I’ve always been a big believer in karma. Not in the religious or spiritual sense but I’ve always been of the mindset that if you treat people well, somewhere down the road something good is going to come of it. And conversely, if you treat people poorly then it’ll catch up to you.
I’ve seen it in my personal and professional lives. On the professional side, for years I helped anyone who asked get hooked up with people who could help them in the tech industry. I didn’t do it because I was expecting something but I believed that if you help enough people when they need it then sooner or later someone is going to help you when you need it. And that’s exactly what happened during the dotcom crash. When people couldn’t find jobs or enough contract gigs to keep up with their lifestyle, I was turning down business from friends who I had helped in the past. Not because they wanted to help me per se but because when they pink-slipped most of their fulltime staff they still needed to get things done and their needs and my skills matched up. They could have called a lot of other people but I like to think that my previous good deeds put my name at the top of their lists.
So Friday, I roll into the parking garage at work. I get out of the car and there’s a woman about thirty paces ahead of me going towards the elevator. She’s a tall, attractive woman who would turn more than a few heads. Ahead of her are two women standing at the parking garage elevator. The doors open and the two women get in and look blankly at the attractive woman who is maybe five seconds from the elevator. They continue their blank look as the doors close making us wait for the next elevator. I mean, they didn’t even make a faux attempt at holding the door or pushing the wrong elevator button.
As the attractive woman and I stand there doing the obligatory looking off into nowhere so as not to make eye contact or invade each other’s personal space, there’s a banging sound. Thump. Thump. Thump. Then we hear the two women in the elevator “Hey, the elevator’s stuck. We’re stuck in here!” We look at each other and both of us let out a guilty snicker. “Help! Help! We’re stuck in here,” comes from the elevator. I can’t help it at this point and I start laughing out loud. The attractive lady assures them we’ll tell someone as she fights back laughing as well.
When the door to the second elevator bank opened and we entered. If karma really worked that elevator would have stuck too and I would have had to spend a few hours in the elevator with this attractive lady but as fate would have it the elevator worked perfectly and as we exited on the ground floor we told the parking lot attendant that some people were stuck on the 6th floor. Not being the brightest chap, he asked which elevator. Seeing as how there are only two and we were getting off one of the two, I’m afraid his deductive skills needed a little polishing.
Anyway, not really poker related other than you should always keep karma in mind.