Forest Whitaker wrote me a thank you note the other day. We honored him as one of Cosmo's Fun Fearless Males at a really cool luncheon in New York and he wrote to tell me how much he appreciated it.
Now you may be thinking that there's nothing unusual about that. If you honor someone at a big lunch, why wouldn't they drop you a note. But the truth is celebrities practically never send thank you notes, no matter what you do for them. I once gave a huge, very expensive dinner for a celebrity in honor of a charity she was promoting and I didn't even get an email.
So it's pretty amazing that Forest took the time to do it-particularly considering it was in the middle of the Oscar race.
It may sound like I'm whining, but really I'm not. I'm so used to celebrities not thanking me that I never really expect it anymore. And so I was actually shocked when I opened the one from Forest. I also got a lovely handwritten one from Tom Evertt Scott, who we honored at the same event.
Celebrities aren't the only ones who don't like to put pen to note card. It's getting rarer and rarer to receive thank you notes from anyone. Particularly anyone under 30, though some of them do send emails to show their appreciation. But often you don't even get that, despite how easy it is. I frequently receive emails from young women just out of college asking if they can meet with me to discuss a career in journalism. I respond by explaining that because of my schedule I don't have the time for exploratory interviews, but I always send them material I've put together on the subject. I almost never get a thank you for my efforts. It's like they can't be bothered with me once that they know I can't meet with them in person.
Again, I sound like I'm whining but I'm really just summing up the status quo today. Which leads me to my main point:
When you do write a letter, you can't help but stand out--and people are often blown away by it. Recently I was treated to a lovely lunch by someone and dropped her a thank you note later that day. When she received it, she sent this email: "To pull a pretty, handwritten card out of an actual envelope these days is like opening Tut's tomb-such a treasure."
Her comment showed just how powerful a written thank you can be. Of course, people can kind of smell the ones that are sent just for butt kissing purposes, but when you write from feelings of true enthusiasm and gratitude, it means something big to the person who receives it.
I once read a great tip in a time management book that makes the process easier: Keep several stacks of different note cards on your desk with the envelopes already stamped.
Now you may be thinking that there's nothing unusual about that. If you honor someone at a big lunch, why wouldn't they drop you a note. But the truth is celebrities practically never send thank you notes, no matter what you do for them. I once gave a huge, very expensive dinner for a celebrity in honor of a charity she was promoting and I didn't even get an email.
So it's pretty amazing that Forest took the time to do it-particularly considering it was in the middle of the Oscar race.
It may sound like I'm whining, but really I'm not. I'm so used to celebrities not thanking me that I never really expect it anymore. And so I was actually shocked when I opened the one from Forest. I also got a lovely handwritten one from Tom Evertt Scott, who we honored at the same event.
Celebrities aren't the only ones who don't like to put pen to note card. It's getting rarer and rarer to receive thank you notes from anyone. Particularly anyone under 30, though some of them do send emails to show their appreciation. But often you don't even get that, despite how easy it is. I frequently receive emails from young women just out of college asking if they can meet with me to discuss a career in journalism. I respond by explaining that because of my schedule I don't have the time for exploratory interviews, but I always send them material I've put together on the subject. I almost never get a thank you for my efforts. It's like they can't be bothered with me once that they know I can't meet with them in person.
Again, I sound like I'm whining but I'm really just summing up the status quo today. Which leads me to my main point:
When you do write a letter, you can't help but stand out--and people are often blown away by it. Recently I was treated to a lovely lunch by someone and dropped her a thank you note later that day. When she received it, she sent this email: "To pull a pretty, handwritten card out of an actual envelope these days is like opening Tut's tomb-such a treasure."
Her comment showed just how powerful a written thank you can be. Of course, people can kind of smell the ones that are sent just for butt kissing purposes, but when you write from feelings of true enthusiasm and gratitude, it means something big to the person who receives it.
I once read a great tip in a time management book that makes the process easier: Keep several stacks of different note cards on your desk with the envelopes already stamped.
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