Thinking About Others Is An Art. It Can Be Learned.

Consider this story from Inc. Remember, a business should serve people.

People are important, not our busyness.

By Chris Matyszczyk Owner, Howard Raucous LLC @ChrisMatyszczyk

Absurdly Driven looks at the world of business with a skeptical eye and a firmly rooted tongue in cheek.

A Man Found An Acorn On A Shopping Mall Floor.

What Followed Was An Extraordinary Act Of Thoughtfulness

(With An Even More Extraordinary Result)

Most people would have thought nothing of it.Some might have picked it up and thrown it in the trash.

Some might have picked it up and taken it home. Thankfully, not everyone thinks the same way and not everyone reacts in ways that make their own life easiest.

Take a man who was walking through a Japanese shopping mall. We don't know his name. But we do know his Twitter handle is BYRD. As he strolled, he suddenly looked down and saw an acorn on the floor. BYRD ignored all the choices most people would have taken. Instead, his first thought was that a child may have dropped it.

So he did what few would have done. He took it to the Lost And Found.

Charming, you might think. Blissfully thoughtful, too.

Surely, though, the person at the Lost and Found would smile wistfully, take the acorn and mentally file it under "Yeah, alright. Whatever." Instead, when BYRD got to the Lost And Found, he found two people looking lost. It was a mother and daughter who were actually looking for that very acorn.

The most moving part of the story is surely BYRD's initial thought process. His instinct was not to just go on his way, but to consider the background to the fallen acorn. And, indeed, to consider that this acorn might have been important to someone else.

Kiyo Yamauchi, who posted the translated tale to Twitter, says the mom tracked BYRD down on Twitter and told him her daughter can't stop thinking about him and wants to marry him one day. Which, again, is charming. The tweet also incited others to post their stories of remarkable thoughtfulness and kindness.

Still, think of all the times we go through our lives too busy -- or merely too self-involved -- to consider anyone else. We have things to do. We have things to achieve. It's all about us. The mere act of stopping, thinking and acting thoughtfully about others is a lost art, especially in our fractious times.

But, as BYRD showed, it can be found.

And when you find it, you never know what might happen.