When you give a gift the spirit with which…

When you give a gift the spirit with which you intend to give the gift is carried in the gift itself. For the good and for the bad. Sometimes a gift can exhibit thoughtlessness. And sometimes a play truck that's given on Hanukkah to a child expresses playfulness or a pen to a graduate expresses encouragement. When a gift lacks spirit it is not a gift but it is a transfer. A transfer is the movement of a lifeless object from one person to another, a figure from my accounting column to yours which is what happens in most business exchanges.

— from Leadership & Business (Leadership/Business) · Cycle of the gift by James Hughes

In the book

People came back. A gift carries the spirit in which it's given; without that spirit it is not a gift, only a transfer — a number moving from one column to another. Never underestimate, either, how much of human behavior is driven simply by being seen: sixty percent of Uber passengers never tip, because no one is watching. — Leadership & Business (Leadership/Business)

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