Attention Agency Leaders, there's a new kid in town.

I couldn't be more flattered that my sixteen-year-old boy Eddie is keen to do an apprenticeship with me at the Humaneers.

Poor chap has heard me banging on about human reactions, empathy, decency and emotional intelligence for years and he gets it.

He's a bit nifty when it comes to kindness and SOH too.

Like so many of his peers, he's a bloody good bloke. He (and his mates) care about each other, the world and absolutely abhor racism and injustice. They laugh a lot and hate being pigeonholed as lazy or entitled.

So instead of waiting until September, I suggested to Ed that it might be useful to start sooner so he can establish whether or not Business Development is right for him.

Today was his first day and just for a laugh, I said to him "Tomorrow you'll be on the phones building relationships with some agencies that might use us at some point in the future".

Staggeringly his response was -

"Yeah sure, why not".

I can't pretend that as someone who has made a living from the phone, (and other channels as they have appeared) I wasn't incredibly proud of his response.

I've always reckoned that people who get on the blower and generate business are heroes and at 16, he certainly confirmed that.

So I have two morals to this story, namely -

1. If someone calls you and is polite, considerate and well informed then they are probably well worth hearing-out.
2. If a young man calls you in the near future and says that his `dad asked him to call to find out XY and Z then please be kind to him...