I am still carrying a handful of Canadian bills and coins. Shoot…. In three hours it will be worthless and sitting in my Dresser drawer. Oh, well.

I stop by the men’s room before finding a seat at my gate.

I don’t want to get sidetracked here, but is there anything more disgusting than an international airport men’s room. It seems to me that everyone wants to use the restroom either right before they get on a flight (because of fear), or right after they get off of a flight (based on questionable food choices).  I don’t know if the women’s restrooms are any different, but I now understand another meaning of the popular women’s observation that “ All men are pigs”.

So as I’m coming out of the restroom, there in the hallway waiting to get in, is the restroom janitor.  She says, “Excuse me, sir” as I side step around her cart and keep walking.

Have you noticed that, to the public, airport janitors are nearly invisible. As business travelers and vacationers rush to their flights they seem to look right through the people in the airport that pick up their trash, discarded newspapers, and clean the restrooms. As did I.

I settle into my chair to read my book and wait for my flight. After about 15 minutes I look up from my book and see the same janitor pushing her cart out of the men’s room and heading toward the women’s bathroom to continue her workday.

She is a tired, haggard looking woman in her 50’s wearing thick yellow rubber gloves, which go up to her elbows.

I start to think about her job, and what her workday must be like. The things she sees everyday. Whatever she gets paid, it’s not enough.  I silently count my blessings. I’m lucky to work in the comfortable surroundings of my “home-office” and look forward to each new project. I wonder, is there anything in her job that she looks forward to? 

Then it dawns on me, the light bulb goes on. The three unconnected events come together to form a win-win-win situation.

1. Erick Blackwell’s lesson on Paying it Forward.
2. I’m sitting with “foreign money” in my pocket that will be worthless as soon as I get on the plane.
3. There’s a hard working person in front of me that needs a break.

So I get up and walk across the concourse to where the cleaning woman is organizing her mops and brushes. Being as discrete as possible, I say to her “Excuse me, I’m about to get on a flight back home to the US and I forgot to exchange some of my Canadian money. It won’t do me any good where I’m going. Perhaps you could use it.”

With that, I place a couple of Fives, a few ones and some of those popular “Looneys” and “Two-nies” on her cart.

She starts to say something, either to thank me or to object, I’m not sure which. But I interrupt her to say, “You have a tough job, you do it well. You’ve earned it.”

She smiles and says “Thank you, sir” With that, I turn and shuffle back into the anonymous throng of travelers gathering at the gate. I look back a few minutes later and she is gone, no doubt having moved on to another concourse and another bathroom. What a long day she must have.

I felt good about helping someone and briefly flashed on that scene at the end of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”, you know the one-  “… and in Who-ville they say That the Grinch's small heart Grew three sizes that day!.”

I write this today, not to pat myself on the back, but to reinforce the message of Eric’s class at the REW Summit. His lessons go beyond the limited scope of Webmaster tools and tips. Be sure to check out his blogs and the article from Dave Smith linked above. I assure you that after reading what they have to say, you will never look at link building the same way again.

Perhaps the most valuable lesson from Erick’s class had nothing to do with link building or blogging or social networks. Perhaps there was a bigger lesson there for all of us.

Perhaps……..

• Rate this Post!

  Select Your Rating:

  • 5 Stars (Excellent!)
  • 4 Stars
  • 3 Stars
  • 2 Stars
  • 1 Stars (Poor)

• Share this Post

  Share With A Friend:

  Your Name Your Email

  Friend's Name Friend's Email

  Optional Message

  Send

• Print
• Social Bookmarking

  Add to Bookmarks: