TED Talk of the Week: A Volunteer Firefighter’s Life Lesson

Mark Bezos has dedicated his life to giving. In his professional capacity he works for New York City nonprofit the Robin Hood Foundation, which works to end poverty through vocational services, homeless shelters and soup kitchens. In his spare time, he is a volunteer firefighter.

In this sweet and humorous TED Talk of the Week, Bezos recounts the first time he volunteered on the scene. There was a burning house and inside a dog was in need of saving. To Bezos’ dismay, he arrived a bit later and another volunteer was assigned the task of saving the dog. Instead, the captain gave Besoz a different assignment – to go into the home and retrieve a pair of shoes for the homeowner waiting outside. At the time, Besoz saw this as incredibly insignificant; he wanted to be the hero returning a safe dog from a burning building into its owner’s arms, instead of merely handing her a pair of shoes.

Afterwards, the fire department received a thank you letter from the homeowner who cited the greatest act of kindness above all was that someone had saved her shoes. Bezos relates this incident as his takeaway life lesson: All acts of kindness matter. We couldn’t agree more.