HumanKind: Changing the World


HumanKind is the heartwarming feel-good book that we all need right now.
Brad Aronson's life changed in an instant when his wife, Mia, was diagnosed with leukemia. After her diagnosis, Brad spent most of the next two and a half years either by her side as she received treatment or trying to shield their five-year-old son, Jack, from the worst of Mia's illness. Amid the stress and despair of waiting for the treatment to work, Brad and Mia were met by an outpouring of kindness from friends, family and even complete strangers. 

Inspired by the many demonstrations of "humankindness" that supported their family through Mia's recovery, Brad began writing about the people who rescued his family from that dark time, often with the smallest of gestures. But he didn't stop there. Knowing that simple acts of kindness transform lives across the globe every day, he sought out these stories and shares some of the best ones here.

In HumanKind, you'll meet the mentor who changed a child's life with a single lesson in shoe tying, the six-year-old who launched a global kindness movement, the band of seamstress grandmothers who mend clothes for homeless people, and many other heroes.
 
Brad also provides dozens of ways you can make a difference through the simplest words and deeds. You'll discover how buying someone a meal or sharing a little encouragement at the right time can change someone's world, as well as your own.
 
The resource section at the back of the book provides guidance and organizations that will help you channel and amplify your own acts of kindness. Here you'll discover:
  • How you can fund a surgery to cure someone's blindness with a donation of less than $200.
  • Organizations through which you can provide a birthday gift for a child who otherwise wouldn't receive one.
  • Multiple places where you can send letters of encouragement to support hospitalized kids, lonely seniors, refugees, veterans and others in need.
  • And over fifty more ways you can change a life.

HumanKind will leave you grateful for what you have and provide a refuge from the negativity that surrounds us. This feel-good book will touch your heart. You'll laugh, you'll cry and you'll be reminded of what really matters. 


My Review

In the current present that we are living in, this book is a needed welcome. Even more so during these scary times. As I was reading these stories, I was both happy and emotional. Some tears may have been left behind but they were happy tears of joy. 

This book features all kinds of stories. There is the one of people banding together to help purchase a service dog, or the story of one man who came from nothing to become something. He never forgot where he came from and became "secret santa". Before he died, he shared his story in the hopes that others would continue his legacy of "secret santa". Today, there are thousands of "secret santas" all over the world. 

There is the story of a little boy who required a brain surgery thus leaving the little boy to miss out on Halloween. HIs parents sent invites to family, friends, and neighbors to participate in an early Halloween. Every house on the block was lit up that night. 

It is stories like the above and more that will have readers believing in the good nature of human kind. For every bad story in the news, there are good ones as well. It can be easy to forget the good ones are the bad ones may get the spotlight. Yet, with the pandemic we are currently facing, we are reading tons of stories of kindness. One small act can make the difference.

Purchase a copy. All author royalties are going to Big Brothers Big Sisters.



I’m a husband and a dad, and when I’m holding the parenting reins, I like to go all out. For me that means leading an egg drop competition from the third-floor window of our family’s home or heading up indoor games of baseball and hockey, and then having to explain why something else is now in pieces. Luckily, my wife, Mia, is understanding.
Outside family busy-ness, I tend to focus on my other business of entrepreneurship, tech startup investing and mentoring. My entrepreneurial ventures began in junior high, when I shoveled snow, sold iced tea at baseball games and delivered sodas to camp bunkmates who didn’t want to get caught running to the soda machine in the middle of the night. In college, my roommate and I started a student guide business and by graduation we were employing some of our fellow students and publishing guides for about a dozen colleges & universities.
After college I started i-FRONTIER, which grew from the apartment I shared with my best friend into one of the largest and top rated digital ad agencies in the US. We got to do fun work for the likes of Universal Studios, Time Warner, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson. I sold my company to aQuantive, and joined their management team, serving as an officer in the publicly traded company. Microsoft wound up buying aQuantive, and I’ll always love them for that.
Today, I invest in startup companies and spend much of my time supporting youth nonprofits.
I serve as Board President of mentoring program Big Brothers Big Sisters Independence Region. I’m also Board President of Hopeworks ‘N Camden, a program that provides tech training, jobs, housing, coaching and support to help amazing young people in one of America’s poorest cities succeed in life.
I teach entrepreneurship as a way to instill self-confidence, discipline and hustle in young people. I believe in hands-on learning, so everyone in class starts their own business, which has led to many adventures in entrepreneurship.
Of course, I also love to write. My blog is about people and organizations that inspire me. So is my upcoming book, HumanKind.
Thanks for checking out my website!



In the stories in HumanKind, you’ll learn about:

  • The community that rallied behind a child in need of a therapy dog.
  • A man who vowed to repay an act of kindness by anonymously giving money to those in need, creating a movement of tens of thousands of people around the world.
  • Philadelphia Mayor W. Wilson Goode Sr., who created Philadelphia’s first homelessness program because of a single meal he had when he was twelve.
  • A McDonald’s lunch shared by a New York City advertising executive and a hungry teen that led to a lifelong friendship.
  • Cantor Fitzgerald, a company that was devastated by the tragedy of 9/11 and set an example by re-building the business to help others and inspire change, honoring the legacy of QUlost loved ones.
  • A retiree who turned her sewing hobby into a club of grandma seamstresses who trekked from the suburbs into the city to mend clothes for the homeless.
  • An Olympic gold medalist and Major League Baseball player who credits his success to a third-grade teacher’s shoe-tying lesson and now inspires thousands of young kids as a way to pay that teacher back. 
  • A monthly $15 donation from a stranger four thousand miles away that allowed a child to finish school and inspired that boy to create a nonprofit that has helped hundreds of families and their future children escape poverty.

    Quotes

“When we improve others’ lives, we raise the quality of life for the whole community.”

“Kindness begets kindness.”


“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses”
“Friendship isn’t a big thing. It’s a million little things.”
Excerpt
Ways you can give back and make a difference:


Do something small

We all have a good idea of who could use some support, but we’re often hesitant to do something. Maybe we don’t know what to do, we think the person doesn’t want the attention, we think we don’t know them well enough or we believe others have already reached out. Don’t worry about any of that. It’s appreciated when we let them know that we see them and we’re thinking about them. Beth Hackett, who lost her fifteen-year-old son, told Upworthy.com, “The most powerful communication of compassion and understanding was anonymous. Someone mailed us a gift card to the local grocery store: no name, no return address ... Weeks later when I pulled the gift card out of my wallet at the check-out, it was all I could do to hold back the tears.”

Learn to listen better
Everyone wants to be heard, but it’s rare that we’re fully heard. Here’s a way to truly listen: Wait three to ve seconds to see if someone is nished speaking before you respond. Waiting those few seconds is hard, but it will completely change how you listen and eliminate unintentional interruptions. It’s a gift you can give to anyone, and it literally costs only seconds. 

Send “You Matter” cards
Get your thirty free “You Matter” cards and give them out. And by the way, “free” is 100 percent free—no shipping or other charges. The cards are the size of a standard business card. Visit the You Matter Marathon website (youmattermarathon.com) to claim yours. 


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Let's Get Buck Naked!

Don't Say a Word: A Daughter's Two Cents

Aberrations