When do we stop? Where does it end?

I started my morning off on LinkedIn as I do many Saturdays. I am excited to see ideas, successes, and shout outs to others who are doing well. I will go out on a limb and share more about my thoughts than I usually would. I have found that expressing yourself can be a bad idea in the current climate we are all in. The last statement's keywords being "ALL IN." The recent events in each of our countries affect us all. I being in the US, am caught like most in the political disagreements and hostility. I know many in other countries are going through trying times as well. I must now take a stand and ask when we stop the hate, where does it end? 

The first thing on my feed was someone praying for Joe Biden, asking God to bless him. Like many people, I believe LinkedIn is not a page for this, but respect others' right to post. I was going to comment that I also pray for him and hope for God’s blessing. As I opened the comments section to do so, I was stunned. The first relevant comment was this same person putting down people from the conservative side and them attacking him back. I won't go into the details; we have all seen both sides' arguments daily. I hope most of you, like me, are beginning to get sick of this. We can all be the change we want to see. That change starts with acceptance, love, and understanding that we don’t have to agree; we have to work together to achieve a collective vision. That healing can never take place through hate.

I run an organization that represents many people, cultures, beliefs, and ideas. I am proud of both the owners locally and the leaders at corporate. I also love and care about many of those people personally, and guess what? They are from different backgrounds, political parties, and religions (the big three separators). I respect them, and they respect me; we all work towards common goals. Naturally, I struggle to watch people choose to take such hard stances on a platform I enjoy and get great value. So I challenge you to stop; let's agree that this is not who we are or what we will accept.

The biggest lessons I have learned on my journey to becoming a leader are dealing with people and competing ideas. I had to choose to listen to competing thoughts, weigh their merit, and concede when they were better. I also learned that when a company, team, or even a country has a vision, it must be a shared vision. As a leader, countryman, team member, I have had to yield to others' ideas and desires to form a concept that everyone could support. You want to know what? Every time I did, it was a much better outcome than I envisioned.

Let’s all start working together to make each of us better, rejecting negativity and quarreling. Understand that we all have different beliefs and perspectives; that is what makes the world so great. If you need help, I will help you in all the ways I can. If you are accepting of me, I will be accepting of you. I have no predisposed rule that earns you those things. I lift others because I can, not because they agree with me. I respect others because they respect me. If we would all do that, this world would look much different. I am going to start; where does it end? It ends with me.

Try it; I dare you!