The kindest thing any of us can do is to pursue something radically that serves others in some way, because you never know how it might change the course of human life.
Podcast: Find Your X, Nurture Your N
I love this response from Rick Buhrman when he was asked, "What is the kindest thing that anyone's ever done for you?":
Our oldest son, Theo, who just turned 7, spent the first 6 months of his life in several NICUs. He was eventually helicoptered to Indianapolis at Riley Children Hospital. And while we were living in that NICU for almost half a year, we saw a lot of kids who passed away. Most of those kids were not as sick as Theo was.
I don't know exactly why Theo survived, but I know that a major part of how he survived was because for several decades leading up to that moment, numerous nurses, nurse practitioners, respiratory therapists, doctors, surgeons have committed themselves wholeheartedly to mastering their craft. I could give you tons and tons of examples of these people.
And I know that in the moment, it wasn't necessarily viewed as kindness, but maybe in some sense, the kind of thing that all of us can do is to pursue something radically that in some ways in service to others because you just don't know how it's going to change the trajectory of human life. And so for all of those medical practitioners, none of whom I'm sure are listening to this, I owe everything to you because they gave me the gift of being
This reminds me of Steve Jobs' building wonderful products as a deep appreciation for the rest of our human species.