What message did you learn from the lesson 'The New Tenant
Answers
Explanation:
Mario Salerno is a small business owner who owns a number of apartment buildings in Brooklyn. Like many property owners, Salerno has recently faced a crushing problem: tenants who now couldn't afford to pay their rent.
After giving it some thought, Salerno decided to do something big to help:
He waived his tenants' rent for the month of April, 2020. That's somewhere between 200-300 tenants, in 80 apartments, Salerno told The New York Times.
Although Salerno declined to share how much money he would lose due to not collecting rent in April, the Times estimated he was likely foregoing hundreds of thousands of dollars in rental income.
"My concern is everyone's health," Salerno told the Times. "I told them just to look out for your neighbor and make sure that everyone has food on their table."
Some may take Salerno's gesture for granted. "Great that he has enough money to do that," they might think. After all, Salerno, a life-long resident of the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, also owns a gas station and body shop, which his father opened in 1959.
But Salerno's gesture is more than a kind deed. It's a lesson in emotional intelligence.
Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify, understand, and manage emotions. It enables people to practice qualities like empathy, which is essential to relationship-building--and it can even move others to action.
Of course, by canceling April's rent Salerno alleviated a huge amount of stress on the part of his tenants, and helped in a very practical way. But Salerno's message also included a call to action:
"Help your neighbors."