A sincere compliment can give someone the strength to keep building.

Following His Example

The Rebbe taught us (Hayom Yom, 2 Cheshvan) that we need to “live with the times”—to live with the weekly Torah portion.

In this week’s portion, Bereishit, we read about the creation of the first human being. The Torah tells us (Genesis 1:27), “G-d created man in His image; in the image of G-d He created him.” One of the lessons of being created in G-d’s image is that we should try to follow His example.

As Maimonides writes (Hilchot De’ot 1:6), just as G-d is gracious, we should be gracious, and just as He is compassionate, we should be compassionate. We have an obligation to develop these qualities and to resemble Him as much as we can.

So as we begin the Book of Genesis, what is the first thing we learn from G-d? To create a world. If G-d creates, then we, too, have a responsibility to create. Even with all the problems and difficulties we face, we have to keep building and moving forward.

And how did G-d create the world? Through speech. He said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. As we read in Psalms (33:9), “He spoke, and it came into being.” And uniquely, G-d gave human beings that gift of speech—the ability to put our thoughts into words and to create a better world.

This is one of the things that makes human beings different from the rest of creation. Animals live within the conditions of the world around them and try to survive. Human beings have been given the ability to change those conditions. We can look for ways to cure diseases and make the world a better place. To create means to bring something new into the world: a new invention, a new project, a new idea. 

But how does a person actually get there?

From Dream to Reality

A young man once approached Steve Jobs, the cofounder of Apple, and asked him how he could become an innovator—someone whose ideas could change the world. Jobs told him to get a job as a waiter in a restaurant. When he came up with an idea that really excited him, something he felt passionate about, he should come back.

In other words, the first thing a person needs is a vision. You have to be able to dream of a better world. 

But having a dream is only the beginning.

I once heard from a business consultant what happens when people come to him with ideas for new ventures. His job is to examine each idea and decide whether it is practical and has a chance of succeeding.

One idea he would hear, over and over is, “I want to start a newspaper.” People want a place to express their opinions, so everyone will know what they think about the world’s problems. Even with major newspapers struggling to stay afloat, people still came to him with this idea.

And it isn’t only individuals. Even large companies, with all their resources for researching the market and promoting a product, sometimes invest in something that turns out to have had very little chance of succeeding in the first place.

He calls this “cute baby syndrome.” Every mother is convinced that her baby is the cutest and most wonderful baby in the world. She takes pictures from every possible angle and sends them to everyone she knows. And of course, everyone who receives the pictures tells her that this is the cutest baby they have ever seen—even if they aren’t quite as convinced as she is.

The same thing can happen in a company. The owner falls in love with a product and is sure it will be a tremendous success. The people working for him don’t feel comfortable telling him what they really think. So he may pour millions of dollars into the idea, only to watch it fall flat.

A Word of Encouragement

In other words, there’s an important difference between our power of speech and God’s power of speech.

In the morning prayer Baruch She’amar, we praise G-d as the One “who speaks and acts.” He said, “Let there be light,” and immediately, “there was light.” But for human beings, the distance between saying and doing can be very long. Coming up with an idea is one thing. Turning that dream into reality is another matter entirely.

To succeed at that second stage, a person needs tremendous determination and the right tools. It is very easy to try, fail, and conclude that nothing can be changed. The first stage takes imagination; the second takes the strength to keep going, to work through the obstacles, and to stay with the idea until it becomes a reality.

But there is something even more important that we can learn from the creation story: what G-d does after He creates. Again and again, the Torah tells us, “G-d saw that it was good.”

At first glance, this is a little strange. G-d is perfect. Didn’t He know beforehand that what He created would be good? What does the Torah mean when it says that He “saw that it was good”?

Perhaps G-d is teaching us how to behave. We find a similar idea in Rashi’s explanation (Genesis 1:26) of G-d’s words, “Let us make man.” Rashi explains that the Torah is teaching us humility: even a great person should consult someone of lesser standing.

In the same way, perhaps the Torah is teaching us that when we see someone create something, we should give them a compliment. We should recognize the good in what they have done and say so, just as G-d said about His creation, “It is very good.”

For a person who is trying to create something, a compliment is like sunlight for a plant. It helps them grow and gives them the strength to keep going. And when we encourage someone else to create, that encouragement is itself an act of creation.

Not everyone can be an inventor. Only a few people come up with a new invention or develop a new medicine. Even among people with good ideas and big dreams, only a small number manage to turn those ideas into something real.

But giving someone a compliment—that is something every one of us can do.