🔥 Fireside Chat: Leon Logothetis aka "The Kindness Guy"
Kindness is a Choice
What an ADVENTURE! Back in June 2019, I had a soulful chat with Leon Logothetis at Amazon Seattle HQ for a Connect@Amazon Fireside Chat. Our conversation journeyed into his best-selling book Go Be Kind: 28 1/2 Adventures Guaranteed to Make You Happier and his show Kindness Diaries. Because our chat was recorded for internal viewing only, my takeaways and favorite quotes are below.
Meet Leon Logothetis.
Guest: Leon Logothetis (global adventurer, TV host, author, philanthropist, and motivational speaker). Before all this, Leon was living an uninspired and disconnected life as a broker in London. On the outside, it looked like he had it all. But inside, he was chronically depressed. He decided to do something radical about it – give it all up for a life on the road. He embarked on an adventure around the globe, fueled by the receiving and giving of kindness. On his journey, he found the essence of humanity and learned about the bonds that connect people worldwide. For over a decade, he has traveled to over 100 countries and to every continent. He’s documented his experiences through his books and TV shows.
Fun Fact: Get the hardcover book version - you will write notes, doodle, tear out pages to gift to strangers…this book will get you out of your comfort zone. Also, ask Leon about Winnie Love.
Lessons of Kindness.
Lesson #1: Kindness is a choice. We can be passengers or we can be captains.
“You can choose to be kind, or you can choose to not be kind…so choose kindness.”
“Once I found kindness, love, and hope, I wanted to give it away…because that is what my teacher did for me. I was bullied a lot from age 14-16 and she was kind to me, she made me feel like I mattered…kindness is a win-win.”
Lesson #2: Develop empathy and compassion. While not easy, empathy is where understanding begins.
“Kindness means making someone feel less alone.”
“The moment that a human being realizes their ego is the driving force of their life is the moment they become free - or, should I say, is the moment they get to choose whether or not they want to be free. The way to become aware is to get out into the world, to connect with others, to see things that maybe you wouldn’t see, to chip away at that marble that keeps that ego in place. Once you chip that away, you start coming from your heart and realize there are two ways to live, and then you get to choose…another way is to pick the greatest pain you have, and to fix it, and not to stop until you pick that pain, and fix it.”
Lesson #3: Sometimes you have to burn your ships so there is no going back. Create a forcing function where the only way is forward.
“The Conquistadors, when they arrived in the Americas, they burned their ships. Why? So there was no way except forward. Sometimes we have to burn our ships, and that’s what I did by going crazy with kindness. I burnt my ships, I cannot not be kind, and I love it.”
Lesson #4: You earn trust with people when you connect with them. Bypass the mind and go to the heart, identifying a common connection between you (e.g. what inspires you, what you love).
“In Western society, sometimes we wear a mask, and the mask says I’m fine, but we are not, sometimes I still wear that mask till this day…and in India, it’s all out, everything (good, bad), and that was a big lesson, a lesson of gratitude…if you want to change, to become wiser, to become kinder, to become humbler, to become better, go to India.”
Lesson #5: Being kind is hard, doing it alone is harder. Find a “Kindness Buddy,” someone who will be there for support, ideas, friendship, and laughter. However, the first step is what many people overlook, that you first have to deserve a “Kindness Buddy” - this reminded me of Charlie Munger’s advice, “How do you get a marvelous partner…you deserve a marvelous partner.”
“Most of us have lost touch with our inner child, and I do everything in my power to live like a kid…let’s have fun, I’ve always wanted to have a bath in hot chocolate, and I did. I let my kid out…as adult’s we’ve lost that, that’s why with this book I wanted an adult to read it and connect with their kid, their inner child.”
Lesson #6: If you do not have 10 minutes a day to be kind to someone (e.g. in-person, phone, email, text, social post), then you do not have control over your life. Make the choice and take control. One of my favorite adventures in the book is tearing out kindness cards and giving them to strangers to connect with. On our flight from Seattle to Dallas in June 2019, my wife and I gave a kindness card to one of the crew members (Sal) and we learned about his life in Palm Springs and his 13-year-old Pitbull (Pearl) who had recently passed away. We gave another card to a couple from Vashon Island, sparking a conversation about the Vashon Sheepdog Classic (dog herding event) and an open invitation to connect anytime when we visit. Go be kind.
“The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self changed my life, it’s a book that explains why we do what we do.”
“One of the most beautiful things that anyone can do is to take another person’s heart, and to hold it, to protect it, and to treat it with dignity, to treat it gently with kindness. What a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful thing.”
Go Be Kind.
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“Fly High, Burn Bright, Be Curious.”