Twenty five years ago on this date (September 14th), my husband and I got married! We’ve been together for 32 years! I marked my 20th anniversary in Flickr and on YouTube with this video (darn the gown doesn’t fit!)
I checked out Rob Cottingham and Alex Samuels geek anniversary gift list and it looks like photography equipment is how you’re supposed to mark a quarter century of marriage – probably in focal lengths of 25 mm? Instead, decided to make a donation to charity:water during their September Birthday campaign. (They didn’t have an anniversary card, but did send out a Tweet.)
After sharing our wedding photo on Flickr in 2009, I received an email from an Esquire Magazine writer asking for permission to use the photo. They told me that it would be used in an article about wedding attire I said, sure, just credit the original source.
Boy was I surprised when I discovered the framing for the article!
We’ve endorsed the real-life charm of Awkward Family Photos. But when we scoured the Web for the worst wedding-day outfits on record, there was no recourse: time to right these hilarious wrongs and call in the Fashion Department for some much-needed advice.
And here is how our wedding photo was described:
The thing around the man’s neck in this photo is called a cravat, last seen around the neck of the Undertaker before his match at Wrestlemania XXV. Unless you can deliver tombstone piledrivers to anyone who scoffs at you, opt for a bow tie.
Well, that was when we celebrated our 23rd Anniversary – and good thing we both have a sense of humor! Good relationships stand the test of time. The secret ingredients are listening, engaging, paying attention, loyalty, acknowledging, honesty, balance,and love.
Good relationships are also the glue of building your network and community and those same ingredients are needed. A good relationship is based on trust, knowing the other person, and being likeable (or as Guy Kawasaki puts it, being enchanting). Living in a world where we can connect more easily with people through social networks, transferring those relationship skills to the online world is the key to success.
This is the thesis in a new book by Mari Smith called “The Relationship Marketing” where she outlines how to build a strong and loyal network comprised of quality relationships that lead to tangible benefits. Chasing after “influentials” is not the way – as Geoff Livingston points out in this post “Machine Guns and Gardeners” — it is about finding and nurturing relationships deep into your network and building over time. It isn’t about quantity, it is about quality.
How are you cultivating relationships with people in your professional or organization’s network or movement?
Leave a Reply