The Crossroads of Empathy and Entrepreneurship

Empathy provides us with a huge advantage in business. It allows us to crawl inside the consumer's mind and learn their wants, needs, and core problems. Empathy is a tool that allows us to create more profitable products and services to appeal better to customers. Which is why it's a solid argument to claim that empathy evolves into manipulation in business. However, this internal debate that I've grappled with reminds me of an argument in ethics and philosophy about the motivation behind good deeds. Points have been made that good deeds aren't altruistic because of the benefit we receive from the good we do. The motivation behind the deeds becomes inadvertently selfish. So, what role does the motivation behind empathy play? While I don't have all the answers, I think it comes down to honesty. The integrity of empathy relies on how genuine the company, as well as the individual. Is this the crossroad where the integrity of our personal values part from the decisions we make in business? This contradiction between empathy and manipulation is a burden that will test the integrity of my personal values throughout my life. 

By: Lacey Walker 

Year: Sophomore 

Major: Marketing 

Hometown: Glen Ellyn, IL 

Fun Fact: I almost got abducted in Lima, Peru