The impact of great ideas poorly executed

Years ago, I received a handwritten thank you card from someone I had interviewed for a Training Coordinator position. This really stood out for three reasons.

First, I'm a big proponent of using the handwritten note to create more personal relationships with your most important customers. 

Second, very few candidates for this position had bothered to send any form of follow-up correspondence, so the card made this particular candidate even more distinctive.

Third, well, it's better just to show you. Here's the front of the card:

The message inside was the standard "Thank you for interviewing me, I'm very interested in the job." However, it was the post script that really caught my attention:

For my readers who aren't familiar with San Diego, the Hillcrest neighborhood has a large LGBT population. I'll never know why this person felt the need to point this out in a thank you card. However, this comment did make it easy for me to rule out this candidate for the position.

This card also serves as an excellent example that it's sometimes a better idea not to do something at all than to do it poorly.