Halfway There

Today marks the half-way point in my “60 Days of Gratitude” project. If you’re slogging through with me in this little exercise … well, I’m grateful you’re here. 🙂

Today, I’m also grateful for the grateful.

Let me explain…

I have several projects that ultimately try to serve others in some way. Some, like Ask Leo!, are explicit business ventures, others like HeroicStories or Not All News Is Bad are more altruistic in nature. Some, like exmsft.com, are more my way of “giving back” to a community from which I benefited greatly (and that’s some gratitude for another day).

I honestly don’t expect a lot in return for doing those things. Yes, Ask Leo! should make money — it’s a business after all — but beyond that I’m just happy to have the skills and the ability to do all the things I do. It’s fun. As I said while at Microsoft, it’s probably very similar to what I’d do even if I weren’t getting paid. And for many of these projects, I don’t, and that’s peachy.

But that doesn’t stop people from trying. 🙂

Seriously. The result is that some years ago I bought a domain and “Buy Leo A Latte” was born. “Buy Leo A Beer” soon followed.

To quote that page:

I’ve heard from people that they’re very grateful for the information that my sites like Ask Leo! have given them. I love to hear that, and I’m very gratified.

Some have gone so far as to ask how they can pay me back! Well, I appreciate that, but you don’t really have to.

So here’s the deal. If you’d really like to, you can buy me a Latte….

I’m truly grateful that people occasionally have that desire, but honestly, I’m just grateful when people simply find value in whatever I do, whether they feel the need to say “thanks” or not. I don’t really do it for that, but I’m certainly appreciative when it happens.