Guy Kawasaki, who hasn’t been blogging for long but has been quite prolific so far, has a great post that is so, so true. It’s basically about just being nice and pleasant to others and how doing so helps you end up in more favorable positions. I believe a lot of what he’s saying is true and mostly common sense (for some):

Simply beginning a conversation with, “How is your day going?” can break the ice. You know, and he knows, that you don’t really care how his day is going, but at least you’re civil enough to ask. That separates you from the pack of hyenas.

and

Sometimes things are just not meant to be: there are no more aisle seats, all the outside tables are taken, and the boss doesn’t want to talk to any sales reps. If that’s the case, shut up, and go on with life. Don’t flatter yourself and believe that the airline is out to get you by assigning all the aisle seats to others. Life is too short to get upset by things like this.

Some of it though was a bit more foreign to me, like the ‘be important’ section:

If you want to be treated as an important customer then be an important customer. That is, fly the same airline, eat at the same restaurant, and play hockey at the same rink. If you spread your business around, then don’t be surprised if you get jacked around. I only eat at three restaurants in all of Silicon Valley: Gombei, Juban, and Buck’s. I can get in anytime I want at these three restaurants–but only these three restaurants. I fly on United seventy five to 100 times a year. It takes great care of me. I fly Air Canada once a year. It puts me in a coach-class, center seat between two screaming babies. That’s life.

Limiting yourself to just three restaurants seems a bit hardcore (and I’d bet he goes to plenty more than that) but I guess it does make sense.

The real interesting part to me is how difficult doing some of these things is for what seems to be the majority of folks out there. Or maybe it’s just that the ones who really seem to have difficulty “being nice” are way more noticeable. Check out his post though as there’s plenty more to it and definitely seems to be great advice.