Morning Friend,

I read some lines this morning that really struck me. They sparked a train of thought that, I believe, can help us all to build better businesses, and a better world, with more happiness, freedom and joy.

You don't have to believe any certain way about where these lines come from, in order to get value from them Friend.

A friend of mine, Dean, has a line that I love... "Take what you like, and leave the rest."

I think that's a wise way to walk through life.

Anyway, here goes...

"And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.”

Two seemingly necessary, ancient words, “evil” and “wickedness” (despite the difficulty they present to the modern, tolerant, forgiving, optimistic, love filled mind),

…and regardless of the countless ways they may have been mis-used and abused over time,

…are used to imply a sense of moral wrongness to a thought or action. Something harmful or destructive, causing physical, emotional or spiritual harm to oneself or others.

1 simple, positive opposite word for these 2 negative states of mind and being, though not commonly used as such, is “goodwill.”

Goodwill can be described as good intentions of upliftment, benefit, blessing, love, service, honesty, gratitude, peace, joy, abundance, freedom, etc. wished for all.

All positive opposites of intentions of bad-will.

Bad-will intends to win at all costs or at whatever the cost.

Bad-will acts for self and self alone, and is ok for self to win even if others must be harmed along the way.

Bad-will can wear a costume, posing as goodwill and is often hard to detect.

These multi-thousand year old ideas live with us and in us today. They surround us as principles for good living, despite whatever levels of conscious awareness or agreement we have with them.

They appear in modern business and law via terms such as “good faith” and “bad faith.”

Good faith generally refers to an honest and sincere intention to act fairly and honestly with genuine belief in one’s words and actions as truthful and good for self and others, filled with integrity and absent intentions of deceit, or making others lose on one’s way to a win.

Words like trustworthy, honorable and reliable act as pillars under the house of good faith.

Bad faith, on the other hand, has cracks in the foundations of honesty and sincerity, and either doesn’t care or care enough to think things through as to who may be hurt, when the house on the cracked foundation falls to the ground.

Misrepresenting the truth, hiding important parts of the picture, false promises, deception, and unfairness help to spread more cracks under the house of bad faith.

“What if I act out of harmony with the person I’ve led others to believe was me?”

Bad faith doesn’t care.

“What if my actions cause harm to others intentionally or unintentionally?”

Bad faith is too busy building its own sad house to take the time to ask a silly question like that.

All spiritual beliefs aside, isn’t it easy to see how “grieved in the heart” we all might be, surrounded by people acting in “bad faith,”?

And on the flip side, imagine being surrounded by people who always consciously speak and act with the intention to lift and benefit.

Intentions of goodwill for all, and harm to none…

Maybe it is that over the last 3,700 years since the memorializing of these seed ideas into the soil of time and societal consciousness, humanity has indeed come a long way.

And in other ways, maybe our souls are still trying to play catch up with the wisdom of our ancient ancestors.

All the best,

Paul