They ask that we pray for their families, and for kinder leaders, and for the homeless, and people with AIDS, and people in other countries in crises of starvation or war.

When your organization becomes more human, more remarkable, faster on its feet, and more likely to connect directly with customers, it becomes indispensable. The very thing that made your employee a linchpin makes YOU a linchpin.

Marketing is the generous act of helping someone solve a problem. Their problem.

It's not an effort contest, it's an art contest. As customers, we care about ourselves, about how we feel, about whether a product or service or play or interaction changed us for the better. Where it's made or how it's made or how difficult it was to make is sort of irrelevant. That's why emotional labor is so much more valuable than physical labor. Emotional labor changes the recipient, and we care about that. Soft

The way we make things better is by caring enough about those we serve to imagine the story that they need to hear.

Empathy is at the heart of marketing People don't believe what you believe. They don't know what you know. They don't want what you want. It's true, but we'd rather not accept this. Sonder is defined as that moment when you realize that everyone around you has an internal life as rich and as conflicted as yours. Everyone has noise in their heads.

Ask?da ekmek: there is bread on the hook. It's an ancient tradition in Turkey. When buying a loaf at the local bakery, you can choose to pay for an extra loaf and, after bagging your purchase, the owner will hang the second loaf on a hook on the wall. If a person in need comes by, he or she can ask if there's anything on the hook. If so, the bread is shared, and the hunger is relieved.

Marketing is the generous act of helping others become who they seek to become. It involves creating honest stories—stories that resonate and spread. Marketers offer solutions, opportunities for humans to solve their problems and move forward.

Humans are lonely, and they want to be seen and known.

We have unlimited reasons to hide our work and only one reason to share it: to be of service.

Everyone has a problem, a desire, and a narrative. Who will you seek to serve?

The difference between backing off and doing nothing may appear subtle, but it's not. A leader who backs off is making a commitment to the power of the tribe, and is alert to the right moment to step back in. Someone who is doing nothing is merely hiding. Leadership is a choice. It's the choice to not do nothing. Lean in, back off, but don't do nothing.