Episode 165: The Ripple Effect of Your Voice

Welcome to the Soul of Innovation podcast. I am Thomas Anglero. I want to ask you a question. Have you ever reflected before you did something on the ramifications, on the cost to the individual that you are making a decision on, voted for? Let me put it all in context. Today we're beating the drums of war. Everyone in the world— it was October 2022. We have Ukraine fighting with Russia, the United States fighting with Russia, China, North Korea, everyone. And it's so easy for people to say Yes, let's go to war. We'll beat them. We'll kick their butt. That, that, that, all this. But do you, if you are one of these people, do you understand what is the ramifications of saying that, of doing that? Just saying that, on deciding that. Let me flip it around. Have you ever been in a physical fistfight? And got punched in the face? If you have, you then realize what it feels to have somebody's knuckles hit your face. Feel your teeth move. All of a sudden begin to black out a bit. And after you get punched, you have no taste in your mouth. I know this because I'm experiencing it right now, because it's happened so many times. I had so many fist fights in my life. And because of that, because I've been punched in my face, I've been punched the right side of my face, left side of my face, into my nose and broken my nose, on my lips, swells, my lips swell up. Because I actually experience the ramifications of a decision of violence, or decision that changes someone's life. And in this example, being punched, someone decided to hit someone, which was hit me. But in counter, I've hit other people as well. I've punched people in the face, I've punched them in the right side, the left side, their nose, broke their nose, their lips, same thing. But because, because I understand what it feels like to be punched and how horrible the leftover results of being punched in the face is to a person, it is very difficult for me today to punch someone. Lord knows some people deserve it. And I know a lot of you are probably going, well, that's not nice to say. C'est la vie. But the cost of doing something like that, the cost of the decisions we make change everything. There is a cost. Today, young people have access to powerful tools where they can voice their opinion. They can complain. And they feel empowered, entitled, but they don't have the experience of being punched in the face yet, if you know what I mean. They can file a complaint, they could complain, they can get on social media and say all these things, and it has a huge effect. Effect. It ripples through the internet world. It ends up on the morning news. It ends up in a newspaper. It ends up on the radio, ends up in podcasts, it ends up in talk shows. And it's this individual just screaming or expressing their opinion, but they don't know what the cost of what they've done. If they understood that what they've done is set off a ripple effect that changes things, that somebody may go hungry, a child may cry, They would hesitate. Do you hesitate before you say the things you say about people? Do you hesitate before you vote for something, or do you vote purely from anger or spite? I think we would have a completely— no, I take that back. I know we would have a completely different world, a world based on love and respect, that world that once was. And it wasn't that long ago. But here we are in 2022 and things are getting crazy. People after COVID, and maybe I shouldn't even blame COVID, let's just say just the lockdown. Have forgotten how important it is to be close to one another, to be open to one another, to love one another. I had a wonderful discussion this weekend with this young lady who I never met before. I met— actually, I met her on Teams. A friend of mine said, these two young ladies are completing their thesis, their master's thesis, and they'd like to talk to you about artificial intelligence and innovation. And so I met her on that. A year has gone by and I met her physically this weekend at a party. I didn't know she would be there. We had a wonderful talk. And in part of the talk, she was telling about how difficult it is today, how impossible it is today to meet people, to meet a boyfriend, to meet anyone, to get close. It was, it was difficult before the lockdown, but now she goes, it's impossible. People don't know how to open. People don't know how to be themselves. People have forgotten how to love and how to position themselves to be loved. But boy, do people know how to complain. Do people know how to push the buttons and have the ramifications and start the waves of change. We're in this place of a slippery slope today, and I think it's because people are frustrated that they don't have enough love. I've said the story before, but it's so shocking to me, and that is that This woman saw a man fall down, an older man fall down. She went over and said, "Do you need help to stand up?" She grabbed his hand, she put other hand on his shoulder and helped him up, and he immediately started to cry. She goes, "Don't cry. Are you okay? Did something— did you get hurt?" He goes, "No, no, no, I'm fine." He says, "You're the first person to physically touch me in over 2 years." That story, which I once thought was a special story, I think today is true of many people, not of just elderly people, but especially young people, maybe all of us, because we have broken, because we lost that link to one another. We are making decisions, doing things that are heading us down a path that we should not be going down. And all we have to do is just say, I miss being loved. I'm lonely. What do I have to do? Maybe I should take my guard down instead of bringing my guard up. Maybe I shouldn't take everything that everybody says so damn serious as if it's a threat to my life. Because if you've ever been in a situation where your life has been threatened, where somebody's taken a knife out on you or a gun on you, you realize that you do not ever use that force back at someone unless it is life-threatening. But yet so many people act every day with emotions as if somebody's putting a knife or gun to their head. Go forth and spread beauty and light. I say that in every one of my podcasts because I mean it. Go forth and spread beauty and light, not hate and deceit, not pissing your anger that you haven't been close to someone or you're emotionally upset or your wife yelled at you, your husband yelled at you, your job sucks, and taking out all this on all these people. The ripple effects of your voice changes people's lives for the worse. I'll say that again. The ripple effect of your voice, of your emotions, changes all our lives for the worse. So go forth. And spread beauty and light. I am Thomas Anglero, reflecting on how we can make a better life for all of us, for you, for me, for the day that we meet and we smile and we understand that that's all we had to do was to share a smile. To make our lives that much better. I love you. Until next time. Thank you for listening to that episode. If you want to contact me, you can contact me on my website at anglero.com, and you can also subscribe to the newsletter, or you can find me anywhere on social media with Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. Thank you so much, and I hope to hear from you very soon.