The award I actually care about.

Over the years I’ve worked for four different companies and been fortunate enough to win awards at office, regional and national level.

I’m grateful for them. Recognition from within your industry is always nice.

But they’re not the award I care most about anymore.

The one that means the most arrives when someone I worked for years ago rings and says, “We’re moving again — can you help us?” Or when they send a friend, a child, a neighbour or a colleague to me because they trust me to look after them.

That kind of repeat business can’t be manufactured. You earn it one relationship at a time.

So these days my favourite award doesn’t sit on a shelf. It sits in my phone, my database and in the relationships that keep coming back.

— Allan