Thank you.

You have honored and blessed me with your attention.  Your attention suggests that you agree... <em>individuals can make a difference.</em> It encourages me to challenge myself first and my friends to act on behalf of their best dream of the future.  Your attention and connection tells me that others share the idea that our best is good enough to matter.  We don't have to be Tiger Woods or Jack Welch or Richard Branson to make a difference.
<blockquote>Your attention suggests that you agree... individuals can make a difference!</blockquote>
It also energizes me to think that we can know hundreds of people who strive to be a better person first before becoming a better "whatever they do."  Thank you for helping me as I struggle with my character and how it affects my leadership.  Thank you for joining and creating an honest community motivated to make a positive difference, resisting the urge to judge or blame.  Thank you for taking the time to connect, share and help others who want to sharpen their influence skills, not for personal gain alone, but for the benefit of a growing community.

Thank you for connecting, taking the time to share about yourself in a way where we each develop common friendships.  Thank you for focusing on the multitude of things we have in common rather than the few ways we're different.  Thank you for clicking a link and reading, thinking and sharing electronic ideas, and then using those ideas to elevate attitudes and mobilize each other to make some small corner in the world a bit better, even if it's only with a smile or a retweet.

Thank you for spending a minute considering the people we know in common.  I may only "know" your avatar and your online "persona," but I smile whenever I look at TweetDeck and see so many friends.  Yes, you're a friend even though we may not have met face-to-face, mostly because we share an experience and a hope.  Thank you for sharing a bit about yourself so we can connect.  Thank you for taking action, bringing your best and making the world better.

I appreciate you.  You make my world a better place.  Take a minute and thank the people who matter to you too!  Happy 2011!

<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo by <a title="Applause " href="http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-3405900-applause.php" target="_blank">iStockPhoto © Dmitriy Shironosov</a></span>