Some people spend years looking for their purpose. Kevin Smith found his in a grocery store parking lot, by accident, on a Good Friday morning.
He had a short list. Shrimp cocktail sauce for a dinner party that night. A McDonald’s gift card for his niece’s birthday. He bought both, drove home, and pulled into his driveway at 9:55 AM. Then he realized his wallet was missing.
The money didn’t worry him. What worried him were the photos inside — pictures of loved ones he had lost, the kind of thing you can never replace. He was seconds from driving back to search when a young woman appeared at his car window, holding the wallet, asking if it was his. Her name was Brooke. She had driven 2.6 miles out of her way to return it the moment she found it.
That was the whole event. A stranger did a kind thing. People lose wallets every day. People return them every day. But for Kevin, this one cracked something open.
He couldn’t shake it. He emailed every local news station, hoping the story might reach Brooke and thank her in a bigger way. One reporter replied in seven minutes. The segment aired and spread across the country. The fact that a returned wallet became national news told him something hard: good news has become so rare it now stands out.
By day, Kevin is the founder of Smith Wealth Advisory Group, recognized by outlets like Forbes and the Financial Times as one of the top advisors in the country. He spent 25 years helping people turn money into meaningful life experiences. He was, by his own words, comfortably coasting. He thought he had the rest of his life figured out.
The wallet ended that. It connected to a question his best friend Tony had asked him years earlier, after listening to Kevin vent about everything broken in the world: “What are you going to do about it?” At the time, Kevin felt powerless to do anything. After Brooke, he felt the opposite. He stopped pointing at other people and started pointing at himself. He decided the only behavior he could control was his own — and that if he led by his own example, maybe others would follow.
That became Kindness Worldwide, a nonprofit with one vision: to create a culture of kindness in communities across the world. Its signature initiative, Kindness Week Worldwide, started in his home community of York, Pennsylvania. It spread to communities across the country and as far as Australia and Delphi, Greece. In October 2024, Kevin gave the keynote at the 11th General Assembly of the World Kindness Movement in Palermo, Italy, in front of 40 nations. He called on every community and country, including every member nation of the United Nations, to elevate kindness to a global shared value.
The story has a private cost he doesn’t hide. He grieves the quiet, balanced life he and his wife thought they would have. He calls that grief real. But he carries a deeper reason. Years ago, his father — a gentle man who lived with schizophrenia and was often treated unkindly by the world — rang Kevin’s doorbell one Valentine’s Day. Kevin didn’t answer. His father passed away the next day. That was his last memory of him. So when this new calling kept knocking, Kevin answered the door. He couldn’t miss it twice.
His definition of leadership comes straight out of that. Leadership starts with character and being true to who you are, not adjusting yourself to please a crowd. It means leading by example, not just words. It means putting a bold vision out loud and not caring how it looks if it fails. And it means believing in something even when, for a long time, you are the only one who does.
Questions listeners ask
Who is Kevin Smith and what is Kindness Worldwide? Kevin Smith is the founder of Smith Wealth Advisory Group, a wealth advisor recognized by Forbes and the Financial Times, and the founder of the nonprofit Kindness Worldwide. Kindness Worldwide’s vision is to create a culture of kindness in communities throughout the world, and its signature initiative is Kindness Week Worldwide.
What is the lost wallet story behind Kindness Worldwide? On Good Friday morning in 2023, Kevin lost his wallet at a grocery store. A young woman named Brooke drove 2.6 miles out of her way to return it to his home minutes after he discovered it missing. His attempt to thank her in a more meaningful way grew into the nonprofit Kindness Worldwide.
What does Kevin Smith say leadership actually is? Kevin says leadership starts with integrity and being secure in your own values rather than adjusting to please others. It means leading by example, communicating a bold vision out loud, and believing in that vision even when no one else does yet.
Hear the full conversation in their own words.
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