My primary goal for joining the Zuri Internship program (HNG Internship 8) is to improve my skills, gain professional insights, and work on real-world projects through my professional learning experience.

I decided to join the UI/UX track due to my background in design and copywriting.

Here are my goals for the internship:

1. Learn the fundamentals of product design

A good product designer must possess basic skills in UI/UX design. I want to learn the rudiments of product design, develop a good eye for design generally, and be skilled in the use of design tools such as Figma, Adobe XD, and Sketch within the 8 weeks allocated for the internship.

2. Build a portfolio of work

Learning the basic skills isn’t enough. What sets an intern on the path of professionalism is to put the knowledge to practice. My goal is to build a decent portfolio of work during the internship period. That would show the world that I didn’t o ly pass through the internship but the internship also passed through me.

3. Building a network of contacts

The internship offers an opportunity to learn from experienced people. Not only that, but it also creates a platform to meet and interact with great people, thus helping you build a network of contacts. Through the program, I look forward to improving my interpersonal skills and learn from my colleagues.

In case you’re looking for relevant information on what we’ll be learning, please check the following tutorials:

Figma tutorial: https://youtu.be/g6rQFP9zCAM
Github tutorial: https://youtu.be/8JJ101D3knE
Html tutorial: https://youtu.be/qz0aGYrrlhU
Python tutorial: https://youtu.be/_uQrJ0TkZlc

Also, find more information about the internship here: https://internship.zuri.team

I’m grateful for this opportunity and I look forward to a great learning experience.

There’s no doubt that personalization holds the keys to better engagement and customer retention. Brands that personalize have a positive brand perception, excellent sales conversion, and smooth customer experience, among other benefits.

That’s because personalization evokes emotions and catches people’s attention.

Imagine that you were walking in a crowded area and someone called you by your name. Of course, you’d stop and turn to find out who’s calling you, right?

Now, imagine that the same person tried to catch your attention by calling a generic name. You would keep walking on, right?

That’s the power of personalization.

Personalization is one of the most innovative strategies to implement in this age. It’s the toast of everyone that’s trying to create a distinctive brand.

Here are four pieces of stats to prove it.

• Instapage says that personalized email marketing generates an average ROI of about 122%.
• Hubspot also shared that personalized calls to action convert 202% better than non-personalized calls to action.
• According to Twilio, 60% of consumers say they will likely become repeat buyers with a retailer that creates a personalized shopping experience.
• Salesloft reported that they recorded a 75% close rate when they used personalized videos.

That’s why it seems like everyone is jumping on the bandwagon. But, of course, who wouldn’t, going by the immense benefits of personalization?

But the question is, how many brands are doing it the right way?

Personalization Mistakes You Should Avoid at All Cost

All too often, we see brands making personalization mistakes that are capable of hurting their brands. These mistakes often drive them to the point of frustration and put them at the risk of abandoning personalization altogether.

We’ve listed a few personalization mistakes and what you can do to avoid them. Keep reading on to find out what they are.

1. Messing up the codes

Email marketing is one of the channels that use personalization the most. Autoresponders make use of different placeholders specifying certain details about your clients. When you see an email that starts by addressing you with your name, your chance of reading such an email gets high.

But using the wrong placeholder could ruin this experience. So instead of seeing your name appear on the email, you see a ZIP code. At times, it’s the actual strings of code for the name holder that appears in the body of the email. And that’s pathetic.

Once you make this kind of mistake, your readers get the impression that it’s a code at work and not you addressing them. So you should always check carefully before hitting the send button. Sending out a test email to yourself will also help in this situation. It gives the chance to double-check and fix any potential errors before sending out the original email.

2. Not defining the persona appropriately

Personalization aims to improve customer engagement. Brands that pay attention to personalization relate with their customers as humans rather than abstract entities. This creates a deeper connection with them and ultimately leads to a long-lasting relationship.

There’s the need to define audience persona to deliver tailor-made messages that resonate with them. Usually, when brands fail to represent their user personas well, they keep communicating in ways that aren’t appropriate. This creates a disconnect between the brand and the audience, which often results in customer dissatisfaction.

A typical example of how not to personalize is the case of a brand sending out congratulatory messages to women with infertility issues about the arrival of their babies. Silly mistake, isn’t it?

3. Personalizing with outdated or inaccurate data

It’s the availability of data that makes personalization possible. Without data, you can’t understand your customers’ behaviours. You wouldn’t know their lifestyle preferences, appeal to their interests, address, or pain points. And this puts you in a difficult situation.

But it’s one thing to have data at your disposal. What’s more important than having data is making sure the information is accurate. You don’t want to establish communication with your audience with old, outdated data. For example, it doesn’t make sense to keep promoting diaper products to women who have stopped having children. Even when you have the most loyal customer base, it will get to a point where they’ll start to get pissed off with your messaging. So you have to be careful.

Updating your data is something you should do regularly. For example, you may want to divide your audience into segments, so each of them gets customized messages. That would ease the path for creating intelligent correspondence with your audience.

4. Not paying attention to details

Certain situations may require you to handle your correspondences manually. In such cases, personalization is also done manually. But the challenge with this approach is that you’re prone to making errors.

For example, if someone makes an inquiry about your brand via email or voice-mail, the right approach would be to treat their question manually. But in doing that, you should pay attention to minute details. For example, don’t misspell people’s names while addressing their concerns. Also, avoid mispronouncing their names.

It’s okay if you make such errors once in a while. But doing it repeatedly would make you come across as an insensitive or careless brand.

5. Not personalizing at all is the biggest mistake

So far, we’ve identified four of the most common personalized marketing errors. You should avoid them as much as you can. That said, it may interest you to know that none of these mistakes is as bad as leaving out personalization from your marketing plans entirely.

There’s a lot to lose by not personalizing your marketing. It starts from lacking the vision to identify new possibilities in your business. Aside from this, your brand will always play second fiddle to brands that use personalization because it doesn’t have what it takes to stand out in a crowded market.

It pays to make errors while experimenting with personalization and learning from the process rather than not trying. After all, it’s “better to have tried and failed than to have never tried at all.”

Getting it right with personalization and the pitfalls brands should avoid was originally published in Bootcamp on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Have you ever had a disappointing first day at work?

I have.

And I’d like to share my experience.

I thought I was going to get booted out after my first day at work.

A full-time remote job with a marketing agency.

Robert and I were newly recruited for a technical support role.

We had truckloads of training videos to watch and other materials to study before our first onboarding session.

And we had a whole week to do that.

The expectations were high, so fear began to creep in.

I had never done a full-time remote job before then.

So I told myself that the only way to impress was to give a good account of myself at the first meeting.

I then convinced myself to watch the videos twice and do a summary of everything I had learnt in a notebook.

It was tough doing all of that but I didn’t mind the stress.

I just wanted to impress.

So on the day of our first meeting, I took out my notebook and started going over everything I had jotted page by page.

Then something happened!

I slept off with the notebook on my chest.

What was supposed to be an innocent eye stretch became a 40-minute nap.

By the time I opened my eyes, they were already 20 minutes into the meeting.

It felt disappointing, to say the least.

But like an errant child who knows how to beg for mercy, I dragged myself into the zoom meeting.

You could bet that several thoughts were running through my mind as I joined.

Is this how I’d lose a job I worked so hard to get?

Will I be fired on my first day at work?

My manager was already waiting for me with a ready-made question.

“Why are you late, Hafiz?”

“What happened?”

Em. Em. I tried to gather my thoughts.

“I dozed off while preparing for this class. I’m sorry, it won’t happen again”

I didn’t even think of telling a lie.

Because, what’s the point?

Luckily for me, she somehow sensed the honesty in my reply.

“Okay, I’m willing to give you a second chance but just so you know, you already created a bad first impression.”

“But how are you going to prevent this from happening next time?”

Not sure how I responded, but I think I said something convincing enough to make her give me another chance.

“Fantastic! So let’s continue…”

“Here’s a recap of what we’ve done so far.”

She said…

After that event, I made a firm resolve not to make any silly mistake again.

I did my job diligently, followed her instructions and made some personal sacrifices for the team.

Months into the job, I was everybody’s favourite team member.

I was so good at the job that I got the free pass to recommend competent guys in my network.

We all gave a good account of ourselves.

Although we had a few skirmishes here and there, the experience was great overall.

Even now that I no longer work there, I still have a good relationship with my employers and old colleagues.

I’m also grateful to my manager for giving me a second chance.

That really motivated me to give my best.

Building a successful freelance writing business isn’t hard. You only need to put certain things in place to achieve your goal.

If you’re a young and upcoming freelance writer, it’s certain that you’ll make lots of mistakes. The time freedom you enjoy could often be to your detriment if not properly managed.

As online entrepreneurs, we often get caught in the web of idleness when we’re not handling client jobs.

Especially when we work from home.

How’s that possible?

I’ll explain.

Now, look at this scenario.

You just got paid for a task you recently completed for a client.

You’re happy.

Your mind tells you it’s time to relax a bit. But you resist that urge and try to continue in your workaholic spirit.

Unfortunately, the next job won’t come so quickly and everything seems to have dried up.

While you wait for your next client to award a new project, you start occupying your free time with pastimes and unproductive activities.

By now, you’ve become so convinced it’s time to catch some fun on social media.

So, you grab your phone and start checking your social media handles one after the other.

You want to know what’s currently trending. At this point, you’re so excited and start following your favorite threads and commenting on posts.

Before you know it, you’ve spent over 3 hours messing around on social media.

Still, no client has responded to your email.

Then you think that maybe it’s time to turn on the TV or spend some time enjoying Netflix.

Watching movies.

You sit there, glued to your screen until you’re bored. Now, you’re more than justified that there’s no more work for the day.

Then you go hang out with your friends (who equally do not have a lot of things going on for them) for the rest of the day.

So it’s zero achievements for the day.

The circle continues like this for a few more days until another client comes calling.

Haaa… Thank goodness!

It’s time to work…

Sounds familiar, right?

If this is how you’ve been working, then I’m sorry; it won’t be long till you get kicked out of business.

5 helpful tips to help you succeed in your freelance writing business

Instead of folding your arms waiting for your next client to come by, you could make good use of your time with productive activities.

That’s the only way to grow your craft and build a successful freelancing business.

Here are the 5 helpful things to do when you’re not handling any client work.

1. Develop your craft

You could take a course, listen to a podcast, or read a book.

You could also learn new things from the online communities you belong to.

I’m not talking about social media groups were junk posts are the order of the day.

I’m talking about phenomenal groups where people share useful insights and motivate one another to achieve greatness.

Investing your time to build your capacity is the best investment you could ever make.

Lastly, you shouldn’t fail to network with forward-thinking individuals.

You have a lot to learn from them.

2. Start a project

What better way to spend your free time than working on your own project?

Come to think of it; you’ve been working selflessly to bring the best out of your clients.

You’ve helped them achieve great results.

Well, it’s time to channel that energy into your personal project.

Start a blog.

Create a YouTube channel.

Launch your podcast.

Start building a community on Facebook.

Write a book.

There are many more examples.

Just start something.

The idea is to do something for yourself and leave a good legacy behind.

Something you can be proud to associate with.

3. Look for new clients

Every day, you must make it a duty to send at least one pitch to a prospective client. This way, you increase your chance of getting continuous jobs.

One of the most common mistakes among freelance writers is not prospecting. I made it too when I first started.

I’d spend hours on social media especially during those times I had no pending tasks.

Little did I know that I was hurting my business.

I did this for many months until things began to dry up, paving way for famine. It was at that moment I realized my mistake.

It became clear that the famine I was going through left so many signals which I discarded, thinking everything was fine.

Then I asked myself…

How did I get all the clients I had worked with in the past? The answers began to trickle in.

I sent hundreds of cold pitches.

I wrote guest posts.

I asked for referrals.

But because I was having consistent demand for my services, I gradually became lazy.

I began to lose focus.

I held back a bit and waited for new clients to come.

But they stopped coming.

I stopped making money like I used to.

Until I piled up huge debts and almost went bankrupt.

After I had learned my lesson, I slowly picked myself up and went back to what used to work for me. And things began to pick up again.

As an entrepreneur, you must always be hungry for success. Complacency should be eliminated from your dictionary. Never make friends with laziness.

More importantly, you must continue to position yourself to gain new clients.

Avoid falling into the same hole twice.

4. Acquire a new skill

The world is evolving with new breakthrough discoveries.

The future of work has changed.

Old things have passed away.

If you fail to upgrade your skillset in this fast-paced digital world, it won’t be long before you get fazed out.

Have you ever wondered why a big brand like Nokia failed? They failed because they overestimated their brand and were too to keep up with the pace of the smartphone industry.

The lesson here is that you need to notice the changes around you and move with time.

You need to start learning new skills that would complement what you currently do.

Do not wait till you’re edged out before you start upgrading your skillset.

Do you know how to write blog posts? Why not learn ‘copywriting’ too?

Do you know how to design a converting landing page? Why not learn how to build a sales funnel too?

That’s the way an entrepreneur who wants to create a dent in the world should think.

Look around you.

Things are changing fast. Brace up yourself.

But don’t get me wrong… I’m not in any way suggesting that you should kill yourself with work.

There’s time for everything.

A time to work and a time to rest.

A little time to catch some fun, too.

But whatever you do, “don’t stop when you’re tired, stop when you’re done.” (Manuel Tratter)

5. Lend a helping hand

One of the most productive things you can do in your spare time is to help others.

Helping others has a reciprocal effect. You rise as you lift others. It opens up massive opportunities in ways you can’t even imagine.

There are many ways to help render help.

You can do this by sharing knowledge, fixing issues for people, answering questions, giving free advice, offering a service pro bono, or making a recommendation.

I have gained many clients because of the simple favors I had done in the past.

Things I didn’t even remember doing.

That’s it.

Help when you can. You’ll be favored when you least expect it.

It’s a basic rule of life.

Conclusion

Success comes with hard work and sacrifice. If you truly want to accomplish tasks and become successful — not just as a freelancer, but in life generally, you must have self-discipline and diligence. That’s the only way you can overcome personal obstacles and stay ahead.

If not, you risk being among the 50% of businesses who fail in the first five years of starting. Don’t be like them. Put these pieces of advice to use and you’ll just be fine.

Getting employees to be at their best isn’t as hard as people think it is. A lot of times, these employees want to be on top of their games but do not have what it takes. Given the right opportunity, they’ll produce stellar performances and become your shining stars.

If you’re struggling, right now, to get your employees to raise the bars and produce great results, don’t fret. All you basically have to do is take the following steps and you’ll get the desired results.

1. Create a pathway for employee success.
2. Keep your employees actively engaged.
3. Improve workplace communication.

Below, we’ll examine each of these steps in detail and you’ll discover the exact strategies that top organizations employ to boost the performance of their staff. Just copy and paste these strategies and watch your employees become top performers within a short period.

The interesting thing is that you don’t have to be a large corporation to get similar results.

A. Create a pathway for employee success

There’s no gainsaying that human resources are the most valuable forms of assets in every business organization. This is why most organizations focus on human resource management, knowing fully well that it’s the ultimate key to their growth and development.

When employees are inspired at work, their level of productivity increases, and so they’re able to get a lot more done. Employers and business owners must realize that success is never achieved by sucking out their workers' last drop of blood. Rather, the only way to achieve success is through a value-driven policy that’s geared toward employee empowerment.

According to Paul Hebert, a human resources expert, the approach should be: “What can we do to help?” rather than the “you need to shape up” approach often used by some employers.

Getting the best out of your workers requires a great amount of work. But when you think of what your business stands to gain in the long run, helping your staff attain their goals becomes your priority.

Here are three ways to help your employees succeed in their assigned roles:

1. Set organizational goals

The importance of goal setting in an organization can never be overemphasized. These are strategic objectives that outline the expected results of each employee and the organization as a whole. Goal setting helps employees prioritize their activities and focus on important tasks to achieve these set objectives. It also makes it easy to evaluate performance. Your duty as a leader is not restricted to setting goals only; it also involves creating the framework to make these goals achievable.

One way to help you reach your goals quickly is through the application of the 10/90 rule. The rule says that the first 10% of the time you spend developing absolute clarity about what you want to do will save you 90% of the time once you get started with the task. With this, employees can rest assured that they’ll deliver their KPIs and become valuable parts of your organization.

2. Provide adequate empowerment

Another proven way to help your employees succeed is through empowerment. Employee empowerment boosts performance and also brings about job satisfaction. It involves equipping them with the tools and skills so they can work independently, giving them a sense of ownership, respecting their ideas & innovations, and allowing them to do their job without someone constantly looking over their shoulders.

A large percentage of employees seek new jobs daily because they’re not adequately empowered. Therefore, it’s your duty, as an employer of labour, to provide growth paths even if it is not so convenient for your business. This results in a happy workforce, hence a progressive workplace.

3. Motivation

According to Lou Holtz, “Ability is what you’re capable of doing, but motivation determines what you do.” If you want the best from your workforce, then you have to find a way to keep them motivated. One of the best ways to motivate your employees is to create a system that rewards their achievements. This is a powerful way to show that you appreciate their contributions and it’s a good signal that you want them to do more.

A simple word of appreciation does a lot to elevate one’s psyche and can light up one's fire. After all, everybody likes to be praised for their good work. Apart from saying “thank you” there are other powerful ways to reward employees. They include but are not limited to honorable mentions, an award for excellence, promotions, and occasional cash incentives.

B. Keep Your Employees Actively Engaged

Employee engagement is the emotional and functional commitment employees have toward their organizations. Employees can produce great results far beyond their companies’ expectations when they’re properly engaged. That’s because they feel inspired, confident, and empowered to work.

As beautiful as the sound of this, only a small percentage of the corporate workforce is actually engaged at work, and this situation has become a nightmare for many organizations. According to a recent Gallups report on workplace engagement, only 15 percent of employees across the globe are actively engaged at work. The implication is that more organizations will not be able to achieve their goals.

The employee engagement index in the U.S shows that about 34% of the workforce is engaged and 13% are actively disengaged. As a result, almost $11 billion is lost annually due to low employee turnover.

But how can companies overturn this unpleasant situation for a more engaged workforce? The following tips will be of help.

1. Make work people-oriented

For any organization to succeed, employees must be involved at certain levels of decision making. The company’s culture and values should reflect mutual consultation and inclusive participation between top management and the junior staff. It doesn’t have to be about you alone.

The moment employees know that their opinions also count, they’ll start doing everything within their capacities to help the company achieve its set goals. And when these goals are met, they want to do more becuase they feel they’re a valued part of the business, not just robots waiting to take instructions from their masters.

2. Reward both hard work and result

Rewards have also been identified as a way to enhance employee engagement. Advancement in career, sponsored courses, and words of appreciation are some of the ways to reward employees. However, companies should make sure they’re rewarding both hard work and results. They have to stop making the mistake of rewarding results alone. This typically sends the wrong signals to other employees whose results aren’t easily noticed.

For example, how do you measure the result of a lower cadre staff like the drivers who drive the company’s top executives? Since their performances are tied to those whom they drive, it’s difficult to measure it. So in their case, you should be rewarding their hard work and not result.

3. Provide an opportunity for growth

Employees are more likely to stay in organizations that value the growth and development of staff. Providing an opportunity to grow within the organization is a win-win situation for both parties. The employees are able to maximize their potentials which in turn creates a path for expansion for your business. There are numerous ways organizations can help their employees grow. This includes drafting a development plan, pairing employees with mentors, helping them build their networks, challenging them with tasks and assignments, and welcoming creative ideas.

In the end, organizations must realize that employees are the heart of their businesses. They’re the ones who implement company policies and make strategic plans work. Therefore, any opportunity to facilitate growth and development must be fully exploited.

C. Improve Workplace Communication

Communication is the heartbeat of every organization. Good communication creates a more cohesive work environment. It also makes employees more comfortable in the workplace and develops a deep sense of ownership in them.

Once there’s a break in the chain of communication, business operations begin to break down and chaos sets in. That’s why organizations are investing heavily to facilitate effective communication in the workplace.

The term ‘communication’ is broad. It goes beyond mere interaction with colleagues and reporting to line managers. It involves executing integrated communication campaigns that span the lifetime of an employee’s tenure. What this means is that organizations must be able to provide communications that engage and retain their employees.

Effective workplace communication can be achieved in 4 easy steps. Here’s how.

1. Equip employees with communication skills

Apart from possessing the technical skills to execute a task, having good communication skills is a big plus for prospective employees at the interview stage. It shows that they can easily relate with the other team members to achieve their set objectives. On the flipside, teamwork also benefits communications because the more workers are able to function within a team; the better is their communication skills.so it’s a two-way thing.

Organizations shouldn’t just train employees to write, speak and listen effectively alone. They should also train them to give useful feedback, be aware of other peoples’ emotions, maintain positive attitudes, use humor, and resolve conflict amicably within themselves, as all these add up to strengthen communication.

2. Hold periodical meetings

It’s very important to always keep employees in the loop about the organization’s progress. Feedback is crucial to organizational success and one of the best avenues to share feedback is during meetings. Why? Because it gives you the opportunity to critique everyone’s work and address issues on the spot.

These periodic meetings could be annual, quarterly, monthly or weekly reviews, depending on your company policy. But you must never restrict your meetings to when there is an emergency situation. Again, sending internal memos and progress updates via email are effective for information dissemination, they can’t produce the same impact as holding these meetings. It improves communication and increases engagement levels.

3. Send regular progress reports

Having adequate information guides employees to make the best decision. Apart from holding regular meetings where situational reports are verbally given, management should also make it a point of duty to send progress reports that everyone can keep in their archives for future reference.

Sending progress reports to your employees through email in a downloadable format or through hard copy prints doesn’t enhance communication alone, but also demonstrates transparency on the part of management. This consequently increases trust and loyalty among employees.

4. Invest in tools

Smooth communication is driven by the availability of tools. There’s no way you can achieve effective communication within your organization if you do not have the requisite tools. These tools are the channels through which your messages are conveyed, creating a free flow of information that helps you get tasks completed.

Basically, these tools help you to organize your team, communicate the details of your new projects to them, and forge collaborations.

The following are the essential tools for workplace communication:

Messaging tools: for private and group chatting. Examples are Slack and WhatsApp Business.

Video messaging tools: for organizing meetings, conference calls, and group collaboration. Examples are Zoom and Skype.y

Staff alerts tools: for on-the-go notifications and grabbing employee attention. This is mostly used in an open office environment. They’re mostly digital signages that are displayed on a central screen and can also be personalized and used as pop-up notifications on individual employee screen.

Conclusion

So far, we’ve examined the 3 ways to boost employee performance. We further broke each of these steps into relatable chunks for better clarity. Everything we’ve discussed in this article points to the fact that your employees need your help to post great performances at work and that you need to show up for them. But it’s not that complicated, all you basically need to do is set the tone for formidable workplace culture and remove every obstacle from their path. This way, everyone is happy and more efficient because they have everything that’s required to help them succeed.

Adam (not real name) used to work in a technology company.

Young.

Dedicated.

Passionate.

Everybody loved him.

He loved them too.

Being the easily bored person that he is, he wanted to try new opportunities.

He began to lose interest in his job.

He no longer enjoyed it as he used to.

For over a year, he contemplated resigning.

So he could start his own business.

He discussed with his colleague, who advised him to hang around a little longer.

But Adam felt that the longer he stayed in his job, the farther he gets from his dream.

Then one day, Adam took the bull by the horn.

For reasons best known to him, he left unannounced.

But unlike Rancho in the movie, 3 Idiots, he managed to say goodbye to one colleague who was closest to him.

Then, he handed the company his resignation letter.

Everyone wondered why he left.

They didn’t see it coming.

He was finally free.

Many months later, he went to the bank.

As he stood on the queue at the ATM point, he saw a young man coming out of a vehicle similar to the official vehicle of his former company.

Obviously trying to fetch some money from the ATM too.

Let’s call this young man Craig.

Adam approached Craig and introduced himself.

As it turned out, Craig is a staff of the company he used to work for.

To Adam’s amazement, Craig was the one that took the position he just left.

What a small world!

Craig was highly elated to meet Adam.

He had been longing to meet him.

But he didn’t have Adam’s contact.

Adam wondered why someone who had not met him before would be looking for him.

“Why have you been longing to meet me? Hope I’m safe”

Mr. Adam asked jokingly.

Then Craig told him how the people he used to work with always spoke well of him.

Their job involved maintaining dozens of servers at different locations across the state.

They worked with other people such as security guards, power contractors, and other experts on special projects.

Craig said: “everybody has been asking for your whereabouts but I keep telling them that I’ve not met you before. I had formed a picture of a great person in my head. Mr. Adam, you’re such a good man. Keep doing what you do.”

Adam felt on top of the world.

He felt a deep fulfillment in his heart.

Reflecting on his meeting with Craig, Adam told me that it was one of the happiest days of his life.

Before him, other people had worked in that position. But they left with bad records.

Craig asked Adam how he managed to win the hearts of so many people.

None of them ever spoke badly of him.

I didn’t do anything spectacular, Adam began.

“All I know is that I was honest in my dealings with those people. I interacted with my subordinates politely and I related freely with everyone around me.”

“I gradually gained their trust and I sometimes left them some tips and covered their faults. Where I could have acted harshly, I always handled things amicably and made the work less tense for people.”

“That’s all”, Adam concluded.

That’s a lot o, Craig said, patting Adam on his shoulder.

I wish I could be like you.

You’re the boss, Adam cut in…

They both laughed, exchanged numbers and parted ways thereafter.

End of story.

*****************************

Moral of the story

Be phenomenal. Always give your best and be kind to the people you work with. Maintain a high level of integrity and you will be forever remembered for good.

P.S: I wrote this story since July 23rd, 2018 but for some reason, I couldn’t find the motivation to publish it.

Today, as I was scrolling through the notes on my phone, I came across this story again and decided to bless you all with it.

Spoiler alert!

I am the ‘Adam’ in this story and the ‘true life story’ is indeed mine. I guess that’s why I held back from sharing it initially.

I hope it inspires someone.