Last Friday I opened my mailbox and there was a box waiting for me.

Flat and utilitarian, it had achieved its purpose, to get to me from where it originated.

But when I opened it, it was neither flat nor utilitarian. It elated me.

We solopreneurs achieve gratification from the tribe of beautiful people we gather around us.

Remember the old Verizon ads on TV with the people dropping off tethers behind the narrator, there to help, contribute, offer?

Well, it was reenacted in my mind when I opened the book, from Memories Worth Remembering, arranged by its owner and my friend Oleg Lougheed, with heartwarming input from 14 other colleagues, collaborators, friends, gushing with admiration we do not often express, or in my case, receive all in one place, as a surprise, in a delightful keepsake.

To you 14, you know who you are, you make what we all do magical, important, generous. You make it important-er.

And no worries if you are reading about it here and not a part of this cadre. If your warmth is not expressed in this book, I receive it daily in the form of words and expressions, comments (yes–dare I say it–even emojis) of thank you. I suppose gestures are important too.

Oleg wrote that day about those two simple yet powerfully important words “thank you.”

I return that thank you, multiple times, to those of you involved in the keepsake, or not, since you all enrich me in other important ways, from which I trust I return that important feeling back to you.

I feel it deeply and it fuels me. With high octane.