Thursday, March 07, 2013

"Wisdom without compassion is ruthlessness, compassion without wisdom is folly" - Fred Kofman

Wisdom without compassion is ruthlessness, compassion without wisdom is folly -- Fred Kofman

"After having worked at Yahoo for seven years and making the decision to leave, I started to think a lot about what I wanted to do next. I've long been interested in education reform, and specifically the democratization of knowledge, which was one of the primary dynamics that drew me to the consumer web, digital media and search specifically. Consistent with this passion, I drafted a personal vision statement: To expand the world's collective wisdom.

A few weeks after developing that vision, I found myself at dinner one night with my friend Fred Kofman, founder of Axialent, author of "Conscious Business", and one of the most enlightened people I've met throughout my career. After sharing my objective with him, he said, "That's very powerful, but bear in mind, wisdom without compassion is ruthlessness, and compassion without wisdom is folly." The line stopped me cold in my tracks. After some additional back and forth, I said I was amending my initial vision to read "To expand the world's collective wisdom and compassion" and that objective has influenced every aspect of my work ever since."

-Jeff Weiner
Linkedin CEO

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