07-05-2025
Pinstripe Soup: A Manifesto For The Givers
Rosemarie Truman is Founder and CEO of the Center for Advancing Innovation, maximizing the commercial impact of breakthrough inventions.
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Imagine if you could change a life—not with millions, but maybe with a buck fifty and a heart full of purpose.
There's a question I ask myself often: What would I put in a soup full of pinstripes? It's not rhetorical. It's not clever. It's a gut-check and crowned with grit.
For over two decades, I traveled the world in pinstripes—tailored, pressed, sharp as ambition. I've been in boardrooms where billions were decided on before lunch. But some of the most important decisions I've made happened in the quiet moments—in transit, in passing and in giving. Because here's the truth: The strongest pinstripe isn't on your suit; it's in your soul.
What Is Pinstripe Soup?
Pinstripe Soup isn't food. It's philosophy. It's what you stew in after a lifetime of tenaciously trying, striving, winning, failing and showing up. It's seasoned with resilience, flavored by character and stirred by purpose.
And the secret ingredient? Giving. Not charity for show. Not generosity for applause. I'm talking about the $1.50 to the waitress, cookies for the mail carrier and making unique presents for people. The human moments that cost nothing but mean everything. That's Pinstripe Soup.
There are people in your life who season the soup, and there are those who step outside of it entirely. I think about people whose names may never show up in headlines, but who have changed the trajectory of others' lives (including mine)—quietly, courageously and with complete empathy. They may not wear pinstripes; they wear humility. They wear heart. They show up—not with flash, but with fire. Not with applause, but with purpose.
Their acts of kindness are unrelenting, tenacious and completely unwavering. These are the people who don't just take the shot—they live inside the moment. They own it. They remind me that this world isn't changed by the most powerful room you walk into. It's changed by how you treat the person no one else notices.
The $1.50 Principle
A dollar fifty. Maybe that's all you had. Maybe it's all they need.
The point isn't the number—it's the noticing. The gesture. The pause to acknowledge someone else's grind and grit. It's the decision to see and be deeply aware of people.
Because every act of giving is a brushstroke on someone else's canvas. You may never see the full picture. You may never get credit. But you know—in your marrow—you mattered.
Always Be Giving (ABG)
In business, they teach us ABC—Always Be Closing. I say evolve it. Upgrade it. Flip it. I prefer ABG: Always Be Giving.
The world doesn't need more closers. It needs more openers. Open hearts. Open hands. Open moments where someone gets to breathe because you showed up and said, 'I see you.'
How can your organization always be giving? Consider:
• Mentoring and providing guidance—many times, trailblazers need champions to get them through the forest.
• Cultivating relationships with people who don't have access to others because talent doesn't necessarily have access to opportunity.
• Simply saying please and thank you and treating your employees with kindness.
I personally have a goal to give out 15 presents every day. They do not cost a lot, but they mean so much to people.
Lose Yourself (To The Moment)
Eminem said it best: "You better lose yourself in the music, the moment, you own it ..."
What if we took that energy and poured it into how we give? What if we stopped waiting for the perfect opportunity, the right foundation and the well-lit stage? What if your shot was now? Would you take it? Would you leave that $1.50 or would you let it go? Would you call that person back or say 'next time'? Would you give—even when you didn't have to?
Because here's the truth: Sometimes, you only get one shot to make someone feel seen—one opportunity to be the moment someone remembers when they're about to quit. Don't let it slip.
So, What Would You Put In Your Pinstripe Soup?
A spoonful of grit. A ladle of humility. A pinch of boldness. A gallon of compassion. Unlimited empathy. And just maybe, the names of people who gave before you ever knew you needed it. And I'd serve it hot to anyone hungry for hope and sustainable impact.
Because I've worn the pinstripes. I've flown the miles. I've seen the highs. I've done the three countries a week for 20 years with an average of 42 hours a week in the air. The 80-100 hours a week of working and pulling two to three all-nighters, all to help drive the growth and transformation for many Fortune 100s. I care deeply and sustainably about people.
And I know: It's not about being seen. It's about seeing and being gravely aware. It's not about taking the shot. It's about giving it away. So, here's your moment. Your one opportunity. Lose yourself in it. And always—always—be giving.
Forbes Nonprofit Council is an invitation-only organization for chief executives in successful nonprofit organizations. Do I qualify?
