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One of my favorite inspirational stories is of a young African boy who crossed over 3,000 kilometers of hostile jungle territory on foot because he had a vision and determination.

Legson Didimu Kayira was born in the 1940s to a life of total poverty in the Tumbuka tribe, Malawi, but he dreamed of studying in the United States. When he was 16, he decided to make his way on foot to Egypt and find work on a ship sailing to the U.S. He left home with only a small ax, a blanket, a map of Africa, a map of the world, and two books—a Bible and a copy of The Pilgrim’s Progress.

Fifteen months later, Legson arrived in Kampala, Uganda, where he came across a directory of American colleges. He wrote to Skagit Valley College in Mount Vernon explaining his situation and asking for a scholarship. The dean was so impressed he granted him both admission and a scholarship, while the student body collected $650 to cover his fare. In December 1960, Legson finally arrived at Skagit Valley College, still carrying nothing but what he’d left home with two years before.

Later, Legson became a professor at Cambridge University and authored six novels and the prize-winning autobiography, I Will Try.

Here’s another: In 1938, Soichiro Honda began developing a new piston ring, which he dreamed of selling to the Toyota Corporation, but it was rejected.

He went back to the drawing table, and two years later he had a new piston ring. This time, he won the contract with Toyota, but he had no factory, and concrete was rationed due to WW2. Undaunted, Mr. Honda invented a new formula for making concrete and got his factory built. Unfortunately, it was bombed—twice—and finally leveled by an earthquake.

After the war, Japan suffered a gasoline shortage. Mr. Honda couldn’t afford to drive his car, so he attached a small engine to his bicycle. His neighbors were soon asking him to make “motorized bikes” for them too and encouraging him to build a plant to manufacture his engines.

Because he had no capital, he wrote all 18,000 bike shop owners in Japan a personal letter, explaining his vision and asking for financial contributions. Five thousand of them agreed to advance him capital for his invention … and the rest, as they say, is history.

What these men, and others like them, have in common is that they refused to let the limitations of their circumstances limit their dreams.

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. – Maya Angelou.

The greatest gift that we can give one another is rapt attention to one he another’s existence. – Sue Achley Ebaugh.

When we leave, people are left either …
- energized or depleted
– encouraged or discouraged
– inspired to tackle the next challenge or wanting to quit
How do you leave people?
– Michael Hyatt 1.

Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind. – Henry James.

It is often the small kindnesses—the smiles, gestures, compliments, favors—that make our day and can even change our lives. – Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval 2.

Kind words do not cost much. They never blister the tongue or lips. They make other people good-natured. They also produce their own image on men's souls, and a beautiful image it is. – Blaise Pascal.

Most of us don’t mean to be inconsiderate. We’re just so busy starring in our own movie that we forget that everyone else is starring in theirs. That’s why it’s extremely important to see yourself as others do—as the supporting actor in their movie. So do an inventory of all the people in your life, and ask yourself what kind of character you’d play in their movie. Are you the loving, doting grown daughter or the distracted, absentee one? The sweet, supportive boyfriend or the needy, selfish one? The office troubleshooter or the drama queen? For each relationship, write down five ways that you can make your “character” more sympathetic. – Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval 3.

The purpose of life is not to win. The purpose of life is to grow and to share. When you come to look back on all that you have done in life, you will get more satisfaction from the pleasure you have brought to other people’s lives than you will from the times that you outdid and defeated them. – Rabbi Harold Kushner.

1 Michael Hyatt
2 The Power of Nice (New York: Doubleday, 2006)
3 The Power of Nice (New York: Doubleday, 2006)

You don’t pay love back; you pay it forward. – Lily Hardy Hammond.

It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself. – Ralph Waldo Emerson.

No kind action ever stops with itself. One kind action leads to another. Good example is followed. A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves. – Amelia Earhart.

You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have truly lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love. – Henry Drummond.

There is no wrong way to perform an act of kindness. – Catherine Ryan Hyde.

If we make our goal to live a life of compassion and unconditional love, then the world will indeed become a garden where all kinds of flowers can bloom and grow. - Elisabeth Kübler-Ross.

Good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble. - Charles Spurgeon.

Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees all day. - H. Jackson Brown.

Remember, there's no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end. - Scott Adams.

We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers. - Seneca

Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves. - James M. Barrie.

One kind word can warm three winter months. - Japanese proverb.

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are endless. - Mother Teresa.

Human beings who leave behind them no great achievements, but only a sequence of small kindnesses, have not had wasted lives. - Charlotte Gray.

He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God. - Proverbs 14:31.

When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. - Deuteronomy 24:19.

Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed - Proverbs 19:17.

“Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?” The King will reply, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” — Jesus, Matthew 25:34–40.