Lost Art - Handwritten Notes

For thousands of years, letters have played a critical role in human history.

Historically, the first recorded handwritten letter was by Persian Queen Atossa around 500 BC with the stamped letter as we know it today emerging in the reign of Queen Victoria in 1840. Prior to 1840 letters were delivered by courier. The receiver of the letter had to pay on its receipt and the cost was dependent on the number of pages and distance travelled. To prevent the contents of the letter from being read by others they were sealed using a colored wax with ring or handheld seal.

The act of handwriting a note can inspire, influence and encourage. It is believed a letter from an 11-year old girl influenced the famous beard and top hat look of President Abraham Lincoln stating in a letter to the then Senator Lincoln, that if he were to grow a beard he would be more electable and would certainly win the presidency.

And in April 1963, the Birmingham Campaign of the Civil Rights Movement had begun with marches, sit-ins and protests. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other activists ignored the judge’s ruling banning protests and he was arrested on April 12. Following his arrest, white clergy printed a denouncement of his actions in the local newspaper and Dr. King felt compelled to respond. What would become an 11-page letter famously known as the Letter from a Birmingham Jail, began in the margins of the newspaper and on scraps of paper until he was given a notepad by his attorney. This letter galvanized the Civil Rights Movement and led to his March on Washington and famous speech.

Letters are powerful.

Yet, electronic forms of communication have now largely taken over. In my quick research, I stumbled upon a research study conducted by Pen Heaven that asked 1,000 members of the public about their correspondence habits. The research found that while we send 16 tweets a month, we barely write one letter a month. And 64% of those surveyed admitted to not writing a single letter in an entire year! Contrast that too with the fact that 69% of respondents said receiving a letter through the mail would mean more to them than any other form of written communication.

So…

Get yourself a nice pen.

Order up some stationary.

Set a goal & figure out some accountability.

At Access Ventures, we felt this was important to our brand and to our role in community building. Since the very beginning of Access Ventures, the goal has been that everyone write at least one thank you card or handwritten note to someone each month. No agenda. Nothing special. Just the simple act of taking the time to consider someone and craft a note that gets sent through the mail. We even have tracked it in monthly meetings as a KPI it means that much to our organization. And there is not a list of people they have to send it to…just someone for them that comes to mind. Imagine if more companies and groups did this? For us, that means on average 10-15 notes a month! Not a sales gimmick or a computer generated “handwritten” ask…but the simple act of taking 5 minutes to actually consider the humanity of someone to write them a simple note.