Today, I learnt an important lesson.
I was helping organize a fairly large event to showcase India’s best Social Entrepreneurs. I was entasked with selecting ten speakers to showcase their stories. The audience were city’s biggest CEOs and business leaders and an exposure to them would make a world of difference.
There was one entrepreneur who we had short-listed but unfortunately we could not accommodate in the Top 10. An opportunity to present her story to such an influential audience does not come often and her enthusiasm was understandable.
At one point, we even extended a tentative invite to her but due to plans on having diversity of topics, we could not take her in as a confirmed speaker. Since I was busy with the event, I completely missed communicating this to her.
With two days to go for the event, she must have sensed it. She called me and the first thing she said was not to worry. She said she understood the travails of an organizer and that it happens to all of us. She took great effort to make sure I wasn’t feeling guilty.
If I was in her shoes I would have been disappointed and definitely harboured some ill-will. By forgiving and empathizing, it really showed her maturity. She put me in ease… and in doing so made sure I will never forget her !
