A friend of mine told me last week that he changes his phone number  once a year because too many people get it, then give it out to too many other people. I knew his number had changed because I’d tried to call him and the guy who answered said “I don’t know who (insert name here) is, but I sure get alot of telephone calls for him.” Now I know why.

My friend is a popular speaker in his field and author in his genre. My guess is he speaks to a few hundred thousand people a year. So he’s kinda big time, or at least a big fish in the pond he swims in. I can imagine that his number might easily get passed by people who want other people to know that they are “in” because they have (insert big time speaker / author’s name here) personal cell phone number. Me? Heck, I could put mine on billboards and nobody would call me.

Some people advertise their cell phone number on their business card. Others of us don’t. I don’t because my phone is with me all the time and I don’t always want to be accessible to every Tom, Dick & Harry. My office and home numbers are public. If someone wants me they can leave me a message at the office and I’ll decide how to respond. That’s how I keep control of who has my cell number.

All this brings me to a little matter of etiquette. Do you keep other folks private info private? You should.

Call me and ask for somebody’s cell phone number, and I’m going to be pretty particular about whether I give that number out.

You should be, too. When you get to be big time, you’ll appreciate others doing the same for you.

Hey Ed, call me. I’d call you , but I don’t have your new number.