The capacity to create the world from our own resources

September 17, 2016 2:23 PM

Giving somebody what we think is
good for them is the anti gift.

It’s not generous, it’s just a performance. A
gesture that has nothing to do with them. A projection of our own autobiography
onto their unique situation.

And even if it comes from a place of our genuine
desire to help, what we end up communicating is that we want to change people.
Which comes from our desire to control them. To clone them in our own image.

I
once gave my girlfriend an elliptical machine for her birthday. Which even asked for.

Huge mistake. I
can’t even believe how insensitive of a gesture that was. Never buy a woman
exercise equipment.

But that’s who I was at the time. A chronic fixer. I had no
idea that we don’t get to set other people’s goals and we can’t take people
where they don’t want to go.

Because what we want for their best isn’t
necessarily what they want.

The same thing goes for advice. Did you ever notice
that it only works for the people who give it? It’s best received when asked
for. Any moment before that and it’s useless.

The point is, each human being
rests at the nexus of a vast number of interwoven causes and conditions that influence
their behavior. And it’s not our job to support their escape from their own
freedom.

The gift is when we give them the capacity to create the world from
their own resources.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

What happened to the last person you tried to fix?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com