gracias (gra-Zias) and Por favor (por fa-bor)

Anna who is from 'Barthalowna' runs the local tapas restaurant in my hood, la Bruixa (the friendly witch) and who helps me with my most basic of Spanish, always stresses to me that as long as you say, 'gracias (gra-Zias) and Por favor (por fa-bor),' people will always help you because they will know that you are a nice man because you know how to say please and thank-you (and this is not France - pardon? Noo!).

Yes manners maketh the person, it may be old fashioned but it's still very en vogue as far as I am concerned, when people take the time to thank me graciously, my generosity, sometimes foolishly, knows no bounds, much of this belief stems form that old adage that if your hand is constantly closed you won't know what it is like to receive, I make sure that I frequently keep my hands open by way of giving so that life's many rewards can find me.

In business one of the things that I find sorely lacking is the use of responsive and genuine thank-you notes. These short notes of appreciation for someone's efforts, when generously written are always welcome and should be used whenever possible because as Anna says people will then always want to help you.

Last week we had an 'Executive' review with one of our partners and we wanted to impress upon them how pleased we were with their efforts in bringing the piece of work which we had mutually undertaken to a successful fruition. The call lasted no longer than 30 minutes but we made sure that we took a moment to reflect on our joint success and then to briefly highlight one area which we could improve upon.

After the call, a couple of days later, I sent them a thank-you note and a quick minute of the discussion, I am sure that next year will be just as fruitful because people like to work with 'nice' people and where I come from 'nice' people say thank-you, they don't take it for granted, even in business.