# Be the Difference You Want to See in the World

*Published:* 2026-08-17
*Author:* Elizabeth Edwards

A few weeks ago, I was standing inside a restaurant by the front door, waiting to be seated with my daughter and extended family in front of me. A man who looked like he might be homeless rode up on a bike, stopped, walked in, and came up quietly behind me. Before I even knew he was there, he put his hand on my shoulder and whispered, “Be the difference you want to see in the world.” I said the only thing that came out, “Exactly,” loud enough that my family heard it too, and for a second nobody quite knew what to do with what had just happened. As I responded, he was gone, back out the door, back on the bike, back into the evening.

I will be honest that my first reaction was not gratitude, it was confusion. A stranger you don’t see coming putting a hand on you is the kind of moment that could have gone a very different direction, and I don’t think you get to skip past that part of the story just because it turned out fine. But it did turn out fine, and what was left once the surprise wore off was a sentence that has been sitting with me ever since, delivered by someone who had every reason to be asking me for something and instead handed me something of value.

The professional world runs on the assumption that change comes from the top, from the policy, from the person with the title and the budget. In practice, the culture of an office, a firm, or a courtroom hallway gets built one interaction at a time, by whoever decides to hold the door, give the credit, or tell the hard truth kindly instead of avoiding it. Nobody is waiting for permission to do that, and nobody needs a title to start. You do not need to run the company to be the reason a colleague has a better day than they expected to.

The same is true away from the office, waiting for a table with people who matter to you, which is exactly where I was when I heard it. I have no idea why that man stopped instead of riding past the restaurant. But he stopped, walked in, and said what he said. That is the whole lesson, and it doesn’t require a bike, a whisper, or a chance encounter to apply it. It requires deciding, in whatever room you happen to be standing in, that you are the one who is going to make it a little better, a little kinder, or a little more honest than you found it. Nobody is going to assign you that job. You must take it.

As always, this post and others can be found on my blog, [Business Law Guy](http://businesslawguy.com/).