It's very rewarding when I run into a former client who's been sober for a long time. That happened yesterday when I went with our employment supervisor to talk to an advertising company owner about a contract for our clients to work with his company.

During our conversation with the owner, who has been in the advertising business for about 20 years, it came out that he employed a former client.

"One of my supervisors was in your program 13 years ago," he told us. "He makes over $150,000 a year now," he said.

I was pleasantly surprised and asked the man's name. However, just then the former client walked around the corner and I immediately recognized him. The man came up and gave me a hug and we chatted for a few moments. When the employment supervisor and I left the man's office we had an agreement to provide employees to his company.

These encounters don't often happen quite that dramatically. But when we do have serendipitous events like this it is an additional pay off and reminds me how we make a difference in our community. At times my staff and I get caught up in the day-to-day minutia of running a business and don't get to see the results of our efforts. When we encounter a former client, who's had a long period of success, it brings home to us that what we do makes a difference in the world.

There have been times past several years when some members of my staff and I haven't been paid because of economic conditions. We have postponed taking a salary because it was necessary to keep the company functioning. However, when I see the results of our work in the lives of those who've been sober for many years it makes everything we do worthwhile.