When I reflect on the last year, I realize how much I’ve learned from Curtis and Elle Zimmerman. I’d like to share some of it with you here, because you won’t all have the opportunity to work with these wonderful people.

This was my first “real job,” so maybe this list will include some things that you veterans consider old news. But for any recent college grads like myself, I hope you’ll treat this information as gold.

• I am Living the Dream. I had no idea what this meant before I worked with Curtis Zimmerman, but now I understand that when my car breaks down, I should be grateful that I even have a car. When I ruin dinner, I should be grateful that I have food to cook at all. I am so blessed, and Curtis’ message is amazing at keeping that reality at the forefront of my perspective.
•  You can only control how much you give, not how much you get in return. But if you give generously of your time, advice, and resources, you will reap the benefits. Curtis and Elle live this principle every day — they aren’t in the speaking business, they are in the business of helping people, myself included.
• Everything can always be better. If I had to summarize Elle Zimmerman in one key term, I would use “improvement expert.” Elle has the amazing skill of looking at any product, person, or process and finding ways to make it better. This is an incredibly valuable ability to bring to any team, and one I can only hope to develop in the years to come.
• Leave your ego at home. There is no room for ego in the workplace. Curtis and Elle respect one another for their ideas and creativity and individual abilities, and they appreciate anyone they can give honest feedback to without pride getting in the way.
• Cell phones make people rude. Actually, people are rude, and cell phones make that very obvious. Curtis and Michelle are staunchly against cell phone use when in a conversation with another person. The reason is very simple: it’s rude.
• Aim for perfection, but be happy with really good. Even though you can fiddle and mess with a project until it’s near perfection, sometimes that time is better spent starting the next project. Of course, some things need to be perfect, and those products are worth the extra time and effort, but that’s not true with everything you do.
• Care about other people’s dreams. Curtis and Elle cared about what I want to do and what I want to accomplish in my life, and they invested time and resources in allowing me to work towards my goals, even if they didn’t directly improve their business. But when you encourage someone else’s dreams, it’s amazing how eager they are to do they same in return.

This list could go on and on, but if you want to know more about the Zimmermans and what they do for the people around them, then keep reading Elle’s blog, and make sure to check out Curtis’ blog too.