Avraham, the original and defining Jew, saw beyond limitations. To him, every one of the wicked people of his time represented a potential tzaddik. He knew that the transformation that he had personally experienced—coming to God from a family background of idol worship—was open to anyone anywhere.

This may be part of the contrast between Avraham and Noach. Noach was given 120 years to build the ark, which provided him with the context and the perfect prop to warn, to teach, and to cajole his immoral contemporaries towards a better path (Rashi to Bereishit 6:14). Yet, when the flood came, it was only he and his family who entered that ark. There were no “nefesh asher asu— no souls that he had transformed” to join his family and be similarly saved. Noach’s world remained corrupt and needed to be completely destroyed.

Avraham, on the other hand, lived in similarly degenerate times, but his world was not destroyed (Avot 5:2-3; see Rashi there). Avraham’s care, guidance and teaching brought Teshuva to the world and helped them avert catastrophe. His household included multitudes of people whose lives he and his wife Sarah had transformed and shaped— “hanefesh asher asu beCharan” (Bereishit 12:5).

What made Avraham so successful where Noach had failed? Noach was an FFB (Faithful From Birth). He was the only one who had remained faithful while the world experienced moral decline. Noach held on to his faith with his fingernails as he watched others around him drop like flies. He had no paradigm and no picture of what it could look like for someone to find their way back. Avraham, on the other hand, was a Baal Teshuva, a convert, who knew from his own experience that the past is not a prison. He brought that optimism to bear on his view of others, truly believing in those who he was trying to help.

That optimism is not limited to those—like Avraham—who have traveled on that journey themselves. Every one of us has had the chance to see transformational growth in others who have overcome challenges of faith and observance or of trauma and addiction. We must recognize that those stories are not limited to the heroic individual but represent the human condition, the power in every soul to release themselves from past limitations. We all can share Avraham’s optimism about every person that we encounter—including ourselves—by seeing their boundless potential for good.

Rabbi Moshe Hauer is executive vice president of the Orthodox Union (OU), the nation’s largest Orthodox Jewish umbrella organization.