Yep… Despite What You’ve Heard, There’s Still Good in this World

If you’ll humor me, this week I’d like to step aside from my regular marketing posts. It’s a post I’ve felt “a tug” to write for several months now, but just never seemed to make it happen. I believe it’s an important post – much more important than marketing.

I’m an optimist by nature. And while it may be an over-simplistic view, I think life is exactly what you make of it – positive or negative. I’m the guy who looks for the silver lining in every cloud. Sure, we all have our challenges in life, but so much of success and happiness (I believe) comes from the way we choose to react to these challenges.

Despite all this, I’ll admit that some days I’ve found it hard to stay positive considering the chaos and evil that seems to surround us – take your pick… mass shootings, the childish political noise, racial divides, sexual assault allegations, massive data breaches, North Korea. Unfortunately, these events act as the primary fuel source for the media’s daily narrative.

To what extent these events are being sensationalized by the media is a topic for another day. But one thing is for sure… the daily narrative is heavily skewed toward the negative. I get it. Bad things happen. They are real. They are disturbing.

But WE DO HAVE A CHOICE. We can become consumed by the daily narrative and let it negatively mold our views of this world, or we take the path less traveled.

That path starts by appreciating that there is much more good in the world than bad. Sure, the “good” isn’t always sexy. It’s not the lead story. It doesn’t help the news networks sell more Viagra. But the “good” is more representative of us as a nation than the daily narrative will ever be!

So today, I wanted to take the crazy bold move and point out some GOOD! It’s happening every day all around us…

A Caring Cashier

Let’s start with this recent Facebook post by Spring Herbison Bowlin from November 9^th, 2017

Spring Herbison Bowlin stopped by Walmart a few days ago and was in the checkout line when an elderly gentleman in front of her pulled out handfuls of change from his pockets (actual picture below).

“This gentleman’s items were scanned and he was given the total,” Bowlin said. “He looks apologetically back at me and starts taking handfuls of change out of his pockets. He miscounts and starts to get flustered.”

He looked back at Bowlin again and muttered, “I’m so sorry.”

“His hands and voice are shaking. This beautiful cashier takes his hands and dumps all the change on the counter and says, ‘This is not a problem, honey. We will do this together,’ ” Bowlin recalls.

The cashier finally finished his transaction and the man shuffled away.

“I looked at this wonderful woman and said, ‘Thank you for being so patient with him.’

“She shakes her head and replies, ‘You shouldn’t have to thank me, baby. What’s wrong with our world is we’ve forgotten how to love one another.”

A Touchdown Worthy of the Highlight Reel

How about this one from just a few weeks back…

Atlee High School senior Sepp Shirey is a dedicated member of the school’s football team. Cerebral palsy limits his ability to walk, and Sepp often uses crutches to help.

But Friday night, coach Matt Gray put Sepp in the game.

Gray alerted the referees that Sepp was taking the field, and they relayed it to the opposing team’s coach Stu Brown.

Sepp received the hand-off and players on both teams cheered him on as he ran, with a ball in his hands instead of crutches, 80 yards down the field.

You can check out the video below:

Entrepreneurs Doing What They Do!

I want to wrap up by acknowledging one of the biggest sources of GOOD in my life.

Something I feel positive about every day is the opportunity to work with small business entrepreneurs.

We don’t often see them featured in the news, but these folks are doing good every day – starting and running successful businesses, providing quality products and services, creating jobs, supporting their families, and supporting many worthy causes.

As a group, these are optimists. They are folks who (despite the daily narrative) formulate innovative ideas and set lofty goals… and then they work hard every day to achieve them.

They are doing GOOD in this world!

At a minimum, I hope this post creates a positive distraction from the negative noise… if only for a moment. At a higher level, I hope it has challenged you look for the good this holiday season and beyond!

Be Well,

Jim