Back to the Source
On my very first day at Vassar College I learned the school mantra: “Back to the Source“. Academically, I was home.
I did not yet know that I would go on to get degrees in Classical Greek and Art Connoisseurship concentrating in Mannerism. Nor did I know I would become the proof-and-validation steward in business environments. At that point all I knew was that everything requires examining at its root.
It does not take long, in a trilingual home, to realize that the same word means different things based on speaker and chosen language. Thus begins a natural education in understanding context, the sum of circumstances leading to a given situation. Who is speaking, to what are they reacting, which tools (language or otherwise) are they applying, what goal do they wish to achieve? Knowing this you can reply in a way that is effective and will move the conversation or situation forward.
Studying an ancient culture in a progressive academic environment is a wonderful exercise in applying context to meaning, especially when doing so through a dead language. We must strongly disassociate from most of what we know to try to understand an author’s original intent. The best part of these studies, for me, was finding those universal truths. I would journey for lines and pages as a guest in another time, and suddenly turn a corner and find a sentiment, a mood or a personality that traversed thousands of years from Ancient Greece to be perfectly relatable in my time (this gives a whole new appreciation for Achillean temper tantrums, believe me). These moments would illuminate the path through the text helping me understand it as a whole.
In business, we are the product. Our clients are the Source – of our income, success, growth.
In my work I still always go Back to the Source, let them tell me their context, and our moments of synergy are what will dictate the perfect business strategy.
This is a bit of background as to my approach to work. I wanted to share some of my back story, and future posts will not be quite so biographical. Rather, in this blog I will share information about how I work, why I work that way, different approaches to various business situations, and more. For now posts will be weekly and I aim to increase that over time (it is out there, you are all my accountability partners).
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