Written By: Lauren Howard
The audacity of some people.
It is truly mind-bottling.
Did you know there are people in the world who think I’m supposed to use my phone . . . as a phone?
Like, pick it up and talk to them?
Ew.
Be a real human and send me a text. Seriously. Let me decide If I’m ready to people before my phone starts to buzz for actual attention.
But really, my aversion to unsolicited phone calls came from experience, not an introverted Millennial refusal to directly interact.
(I mean . . . mostly).
Growing up, my dad was sick a lot. He was my best friend even then, so I was very involved as a teenager. Often, when the phone rang, it was bad or scary news. I started to panic a little every time. Fast forward to being on call for patients for a decade with calls around the clock, and the reaction never really changed.
To this day, even after he’s been gone seven years, I assume someone is calling me for something bad, even though they almost never are.
Then one day exactly five years ago, my phone rang twice in the middle of a meeting. It was Megan Kelly. She KNOWS the rules of communicating, so if she was calling, something was either very wrong or very right.
I jumped off the conference call.
All she said was, “He’s alive.”
Megan’s brother is my very best friend. We have been attached since we were 9. Her family is my family. She's my sister.
“Who? What?” My heart stopped.
“My brother,” she said. She only had one of those.
“He’s hurt but alive. He was in a bad accident. His spine was broken in two places. They thought he was dead at the scene, but he’s not. He’s okay. I wanted you to hear it from me before it started popping up on social media. He’s badly hurt, but he’s alive.”
Everything stopped moving. I couldn’t breathe.
Now, five years later, he’s back to being my annoying, jilted best friend who I text "love you" to and who responds, "Ew why?"
Seriously. Today I texted him that I was glad he didn't die, and he basically responded with an eye roll.
Though terrifying, I learned something important beyond being grateful that he was okay. I realized that I want to impact the people I love enough to be on the list - the phone call list. The list of people who you call with both stellar and terrible news because they are that important to you.
I’m not trying to build a business. We’re going for real, authentic relationships so that someday, maybe, I'll be on the list. Do I ever want anyone to call with bad news? Heck no. But do I want to be on the list of people they trust and must tell first because the bond is that strong? Abso-frickin-lutely.
It's not about sales or revenue. It's about people.
It's always about people.
Live your life (and run your business) to get on the list.
Founder & CEO at elletwo