Nobody asks who they are to help

Most of us carry a long list of reasons not to step forward.

Who am I to give my opinion when older people are present? Who am I to start selling the thing I make, when others make it better? Who am I to send the message, ask the question, put my name on the work? It is not ready. Someone else would do it better. Better to wait.

Then something happens in a metro carriage in Cairo. An old man sways, his knees go, and he starts to fold toward the floor. The shy student who has never once raised her hand in class is the one catching his elbow and asking people to make room. Nobody asks whether she has trained in first aid, and she does not stop to wonder whether someone more qualified is nearby. She is not the best person to help. She is the person who is there.

Her doubts did not disappear because she suddenly felt confident. They disappeared because the moment was not about her at all.

That is the useful thing to hold on to. The product we have not launched, the idea we have not voiced, the hand we have not raised, almost always has someone on the other end who needs it. Seen from their side, the question of whether we are good enough matters far less than whether we turn up.

When it is for them, the door opens. Generosity is the key that opens it.