Jan 10, 2018

A New Year and What That Means

This week marked 15 years since my dad’s passing. This anniversary coupled with the start of a new year had me in a very reflective mood. I’m sharing the note that I sent to the KIND Team last night.

KIND Team,

I came back from the winter break refreshed and energized. I tried my best over the last two days to personally share with every one of you my wishes for a great new year. To all of you that I didn’t get to shake your hand, I send you all my warmth through this note.

Yesterday was an unusual day for me. It marked the 15th anniversary of my dad’s passing. As most of you know, KIND and the mission of fostering kindness and building bridges among human beings was inspired by the example my parents inculcated in me, but in particular by my commitment to prevent what happened to my father – going through the Holocaust and being sent to a concentration camp as a young kid – from happening again to others.

While I miss my Dad tremendously and wish he could have seen all that we’ve been able to accomplish in his honor, I feel at peace and energized and positive about doing my best to follow his example.

To all of you, amidst all the challenges that humanity faces daily – from climate change to nuclear proliferation, from food scarcity that causes some to starve to consumption excesses that perturb all our senses and kills so many with inflammation, diabetes and obesity epidemics, from the resurgence of totalitarianism to the fear to speak one’s mind, from divisions abroad to divisions within – I share my hope that, together, we can continue making a positive difference. I hope that in 2018 we can increase our impact, both through the small actions every one of us can take, to the collective power the KIND family can deploy to make this a better world.

Whether we use our Hungry & KIND values to make our healthy and tasty snacks available to more people across the globe, whether we stretch ourselves to enter new categories with the KIND Promise, or whether we creatively find ways to expand our market share while extending our social impact, let us seize every moment of every day to be the best that we can be.

And as we value each other as the KIND Family, make sure to also prioritize and appreciate your own families – take nobody for granted, enjoy your loved ones, share how you feel, and soak them up every day. We all have a commitment to each other to work hard, but we have an even more important contract to ensure balance in our lives and with our loved ones.

With best wishes for 2018,

DL

 

LinkedIn Article Published January 10, 2018

Empathy          KIND

More from Daniel

End of Year Note 2023

Dear Friends,

As we approach the close of this tumultuous year, I am reflecting on the challenges we’ve experienced in pursuit of our mission to foster kindness in the US and across the world. 

It has been a difficult journey marked by the rise of extremism, lack of civility, and various forms of racism – including a dramatic rise in antisemitic attacks and reports of anti-Muslim hate – that have tested the fabric of our humanity.

In times like these, we face a choice: to be Builders, united in our efforts to construct a better world, bring light, and reach out to the “other” — or to be Destroyers that aim to divide and diminish.

While social media amplifies voices of hate and extremism, we cannot allow ourselves to be consumed by anger or to become more radical ourselves. When we do, we unwittingly contribute to greater division.

To build, we must commit to develop the skills to bridge differences and solve problems across lines of difference (for concrete tips on how to do so, read this letter and listen to this Axios podcast with Lonnie Ali, co-founder of the Muhammad Ali Center, sharing concrete tips on how to do so). We must cultivate the habits of curiosity, compassion, and courage to embrace authentic pluralism.

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Terrorist Attacks by Hamas- Builders vs. Destroyers

As someone who has dedicated my life to build bridges between people, most centrally among Israelis and Palestinians committed to resolve their conflict and build a better future for their children (ie., OneVoice & PeaceWorks Inc), I hope everyone will unanimously and vocally condemn the appalling terrorist attacks by Hamas. Hamas proudly targeted women and children as hostages. Ukrainian President Zelenskyysaid it best: terror like that perpetrated by Hamas must be eradicated or else violent extremism metastasizes and harms us all.

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You can’t make big ESG commitments while failing at the basics of kindness

Ultimately, what we achieve as corporate leaders, even in the form of social impact, must work hand in hand with how we go about achieving it. How we act along our journeys is at least as important as–if not more so than–the destination. For example, if we are donating a portion of profits to at-need communities, but not being open-minded, respectful, and honest in how we lead in the workplace, we risk undermining our larger goals by contributing to a disrespectful, intolerant, or unethical culture. In fact, a company with no stated social mission that is modeling positive values like integrity and respect may be doing more good for our world than one with a big ESG commitment failing at the basics of kindness.

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