Be someone who brings the light. I'm tempted to think a purpose of the dark is to raise up light-bearers among us. It's a noble task to which we're called, one that gives benefit to many. We all steer through our lives by the glows of illumination sprinkled about us, some near and others far. If you have a lamp to light, spark its flame and hold it high.
Sometimes, there's a breech in the stone, an unexpected crack in the wall of the cave, and a whole universe opens up. It could be a book or a heard sentence, or a film, or a song, a poem, or even some fleeting aspect of a day in nature. It could be almost anything that for a moment opens up a new and spectacular view of what's out there, or in here, or around and beyond. Find a way to capture and save that amazing glimpse.
A character in my novels talks about taking a wisdom bucket wherever we go, for precisely this reason. He says that waters of insight can fall from the heavens like rain suddenly at any time and we need a way to capture those moments to use later and share. So keep a snapshot in your head or a small bucket in your heart and you won't forget, but can pass on to others what you've so wonderfully seen.
As Rome burns, I refuse to be a fiddler and insist on being a fireman. Grab a bucket, won't you? Join me in rushing to the calamity. Let's do what we can.
Words you never want to hear the dentist say to his assistant while he's in your mouth: "Get me the saw." Yeah. It's from personal experience.
Lesson from the dental chair: Almost nothing is quite as bad as it seems, or as good. So stay calm.
My job is to respect and nurture Truth, Beauty, Goodness and Unity—cultivating the intellectual, aesthetic, moral, and spiritual sides of life. And, yeah, it’s your job, too.
Justice is everybody's business, in the small details of life. Fairness. Kindness. Evenhandedness. And then mercy can take its proper place.
When we lose sight of the best in us, we tend to manifest the worse in us. That's a key to personal life, and to national politics as well.
Every difficulty, every challenge, every disappointment tells me something about myself, and provides me an opportunity for transformation.
Nothing's really ours. Everything's given to us for a time. We're stewards meant to care for all the outer and inner blessings of life, and share them.
How hard is it to listen? Just listen. Really listen. Quietly. Attentively. Compassionately. Imaginatively. As an act of love. Courageously.
We can't overstate the power of humility in life, to be like the humus, the soil of the earth, open and ready to grow what you're given.
When we seek to love more than to be loved, to appreciate more than to be appreciated, to encourage more than to be encouraged, we get it.
In times of high emotion and deep division, we're to love our neighbors as ourselves, and even our "enemies" - valuing their true good.
Too many people live lives of illusion. And that's a great tragedy of the human condition. Refuse illusion. Seek truth. Have courage.
Plato's insistence: Never let appearances blind you to realities. And that may be one of the hardest tasks in life.
Aristotle's formula for the highest human good was simple: People in Partnership for a shared Purpose. There's nothing solitary about it.
Never let adversarial thinking be your baseline or default mode of thought, outside the bounds of a real battle with bullets and bombs.
Dreams are the engine of achievement. But the gas in the tank is hard work.
Wisdom is never just a matter of words. It's embodied insight, lived discernment, and really more like love than knowledge.
There are of course a lot of things that get discussed under the name of love but aren't wise, and under the name of wisdom but aren't loving. Those are always pretenders, counterfeits, and inauthentic substitutes.
True wisdom is loving. True love is wise. When we use those insights as touchstones for authenticity, we're better able to spot the inauthentic for what it is.
Give me wisdom. Give me love. And I'll give both away as soon as I can. And then, wonderfully, I'll somehow have more.
This is our second day of sharing excerpts from "The Diary of Walid" at the end of my new book The Oasis Within. This thirteen-year-old boy notes down at the end of the day what he's learned from his uncle or from what he's experienced since he woke up. In doing so, he's following the example of Marcus Aurelius, emperor of Rome, who asked himself every evening, "What have I learned today?" and took down notes in answer. Those notes became the amazing book The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, a bestseller throughout the centuries that provides great wisdom for living. By reflecting and writing, however briefly, we can clarify and solidify the insights that events can provide us, if we pay attention. In this time of tumultuous stock market events, Walid's insights can speak to us powerfully.
Many things have two powers – they can be helpful or harmful. It’s often up to us which role they play.
Most situations also have a double potential, for good or ill. We would be wise to keep that in mind.
It’s important in life to pay attention all the time – to look, listen, and learn.
We should discipline our thoughts and feelings, then listen when they suggest that something’s not right.
Most dangers in the world will provide us with some kind of warning, if we’re alert and aware.
Emotions, like most other things, can help us or harm us. We need to learn when to act on them, and when to resist them for a greater good.
Great things are accomplished by great thoughts. Our thoughts can be very powerful.
A good attitude about difficulties, combined with a wise perspective, can help us overcome any trouble.
We should be more surprised when things don’t change than when they do. If we expect change, we can deal with it better.
We shouldn’t worry about what we can’t control. We should focus on what we can control and make the best of it.
It’s important to live fully each day.
I believe we all have a spiritual need to feel useful, to take action to make a difference in the world, on however big or small a scale. And I also think that this provides us with an important hint as to how we should approach each day.
In a recent New York Times article, Nicholas Kristof reported on some new studies on whether philanthropic giving really makes a difference, long term, for people living in poverty. It turns out that the most effective giving involves a cow, or a goat, or chickens. Seeds also help. What doesn't help much, it seems, is money. It's all about a certain way of giving hope, through an opportunity for action.
When impoverished people are given a useful animal, one that can provide milk or eggs, as well as a form of companionship, and almost a sort of partnership, they become more active generally in their lives. They work more, they take more odd jobs, they have a new form of hope. They've been given the possibility of an activity, a usefulness in their own lives, that can make a difference for how they and their families live. And this is a form of giving that works. You know the old adage about giving a man a fish, or teaching him how to fish. Research now bears this out in more ways that we might have imagined.
And this provides a hint for all of us. How much time do you spend wishing things were better, or simply regretting the way things are? Most of us perceive a gap between where we are and where we'd like to be. And it bothers us. We worry about it. Or we even resent it. Sometimes, we feel hopeless to change it. Imagining how things could be better can almost take the wind out of our sails, if we stay passive in those imaginings.
But here's the insight: We all need a cow or a goat or some chickens. We need seeds. But then we need to plant the seeds. It's not merely having a cow, but taking action and milking it. It's not just the companionship of chickens, the camaraderie of the coop, but gathering the eggs that makes a big difference for impoverished people.
And here's something universal. We all need to feel a sense of control over our destinies. Desperately poor people given a cow develop that sense and experience hope. They're given a path, something they can do to feel some measure of control over their destinies. We all need that.
It seems to me that we all have a spiritual need for a sense of usefulness, and control, and action. We need to feel that we can begin to close the gap between what is and what could be. For me, the cow, or goat, might be my personal library, or my computer, or my website. I can read and discover. I can write. For you, it might be the same thing. Or something about your job could be it. Or a friend may provide you, through your relationship with him or her, that metaphorical goat, or those chickens you need. But remember that you need to take action.
When we see opportunity, we feel a glimmer of hope, and that combined with real actions, however small, can create a path forward.
What's your cow? What's your goat? Where are your chickens? When we clearly identify our opportunities and act on them daily, we begin to close the gap and move into our proper future with the feeling of hope that will help to get us there.
More than sixty years ago, Walt Disney looked at an ordinary orange grove and saw DisneyLand. Later, he gazed on some remote swamp in Florida and caught a glimpse of DisneyWorld. What are you looking at right now and not seeing?
Aristotle believed that the great oak naturally lives in the small acorn. It takes vision to see it. But that's not all. The alchemy of human creativity can go far beyond what's natural, and expected. The world is a warehouse of raw materials for our creative magic. It's not always easy to recognize the materials that are right for you and then to collect them together. But the right vision can help you to see how.
The great creators, like all artists, learn how to look, and how to see. Shake up your ordinary ways of viewing your surroundings. Try on a different perspective. Engage in "What if" musings. Stretch the borders of the expected. You may see things you've been missing - whether among the orange trees or in the swamp.
It could be that your very own DisneyWorld awaits, right now, lying magically within some setting that you've been seeing as just water, grass, mosquitoes, and gators that just is what it is, and that you can't do anything about. The people like Walt Disney, and Steve Jobs, help us to understand that the ordinary is all around us, just waiting to be transformed. The extraordinary can be yours.
The other night, I had a chat at the Eagle Point Golf Club with Russell Coutts, the man who has won more America's Cup Yacht Race victories than any other captain in the long history of the sport. I had first met him several years ago, and heard him speak about the challenge of bringing together great team members from various parts of the world and then winning against the top competition from around the globe. On that occasion, I first showed him my little laminated wallet card on The 7 Cs of Success, and he read through the conditions carefully, and then looked up at me and said, "This is what my guys do to come together and win."
As a reference, here they are. For true success in any difficult challenge, we need:
C1: A clear CONCEPTION of what we want, a vivid vision, a goal clearly imagined.
C2: A strong CONFIDENCE that we can attain the goal.
C3: A focused CONCENTRATION on what it will take to reach the goal.
C4: A stubborn CONSISTENCY in pursuing our vision, a determined persistence.
C5: An emotional COMMITMENT to the importance of what we're doing.
C6: A good CHARACTER to guide us and keep us on a proper course.
C7: A CAPACITY TO ENJOY THE PROCESS along the way.
It's amazing that philosophers thousands of years ago could grasp what it takes to win an America's Cup, or a National Championship, or a World Series, or an Olympic Gold Medal. I've had top athletes across sports tell me how surprised they are to see in The 7 Cs formula the ideas they've followed intuitively in order to attain the success they've had.
In speaking with Russell Coutts the other night, two related things came up. First: Our implementation of The 7 Cs has to be relentless in the face of difficulty and failure. In the latest America's Cup, the Nespresso team was ahead of Team Oracle USA by a whopping 7-1 score, with only one more point needed to beat Russell's guys. But his boss, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, had summed up what he had learned in the tech business by telling Russell, "NEVER GIVE UP."
Russell said that when they were down 7-1, his guys never lost their confidence, but that the captain of the adversary boat, the Nespresso team, started worrying that something would happen. Then, it did. It's like the famous tightrope walker, Karl Wallenda, whose wife reported that earlier on the day he fell and died, she heard him say, for the first time ever, "I hope I don't fall today." And, he did. Confidence can be that important. And so can what we focus on.
Russell also talked about nerves before a race. The best people get nervous energy from the fact that they care, that they're committed. Confidence doesn't require a blindness to the challenges you'll face. In fact, to the contrary, a realistic estimation of the difficulty in any given task allows for powerful confidence, and a focused concentration on what it will take to overcome and prevail. Oracle USA did overcome and prevail, in what The Wall Street Journal called possibly the greatest comeback in the history of sports.
Like Russell's teams, I like to sail The 7 Cs. I hope you do, too.
Marc Lore, an entrepreneur and co-founder, Chief Executive Officer, and chairman of Jet.com, an e-commerce startup meant to challenge Amazon, recently wrote this:
At 22, I evaluated my first job based on what I could get out of it. But I have since learned that you can achieve much greater success if you focus on what you can give. Ultimately, I have realized that success is not a measure of your salary, title, or degree, but the impact you have on others and the collective happiness of the people you touch.
I've been lucky to have that attitude throughout my whole career. When I went to graduate school in religious studies and philosophy, it never even occurred to me to ask anyone how much careers in those fields paid. And it's a good thing I didn't! When I hit the job market with a double PhD from Yale in 1980, starting salaries for professors were ridiculously small. My children wore hand-me-down clothes from other professors' kids, who had done the same thing. We were in it to give, not to get. I wanted to tackle the big questions, and come up with new insights I could benefit from myself, and then give to other people. I learned in those years the power of giving.
Now, we're all learning it, through new research, as well as in our broader cultural experiences. In the book Give and Take, Wharton professor Adam Grant does a great job of showing how givers can prosper exceptionally well in the long run and actually become the most satisfied receivers of all.
In everything we approach, we should ask what we can give, first and foremost. Then, we may be amazed at what we can get, as a result. It's not the motivation, but the wonderful side effect, that those who give most prosper most deeply.
Arthur C. Brooks recently wrote in the New York Times:
In a 2009 study published in The Journal of Positive Psychology, researchers interviewed 806 adolescents, emerging adults. and adults about their purpose in life. A key finding of the study was that being able to articulate a life purpose was strongly associated with much greater life satisfaction than failing to do so. In contrast, purposelessness — no matter how closely tied to worldly prosperity — generally defines a hamster-wheel life, alarmingly bereft of satisfaction.
What struck me from this statement, first of all, is that, on this particular study, it didn't even matter what you had articulated as your life purpose - some purpose was better than none. Imagine, then, the level of satisfaction that can result from a truly meaningful life purpose, and one that's deeply right for you.
What is your purpose? Can you put it into words? According to the study cited, that in itself can make a difference in a positive way. And the clearer you are about your sense of purpose, the easier it is to assess potential goals, business opportunities, and even social activities. If you're vague about your sense of life direction, meaning, and purpose, it becomes difficult to know what to say yes to and when to say no, apart from momentary feelings. But temporary feelings aren't always our best guides to long term good. A sense of purpose is a great guide forward.
What's yours?
A friend recommended that I read Sylvia Plath's 1963 novel, The Bell Jar, as an example of an early and quintessential piece of Young Adult Literature. Plath was a gifted poet at a young age, but had struggled with getting her work published. One magazine rejected her 45 times before it accepted one of her poems. She then wrote this novel under the sponsorship of The Eugene Saxon Fellowship affiliated with Harper and Row. But when she submitted the final manuscript, the publisher rejected it, calling it "disappointing, juvenile and overwrought." It went on to publication initially in England, and it subsequently become a rare modern classic, read throughout the world. Plath even posthumously received a Pulitzer Prize for her collected poems.
The protagonist of The Bell Jar is a college-age woman named Esther Greenwood. We get to know her first while she's on a fellowship in New York City, working during the summer for a famous women's magazine, and being treated to gala openings, parties, and celebrity events. The "girls" she works with are portrayed with that distinctive and witty chatter often seen in movies made during roughly the same period, in the 1950s and early 60s. You can clearly hear the rapid fire delivery of clever dialogue exchanged between the young ladies visiting the magazine. In the course of the story, Esther descends from Bright Young Thing With a Promising Future to psychological madness and a serious attempt at suicide. After a period of confinement in an asylum and a series of electro-shock treatments, she eventually seems to be returning to some semblance of her old self, however fitfully and slowly. But the story ends right before she's set to be released from the institution and launched back into normal life. The author herself famously committed suicide about a month after the book's first publication in the United Kingdom, and it was quickly seen as autobiographical.
I'm writing about it today because of its main image - the bell jar, a common piece of laboratory equipment at a certain stage of modern science that was shaped like a dome or a bell, and most often made of clear glass. It could be used to create a special atmosphere for plants, or a weak vacuum when most of the oxygen was removed from it. As she returns to clarity, Esther sees herself in her madness as living in a bell jar, with little atmosphere, where it's hard to breathe. But then she insightfully extends the metaphor to the college girl she knew in her dorm, gossiping, playing cards, and living an endless round of parties and boys that's cut off from the real world outside the artificial atmosphere of the campus.
What struck me most about the book is the bell jar image and its wide applicability. It's very easy for any of us to get stuck in our own bell jar, with an artificial atmosphere that we take to be real, but that actually cuts us off from the broader world around us. The bell jar can be many things - madness, or superficiality, obsession, or desire, or something professional and work related that gets out of control. Years ago, the executives at Enron and several other high profile companies were living and working in their own bell jar. So were many mortgage officials and traders, just a few years back, and they were as a result the people whose work plunged us all into a deep and long recession.
A bell jar is created around us when we allow something to cut us off from the real sources of meaning and insight that are to be found more broadly and more deeply in life. There is a spiritual sickness and even a kind of death that can result. A life can spiral out of control. A business can crumble. Self destruction can ensue. We all know of leaders who've created around them an echo chamber, cutting themselves off from any fresh breeze of truth. They're in a bell jar of their own making.
Any person, or group of people, can be endangered by a bell jar that results from their attitudes and actions. Are you in one? Is your company or community?
The bell jar is a serious danger that we're all well-advised to avoid. Don't let anything become your bell jar, and cut you off from the fresh air of life and wisdom and love and meaning that you could and should be breathing. Keep on your guard. It's hard to see at first when one descends around you. Its transparency, or invisibility, is especially insidious. And that's why it's such a common trap. When you allow yourself to escape the confines of any such bell jar that threatens to constrain you, you benefit from a rush of fresh air, and get enough of an independent perspective to recognize the jar for what it is, and stay out of it, as a result.
A car in front of me on a major street today caught my attention. It was a white Ford Explorer tricked out with orange stripes like an emergency vehicle. And it also had round reflectors built into the tail gate. Or were they flashing lights? Above the license plate, there was a very official looking sign, where EMT or POLICE might otherwise be. It said CHAPLAIN.
I couldn't help but be jealous. If I could just have one like that but with the sign instead saying PHILOSOPHER. Can you imagine? I sure could. I'd be driving down the road and the radio would squawk. "Logic Emergency on Front Street. All Philosophers Respond." I'd hit the lights, and of course the siren, and the gas. Out of the way, everybody. Sage coming through. I'd screech up to the address and dash out of the car. City police would be holding the door open for me. I'd run up the stairs two at a time, and there it would be: a guy splayed out across his desk, with his computer flashing some sort of error message. A detective would be standing there, and he'd look up at me and say, "It's a conceptual catastrophe."
I'd say, "What have we got?"
The gumshoe would reply. "I think we need some Aristotle."
I'd look more closely and say, "No! It's too late for that! Only Kierkegaard will do!" And, with a Leap of Faith, I'd use just the right aphorism and summon the guy back to life, and conceptual clarity. A gasp would go through the room, and I'd suddenly notice all the other people huddled over at the side. They'd start cheering and clapping. Someone would run up to me and gush appreciation and words of praise for what I had just accomplished.
"No Ma'am. No need to thank me. Just another day for a hard working philosopher."
As I came out of my stoplight reverie, I realized why things don't work like this. Oddly, most people go in search of wisdom only when they confront a catastrophe, or disaster that has arisen from unwise decisions. Wanting to avoid the flames of irrational self immolation, they desperately look for insight. And they might find a piece of wisdom here or there that can save them. But philosophy is much better as a powerful preventative medicine than as last minute emergency treatment. It's better applied in small doses throughout our days and decisions. Then, we can most likely avoid cataclysmic personal disasters, at least of the existential sort.
So: Don't wait for trouble. Seek wisdom now. Remember, I don't really have the flashing lights and siren. It was just in my imagination. Then again, the chaplain in town apparently does.
The ancient philosopher Plutarch was once asked why he hung out with so many leaders and philosophized with them so much. He said, basically, "I could spend my time digging a single well to bring water to one home, or I could help build an aqueduct to bring it to many. When I work with leaders, I'm able, with them, to convey insight to a great many others."
I love being a philosopher. I love philosophizing with anyone. I can enjoy sitting for hours in deep conversation with one person. But there are times when, philosophizing with a group of leaders, I really understand Plutarch's perspective.
Last week, my wife and I were in London for a meeting with Hewlett Packard's Board of Advisors for Europe, the Middle East, and Asia - CIOs and CTOs from major HP customers. These were individuals who as chief information or chief technology officers steer some of the biggest companies in the world toward what will be our amazing technological future. And I get to hang out with them, listen to the sic-fi realities of what's coming in five or ten years, or more, and then talk with them about the wisdom of the past three thousand years, the insights that we need to use to help get us to that future in all the best ways. I learn so much. It's astonishingly fun. And I'm able to share that clear water of ancient wisdom with a room full of leaders whose own aqueducts can bring it to cities and countries of people around the globe. It's a treat, and a great honor.
Sometimes we have to work hard to dig one needed well, a well that will bring cold clear water into our own lives, or into our family's life. And at other times we should focus on an aqueduct that can bring water to many - at work, in church, throughout our neighborhoods or communities, and in many other ways. Each service is important. But when you can magnify the good, spreading it out to many, there is a special Plutarchian joy that's good to feel.
So when you have a chance: Spread wisdom. Spread joy.
What is a tool? At the simplest level, it's some sort of object or item that helps us to extend our natural powers and accomplish something that we otherwise could not do, or at least could not achieve with the same ease, or speed, or safety that the tool, well used, can provide. A hammer. A screwdriver. A saw. A knife. A wrench. These are, of course, obvious examples. Other suggestions could be: A laptop. A smart phone. A bicycle. A car. A business. An organization of any sort. But there are other tools that are, perhaps, the most important of all for getting things done.
I'm apparently a rare type of philosopher, at least, these days. My job is to discover and create intellectual tools that people can use to improve their businesses and their lives. My specialty is that I'm a provider of philosophical tools for excellence. When you're working on a project around the house, you need the right tools to get the job done well. The same is true more generally of work and your personal life. You need the right tools for whatever job you face. A philosophical tool is just an idea or set of ideas that will help you to think, feel, and act in more productive and healthy ways, in whatever you're doing.
When I speak on success, I provide a toolkit drawn from the great practical philosophers of the past, a framework of ideas that I call "The 7 Cs of Success." When I talk about great teamwork, strong organizations, and customer loyalty, I bring people an additional toolkit that I call "The Four Foundations of Excellence." If I'm asked to help a company, or the members of an industry association, deal with difficult change, I bring them another toolkit - "The 3 Arts of Change." In every case, I'm putting into people's hands, or minds, tools that they can use to extend their natural powers and accomplish something they might not otherwise be able to do, or at least could not achieve with the same ease, or speed, or safety. And that's what makes my work so satisfying. I'm in the business of helping people to obtain and use the tools of excellence.
What philosophical tools do you use at work and in life? They should be well designed, finely calibrated, and durable. I hope you have some good ones that you use on a regular basis. If not, keep reading these blogs. I'll be describing great new tools, and some useful ancient ones, now and then.
If you're in a leadership position, consider this: What tools are your team members, or the people in your company, overall, using? Are they of high quality? Does everyone have the same access to the toolbox? Those factors are vital for maximal results.
For more on the tools I have mentioned, consult the Talks page on www.TomVMorris.com, or the Books page, where you can click to gain access to any of these ideas you haven't already come across. And check back. I'm always on the hunt for a new tool that will work for me, and for you!
Wisdom is always about attaining a proper perspective. Whatever challenge you might face, whatever situation might confront and even stymie you right now, there's a perspective available on it that will help you move forward productively and well. Once you've found that perspective, you can use it powerfully to help create the future that's best for you, or your business, or your family, or even in all ways.
Whenever I read a really good book and in it come across some amazing new perspectives on life, I ponder how many billions of people there are in the world, and how many interesting perspectives they may have on things that matter to me, and to all of us. I sometimes fantasize interviewing everyone on earth, one person at a time, and listening deeply to what they have to say. Sure, there are idiots and fools, simpletons and fanatics, and plenty of people full of hatred and delusion. But perhaps a minute or two safely spent with even their number would provide new perspectives that could be useful. And even though you'd think I was old enough to know better at age 62, I suspect that the fools and fanatics and monsters are actually a very small fraction of our fellows in this life. There are plenty of everyday sages that we could learn from, if we would just talk to them and hear what they've experienced.
Of course, none of us has the time or the means to talk to everyone alive. And we've already missed a lot by not talking to those who have come and gone before us. But we can make the most of the time and opportunities we do have by engaging the people who cross our paths, and actually listening and taking in what they say.
I learn from the people I sit next to on airplanes, from cab and limo drivers, from front desk clerks in hotels, from cooks and waiters, and from friends and neighbors, any time I can. And I'm sometimes amazed at how an offhand remark, or a story, I heard just from joining some stranger in conversation years ago, can still reverberate for me today, and enliven how I think of a new opportunity or challenge that I confront.
When we take the time to talk and really listen, we benefit. The perspectives we hear can sometimes be just what we need.
Age doesn’t just bring new wrinkles to your body, it can also bring new wrinkles to your thought, and these are good to have.
A perfectly smooth surface has no depth.
There is deep texture to even simple wisdom.
No path worth taking will be just smooth and easy.
Life itself is never perfectly smooth. Our thoughts shouldn’t be, either.
There is a beauty to texture and depth.
If your body is going to show the magnitude of your experience, make sure your mind does, too.
The good wrinkles to have flow from experiences fully lived.
Knowledge can be dangerous. Smart people can do monumentally stupid things. Intelligence can be put to a bad use. But this doesn't mean that knowledge and intelligence are to be avoided. It means only that they need the proper accompaniment - wisdom.
I've written often recently about wisdom. And that's because it's so misunderstood in our time. Because it's misunderstood, it's severely undervalued. And there may be nothing more valuable, in business and life, than true wisdom.
Of course, we use the word 'wisdom,' and its adjectival form 'wise,' in two different ways. It can be used of a statement, an aphorism, or a book. "There is a lot of wisdom in that book." Or: "What he said was very wise." In this sense, the word wisdom means, simply, articulated insight.
But it's possible to know a lot of wise aphorisms, epigrams, and witticisms, while doing foolish things. There was a time in my life where I was a living demonstration of that possibility. And that leads us to an important distinction.
When a person, as distinct from a statement or book, is said to be wise, or to have great wisdom, we mean to refer not to articulated insight, but rather to embodied discernment. A wise person discerns good from bad, right from wrong, appropriate from inappropriate, better from worse, and favorable from unfavorable, as well as many other differences, in a way that foolish people can't. And that's a matter of judgment and understanding. But wisdom, when attributed to a person, has to be embodied in action of some sort, or it isn't genuine. There are, you see, two sides to personal wisdom, a side that involves understanding, and a side that involves doing. One side without the other isn't wisdom. Good judgment without good action is surely foolish. And the failure can go the other way, too. Good action that doesn't come from good judgment is just from luck or habit, and not a direct manifestation of wisdom. For true wisdom to be present, thought and action have to mesh.
Knowledge without wisdom, just like action without wisdom, can take a person, or an organization, off the rails as quickly as anything. Because of this, as well as for many more reasons, we ought to be hiring for wisdom, training for wisdom, promoting wisdom, and encouraging it in every way we can, in business, politics, and our personal lives. Any other course is, of course, unwise.
