“The influence of a beautiful, kind soul can never be measured.”
— A.D. Williams
The Letter I Didn't Know I Needed
I was rummaging through my bookshelves the other day, the way you do when you're looking for something and find everything else instead. I pulled out an old book, The Faith Club, a gift from a colleague I received more than fifteen years ago. It's a book about three women- a Muslim, a Christian, and a Jew who began meeting after 9/11 to bridge the distance between their faiths and stories. It was already meaningful to me when I first received it, but what stopped me in my tracks wasn’t the book itself. It was the letter tucked inside.
The note was from Adam.
More Than Just a Colleague
Adam was a colleague during my early days as a store manager at Starbucks. But to just call him a “colleague” feels too small. He is a philosopher, a seeker, and a deeply spiritual person. He grew up Christian, his father was a pastor, but later discovered his Jewish heritage and embraced it. We connected on faith, family, politics, philosophy and everything in between, especially during a time when the world was learning to navigate difference with fear instead of curiosity.
In a post-9/11 world, we did something simple but radical: we talked. We talked about faith, about meaning, about identity. And we listened. There was something healing in that. Not loud, not dramatic, just two people exchanging truths over coffee and work.
A Gift and a Seed
When I eventually moved on from that job, Adam gave me The Faith Club as a parting gift. But it was the letter inside that left the mark. In it, he thanked me for our conversations. But he also wrote something that, at the time, felt so far from who I believed myself to be. He said he believed I’d become an author someday. That I had a voice worth sharing. That I had something to say.
I don’t know that I fully received those words at the time. But they nestled somewhere quietly inside me. And in the years since, others have echoed similar sentiments. Still, it was rereading Adam’s letter that I found now, in the middle of writing my first book that cracked something open.
It reminded me how powerful one sentence can be.
One belief.
One seed planted with no guarantee of bloom.
Adam’s Battle with Brain Cancer
Adam and I don’t speak in person, but I think of him and his family often and I watch his story from afar. 8.5 years ago, Adam was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a rare and aggressive form of brain cancer. A cancer that is not curable. And yet, he continues to work, think, and write with astonishing depth. He’s become a powerful advocate for others facing terminal illness, speaking candidly about mortality, meaning, and what it truly means to live.
Watching him now and reading his writing, I see the same clarity that I saw back then, the same ability to sit inside the mystery of things and offer something beautiful. And I’m reminded again: this is what real success looks like. Not the metrics or the milestones, but the marks we leave on one another’s hearts.
Success in the Margins
In a culture obsessed with climbing, optimizing, and achieving, we often forget that some of the most impactful things we do aren’t listed on a résumé. They’re found in the margins, in the letters we write, the kindness we offer, the belief we extend when someone else can’t quite see it for themselves.
Finding that letter reminded me that there can be a sacredness to the connections we make even in passing, even if it seems fleeting. We underestimate just how much power we have to build someone up, or tear them down. Adam didn’t just make an impression on me; he opened a possibility. One I’m finally stepping into. He was the first person to say, you have a story others will want to hear.
Be Someone’s Adam
Because what Adam has done and is doing flies in the face of every award every given, every corporate ladder climbed or titled achieved, he lives life fighting and challenging a disease that isn’t curable. And he not only battles for himself and his family, he battles for all those who have come before him and will unfortunately come after him.
So if you have made it this far, do yourself a favor and follow and subscribe to Adam’s Substack, LinkedIn, and everything else Adam writes, publishes or shares.
By doing so you will get to see the heart, kindness, brilliance and insight that Adam selflessly offers the world. 👇🏽
And weather your slinging coffee as a barista or leading boards and research on brain cancer you can also be someone’s Adam.
Plant a seed, take the time to instill encouragement, grant hope- you never know what it will blossom into.
Until next time, take care of yourselves and those around you.
In Partnership,
Nabeela
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