I smiled when I saw the following post the other day:

“There would be a few people who would smile at it.” I thought to myself.

We all live in an inter-connected world. We provide services to others and receive services from others as well. We feel happy or sad when triggered by outside stimulus. Meanwhile, we bring good and bad feelings to others through our interactions with them. Sometimes we are the pigeon and other times we are the statue.

Deep in our hearts, we want to create happy feelings for ourselves and others through products, services or attitudes. The interesting thing is that when we make others happy, we unintendedly make ourselves happy.

Two decades ago, when I was newly graduated from university, I came to Houston to work for Maurer Engineering, Inc. Being a newcomer in an engineering consulting firm, I was overwhelmed by the whole new world of drilling industry and software development. My initial struggles soon became enjoyment as I dived into the pool of computer programming. Dr. Maurer gave me enough encouragement and trust, which made me feel real confident. That was also my first time to see my work being used by drilling engineers in the field. “Not many things are cooler than this.” I thought at that moment and over time all the good feedback fueled my enthusiasm to pursue it further.

We will keep having joy as we develop more sophisticated models. Creating something from nothing can bring tremendous joy and this feeling is amplified when this “something” is appreciated by other people.