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Winning the lottery…but losing the ticket!

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Which is worse, never winning the lottery or winning the lottery but losing your ticket? I think the latter where you have the winning ticket in hand but never get to realize the winnings. Well, yesterday I had an occurrence which is the latter; however, I was the ticket (now that is not an ego thing as you will read).

On Monday, I had meetings downtown so I got there early. It was a beautiful day and I was enjoying my walk. There was this person who was on the corner that I was approaching. He was dressed nice and I would say he was about 30 years old. It seemed like he was trying to figure out which way to go (and in more ways than one – his life too). As I neared, he looked up at me said hello, smiled and asked if I could point him in the direction of the Marriot Hotel. I said I could do better than that as I was headed to the Coast Coal Harbour Hotel right next door. He thanked me and we started to walk together. It was about 4 blocks of a walk so we had time to talk. I asked if he was going to a conference or event there and he told me that he was dropping his resume off to see if there were any front desk jobs there. Now you have me intrigued. So I asked about his journey…his autobiography. He told me that he was an international student from India and spent two years in Toronto doing his tourism and hospitality program back east. After graduation, he made his way to Vancouver and has just been in the fine city only 2 weeks. He is here on his own and was now trying to venture out to see if he could land a position. He feels there are opportunities here and heard great things about Vancouver.

Upon hearing his story, I now open up my insight and resources. I know people at the Coast Coal Harbour, Holiday Inn and other areas of hospitality. I gave him my card and asked him to forward me his resume and that I can do some introductions. Now this was Monday about 9:30am…it is now Tuesday 6:00am and I have not heard from him. I don’t know about you, but if someone with resources and possible opportunities hands me a card and says to forward a resume and that they are willing to open up their relationships to initiate conversations, I would do the following:
• Thank the person upon leaving them
• Go to the hotels and drop off your resume
• Somewhere in the day, drop a note to say thank you and here is my resume
There might be reasons that he did not. He might have accidentaly misplaced or lost my card and no longer has my contact, he was not able to get to a computer terminal till later today, or perhaps he feels that he needs to make sure the email is just right and not awkward. I hope he reaches out because I feel I can really help him.

Two lessons here. First, this person looked up and smiled and had the courage to ask me a question…that always impresses me. It is a reminder that you never know who is there and what they hold when you just smile or say hello or ask a question. In this person’s case, he hit the lottery winning ticket because he has only been here for a short time and I know people who I can connect him with. Second, make sure that you strike when the iron is hot! If someone offers you something, appreciate it and make sure you reply back or acknowledge the gift as soon as possible…or eventually you lose your ticket. Now fortunately, if he is to drop a note tomorrow, next week etc…I will still help. But right now he has a lottery ticket and it is not a claimed prize…time is ticking my friend…where ever you are!


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