A few years ago, a coworker of mine asked me about a card that I carried around in my wallet. It was a miniature brochure about overfishing that I picked up during a visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
You see, much of the seafood that we buy everyday in restaurants and grocery stores is overfished to the point that some species may never recover. It was an issue that I had a growing interest in, and the little guide, printed as part of the Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program, was an essential memory aid about what seafood was sustainable.
Time passed. My colleague and I went our separate ways. I moved to London. She went to work for Discovery Communications.
And yesterday, she sent me an e-mail with a link to this: It’s a Consumer Guide to Overfishing that she wrote and published.
Now, I have no idea how many people visit discovery.com. (Quantcast says it gets 6.7 million visitors and 52 million page views per month.) And even less idea how many will see my friend’s excellent page. Certainly it will be more than a few. Hopefully, some of those who visit the page will change their behavior as a result.
But it’s so exciting to see how small interactions can have big impacts thanks to word of mouth and the potent platform that the Internet provides.
Honestly, I don’t really remember the conversation (though I still carry the guide in my wallet), but my friend did. Full credit to her for remembering the chat, and then having the creativity and the passion to do something about it.
What’s the takeaway? Value every interaction. You never know which one will really make a difference.
And BTW, if you want a copy of my little card for yourself, the 2009 edition has just been released.
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