If you want to know someone’s mind, listen to their words. If you want to know their heart, watch their actions.

If you want to know someone’s mind, listen to their words.  If you want to know their heart, watch their actions.

Do as I say, not as I do.  It does not get any more clear than this. 

People are adept at expressing sentiments that move a populace but are as far from the truth as could be possible. We witness this on the world stage with propaganda, such as what is being fed to the Russian population for the reason for Russian troops to be committing genocide in Ukraine.

We also witness this on each progressively smaller scale, until it boils down to the individual. There are countless examples in every one of our lives where we have absorbed the words of another, only to experience actions that they demonstrate in which the words themselves were lip service. 

Words are the commerce of ideas. They are leveraged in myriad ways, each with specific intent to bestow information of all different types. The art of communication takes all of these into consideration and any skilled wordsmith can string together a few thoughts that are quite persuasive to the intended audience. 

People like to sell others visions of what they are pining for. A talented sociopath (I have met several in my lifetime) is incredibly adept at selling others their dreams. People live on hope. Hope is based on dreams. A sociopath sees that and leverages that to manipulate us to believe that they have the solution to make the dream come true.

Whereas a person of merit finds the value in walking the walk after talking the talk. A person of merit will go far above and beyond what they profess, in the attempt to do right by whatever they say or promise in the discussion. 

When you listen to the repertoire of anyone of consequence, either personally, professionally or publicly, it is good form to listen attentively, and then reserve your enthusiasm and your judgment until such time as that party has had ample opportunity to demonstrate whether their heart is truly in the same place as their mind. Without this second gateway of proof, we are only left with the opportunity to wonder if there is validity in their expressed information… and that can be a dangerous place to make core decisions that impact our lives or the lives of others.

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Written by Brian Weiner
When I was 5 years old, I discovered that the lemon tree in the backyard + dixie cups + water and sugar and I was in business. I have been hooked on that ever since. In 1979, I borrowed $14,000 to create a brand new product... photographic greeting cards with no text on the inside, called Paradise Photography. That was the start of The Illusion Factory. Since then, The Illusion Factory has been entrusted by all of the major studios and broadcasters with the advertising and marketing of over $7 billion in filmed, live, broadcast, gaming, AR, VR and regulated gaming forms of entertainment, generating more than $100 Billion in revenue and 265 awards for creativity and technology for our clients. When I took a break from film school at UCLA to move to Hawaii, my mother did not lecture me. Instead, she took 150 of her favorite aphorisms and in her beautiful calligraphy, wrote them artistically throughout a blank journal. That is the origin of the Lessons from the Mountain series. Since then, on my journeys to the top of a mountain to watch the sunrise, I have spent countless hours contemplating words of wisdom from the sages of all races, genders and political persuasions, constantly accumulating the thoughts to guide me on my life path. I hope you enjoy my books. Please let me know your thoughts, as I highly value your feedback!