get IT done

get IT done

Sometimes You Can't Give IT Away by André Godfrey

We all get them. Emails from Nigerian princes, emails from the estates of recently deceased uncles, emails that share a secret about a little-known way to avoid taxes or death and for the most part when we get them, we avoid them like a pedestrian sidestepping a puddle. But…suppose those emails were not spam but a legitimate offer? That is the unseen downside of the spam issue, when email that appears to be spam but is actually valid. I was reminded of this as I went through my “junk email” options the other day. There is a checkbox in Outlook that reads: High. Most junk mail is caught but some regular mail may be caught as well. Please check your junk mail file often. We rarely choose this option because if we have to review the junk mail folder every day what is the point of a spam filter? We also live in fear of missing a customer email marked ‘Urgent. Read immediately’. Especially if you are in IT. Not responding to urgent issues is frowned upon. Yet here comes an email that appears outlandish and you give it a wide berth, as you should, but it turns out to be on the up-and-up. $20 million is yours, if you only respond. It happens. Not to me and not to you but it happens.

I have a hoot of an example.

Please allow me some liberties and I may not get this exactly right, but I believe I have the gist of the story. Please note that I am an IT columnist, not a journalist and so you are welcome to fact-check me and if I have something slightly wrong or embellished, well ‘meh’ as the kids say (good example, I have no clue what the kids say).

Here is the story. MacKenzie Scott of Amazon fortune has decided to give away her wealth. Enormous wealth. All of it. To quote the generous M. Scott: “In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share. My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care, but I won’t wait. And

I will keep at it until the safe is empty."

But it turns out giving away money is not as easy as it might appear. I asked my late father what he would have liked to have been in his life and he told me he would have liked to have been a philanthropist. I said, “But you have no money.” “That’s what makes it so hard”, was his reply.

MacKenzie Scott has the money and in performing major due diligence decided that the United Way of Greater Rochester was deserving. Mackenzie had her minions email the United Way of Greater Rochester and inform them of a major donation: $20 million. To which they received no reply. The minions emailed again (I just assume they have minions, perhaps unfairly). No reply. They called and were rebuffed (that’s where the story may be going south on me but possibly true). It may be a sad circumstance that we live in a world of spammers and scammers and strangers who have become so untrustworthy, but after several attempts and several days- the story ends in storybook fashion.

The United Way received the $20 million dollar grant from the Mackenzie Scott Foundation despite the initial suspicions and our community is the better for it. Congratulations!

It’s a good story with a terrific ending.Think About IT.

André Godfrey is President, Entré Computer Services, www.entrecs.com