The Power of Smiling

Welcome to the Soul of Innovation podcast. That's funny. I am your host, Thomas Anglero. Whenever I say that word soul, it always gets to me. You know, I am in the middle of reading Dale Carnegie's book, How to Make Friends and Influence People. I'm going to tell you, I've had this book for many years and I've stared at that title and every single time I go, I'm not going to touch this book. What a horrible title. Sounds so superficial. And yet I think that book is probably the best gift anybody could give to anybody if you really love them, care for them, or if you have any kids or know of anybody in their 20s and are trying to figure out life, that's the book for them. Ignore the title. I literally read a page and could reflect on the page for 2 to 3 days. That's how much amazing information's in there. And maybe it's taken half of my life for me to get to the point where I even understand what he's saying, the implications of what he is suggesting. And I just wanted to share one thing that is so simple, so profound, and that is the power of the smile. Your smile. He— well, let's just be honest. How do you feel when somebody smiles at you? Most of us feel pretty good. I think you feel pretty good. How do you feel when someone smiles at you that you know? Always very good. It's a reassuring feeling of connection, of happiness, of everything's going to be fine, right? I'm not a saber-toothed tiger going to eat you alive. Type of thing. How do you feel when someone smiles at you who you don't know? You're walking down the street and somebody smiles at you. Now, this is interesting because some people think of someone smiled at you, say if someone of the opposite sex or maybe same sex, you think, oh, this person's trying to come on to me. Oh, this person's a pervert. Oh, oh, oh, oh, all this crap. The question you gotta ask yourself, if you think these things, why did you just do that to yourself? Why did you just destroy your moment, or the moment the person was giving you, which was nothing but pure love, just saying hi? And instead you turned it into this whole thing, oh, this person wants something, oh, this person thinks, oh, this person— it just was a Smile of love. Something that you want all the time from everybody, but you flipped it around. Or maybe you think the person had an agenda. Why? Now let's ask you another question. How often do you smile first? Interesting question. When you see someone, do you smile first? Or do you wait for the other person to smile first? Has it become one of these, you know, Wild West stories where two people facing off with their hands on their guns, who shoots first? Do you shoot first with your smile? The smile is the beginning, the middle, and the end of all conversations. You begin a conversation with a smile. In the middle of a conversation, when a moment gets tense or you want to, you want to emphasize something, you usually smile. And at the end of a conversation, you smile. See, the smile is the way we communicate, is the way we break down walls. Is the way we come closer. And the saddest thing of it all is that, one, we don't smile enough. And I'm not saying the patented smile that some people— I knew, I knew a guy who would, in high school, he would literally spend hours and hours and hours just writing his name, practicing his name, and then he sometimes would practice his smile. It was all sort of like preparing to have a nice facade for society. I'm not talking about the smile that is a facade. I'm talking about a real smile. And one of the sad things is now they're asking everyone to wear a mask because of all these pandemics and all these things and viruses. But you can't see somebody's face with a smile. But you know what? The other day I tested it. I was someplace where I had to wear a mask, and I would smile at people and they smile back. So you can still see the eyes turning. You still see the side of your face moving, the ears turn up a little bit and push back. So smile even though you got a mask. Smile because when you smile, you're giving off energy and everyone feels it. So my point is, is that less smile a hell of a lot more. You smile so much more. A simple smile can make a world of difference in your day to the people that you give it to, and also when you receive it. Something simple, but I thought really important in that with all the things going on, we cannot forget, and you cannot forget to smile. So smile. I tell you, this is a weird one, but you really break it down. Smiling is everything. Start smiling now. Don't you feel different? Doesn't it feel wonderful? It's like, why don't I feel like this the whole day? Smiling. So powerful, powerful superpower we have that we don't use often enough. So now it's your job. If you choose to accept it, to smile more often. Go forth and spread beauty and light and your smile. Until the next time.