“How many startups
have you founded?”
I asked.
“This
is my 3rd.”
she answered.
“That
could not have been
easy.” I said.
“It’s like
having kids.”
she replied
without hesitation.
“When you have them,
you tell yourself
‘never again!’”
she continued
smiling.
“But somehow
you forget that
and before you know it
you’re having
another one.”
The root
of “wisdom”
is “weid-,”
“to see.”
When we realize
empathy,
we connect
our experience
with that
of another.
Experiences
we did not know
to connect.
And it is in that instant,
we come to see
something
we previously
did not.
If Steve is right
that creativity
is coming to see something
others
could not
by connecting
experiences,
then perhaps realizing empathy
is creativity
imbued with the wisdom
of love.
May we ask ourselves
where
our responsibility
ends.
Where
the limits
of our ability to respond
lies.
Because our responsibility ends,
where our ability ends.
To assume otherwise,
can be an easy way
to set us up
for frustration
and resentment.
The temptation
is to use empathy
as a means
to persuade.
To be right.
To win.
Far more difficult
is to realize empathy
as a means
to create.
To learn something
new.
To win
together.
Doing our best
does not guarantee
an ideal outcome.
In fact,
what doing our best can do
that doing less cannot
is expose to us
our limitations.
In such a way
that we become motivated
to either
accept our limitations
with our whole heart
or
embark on a journey of development
to extend the boundary
of our limitations.
Bad things
are not always done
by bad people.
Bad things
are often done by people
who felt
like they had no other choice.
Choice
of either impression
or expression.
Not options,
but choice.
Good things
are not always done
by good people,
either.
Good things
are often done by people
who felt
like they have no other choice.
Choice
of either impression
or expression.
Not options,
but choice.
