Relying on the power of kindness is a sensitive undertaking. The challenge is to inspire people to be kind more often without tainting the selflessness that comes from doing something nice with no ulterior motive.
Interpretation
Kindness should be encouraged but must remain selfless and genuine.
In this quote, Daniel Lubetzky reflects on the delicate balance of promoting kindness in society. While it is essential to inspire people to be kind, doing so should not lead to actions that are driven by personal gain or ulterior motives. True kindness comes from a place of sincerity and selflessness, and any encouragement to be kind must preserve that purity.
In practice
In a speech about community engagement, one might reference this quote to emphasize the importance of selfless acts of kindness.
We need to understand the other side to impact the other side. We become much more effective as humans and leaders when we engage in hearty conversations with those who are different from us, not necessarily to change our opinions, but to build the empathy muscle.
Civilized discourse demands critical thinking, self-reflexiveness, sober-headed analysis.
The ideal is to build a culture of healthy discussion, where everyone's ideas are valued. At KIND, we want everyone to be comfortable challenging my or anyone else's ideas without ever feeling or making someone else feel that the questioning is a personal attack.
You have to be very careful. If you over-commercialize a social mission, it completely loses its soul.
My dad had this incredible kindness that oozed through every part of his body. He had the ability to look at life positively in spite of what he went through. He was a Holocaust survivor. When he was 15-1/2 years old, he was liberated from the Dachau Concentration Camp by American soldiers who risked a lot to save people they had never met.
To maintain our entrepreneurial spirit, we have to create a culture in which everyone remembers that every order, big or small - and every interaction, every moment - will define what our company is today and what it will become tomorrow.
We hear only those questions for which we are in a position to find answers.
The slaves who were ourselves had known terror intimately, confused sunrise with pain, & accepted indifference as kindness.
Instead of asking "what’s the problem?" ask "what's the creative opportunity?
I'll tell you what: I believe mysticism is a very serious endeavor. One must be equipped for it.
He possesses dominion over himself, and is happy, who can every day say, "I have lived." Tomorrow the heavenly father may either involve the world in dark clouds, or cheer it with clear sunshine, he will not, however, render ineffectual the things which have already taken place.
The secret of contentment is the realization that life is a gift, not a right. Next to faith this is the highest art - to be content with the calling in which God has placed you.
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