Specialty blog
I almost quit writing this monthly blog
April 28, 2017
Eric Fialkoff
Here ends my 7th consecutive year (84 blogs) of sending out a single monthly message (I value not flooding your inboxes). This month I almost threw in the towel.
Over the years I've received very kind and personal replies to my distinctly non "businessy" notes. To the best of my knowledge I've responded to every one by email or by phone call.
This past month, however, I received a message that made me stop and wonder if I should continue. Here, verbatim, is the message that left me pondering:
Are your typical customers very busy people trying to run a business?
OR
Do they have time for cute? I don’t have time for cute. If your emails were centered on my possible needs and not your anecdotal stories about your own daily life, which honestly, I have zero interest in, I might still be subscribed.
I love honesty in all of its forms. This kind man could have simply unsubscribed without comment (as has happened many times over the last seven years). Instead he leaves me with comments that move me to question whether the vast majority of you think similarly.
I've ultimately decided that the answer to this question matters not.
Here is why...
I confess that one of the main purposes of my blog is to connect with you personally so that, when the time is right, I can be there for your professionally.
However, please know that each of you reading (or not reading this) means infinitely more to me than a possible payday.
Very frequently I pray for many of you by name. When not by name, I intentionally include you in my prayers almost every day by calling out to a God in whom I believe for:
"all my family, all my friends, all those I love, all those You love and especially for all those who seek to love You, those who know You not, those whose lives I touch and those whose lives touch mine."
Ready now for some freaky coincidence?
This month's randomly selected favorite book, movie or television show is a work by J.I. Packer called "Knowing God" (My dear friend and mentor Michael Smith, a professor of Biblical Studies at Liberty University, made the offering and even declined receipt of the cookies I promised in return).
I'm supposed to make a connection between his randomly selected offering and the world of Specialty Box & Packaging.
If you've managed to read this far, to not be offended and to not unsubscribe then I trust that the connection is crystal clear.
For now, I'll continue to write, to share my life and to hope that you share yours with me because you matter both to me and, I believe wholeheartedly, to the God I know.