Leading Thoughts for August 7, 2025

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with:

Hermann Hesse on things we all can do:

“To hold our tongues when everyone is gossiping, to smile without hostility at people and institutions, to compensate for the shortage of love in the world with more love in small, private matters; to be more faithful in our work, to show greater patience, to forgo the cheap revenge obtainable from mockery and criticism: all these are things we can do.”

Source: If the War Goes on: Reflections on War and Politics

Henry Ford on the importance of giving value before you ask for value:

“I quit my job on August 15, 1899, and went into the automobile business. ... The most surprising feature of business as it was conducted was the large attention given to finance and the small attention to service. That seemed to me to be reversing the natural process which is that the money should come as the result of work and not before the work. My idea was then and still is that if a man did his work well, the price he would get for that work—the profits and all financial matters—would care for themselves and that a business ought to start small and build itself up and out of its earnings.”

Source: My Life and Work

Look for these ideas every Thursday on the Leading Blog. Find more ideas on the LeadingThoughts index.

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