Last week I went to see marketing and change expert Seth Godin speak and take questions live in Chicago for a day. It was a great day with lots of great ideas.

Of everything he said, the most thought-provoking for me was one sentence about viewing each time we interact with another person as an opportunity. Can we approach each interaction, each “touch”, with a customer (or co-worker or family member or anyone) differently than we have in the past, to create a different kind of interpersonal result?

I experienced this in my brief interaction with Seth in the book-signing line. I stood in line just to thank him for how much I’ve benefited from his books, not to ask him to sign one. Everyone else was having a book signed, and I had an awkward moment of uncertainty when I got to the front of the line and didn’t ask him to sign my book. He seemed to sense my hesitation and spoke and listened quite kindly to me. That awkward attempt to express my genuine gratitude was important to me, and he made it a positive interaction that influenced me and my view of him. He practiced what he preached on this.

My point is not that Seth is special, it’s that every human interaction is a valuable opportunity.