In Every Circumstance – ElPropósito3 min de lectura

There is always one resource that serves us

Photo by Silas Baisch on Unsplash

We need a system that lets us make sound decisions consistently, over time. We’re constantly being tested, like a ship that meets all kinds of waves and storms and still makes the decisions that keep it on course, or at least the ones that wisely bring it safely to port. Can a person, a team or an organization develop the practical wisdom to make good decisions? Wisdom is "the ability to navigate well through diverse, complex and often contradictory circumstances." "Being smart and educated doesn’t guarantee that we are wise." So what makes us wise, or allows us to be?

According to Socrates, "wisdom is the only human capacity that is good in every circumstance," and that inspired the title of this post. Good times and bad share a common denominator, and deep down we know it. Hard times take wisdom to make the best decisions and secure the short term. Good times also take wisdom, to secure the medium and long term. In hard times, leadership has to come through, along with the lessons learned day by day and the ability to keep everyone together. In times of plenty, we need to be creative and frugal at once to make the most of them, like the fable of the ant and the grasshopper.

What really caught my attention is that wisdom applies to every circumstance. So how does one become wise? How do we reach the understanding that lets us see everything from the right perspective? My partner and friend Alex, for example, has a saying for good times and bad: "the profits belong to everyone, but the losses belong to just one person," and by that one person he usually means whoever (always) takes the lead when things get hard. I opened by saying we need to build a system for making good decisions, and I always come back to how important it is to make our purpose, our company’s, our organization’s or our own, the central axis of our lives.

Do we want to make good decisions in every circumstance? Then we must keep improving (wisdom), act well when circumstances turn against us (courage), control our actions (temperance) and treat others with dignity (justice). In Stoic philosophy, practicing wisdom, courage, temperance and justice leads to a virtuous life. In fact, together they’re the very definition of virtue. One powerful and demanding feature, though, is that the four virtues can’t be practiced separately.

For me, this is where the paths split, personally and in business. The best organizations put great emphasis on their operations, to create value, and equal emphasis on their business ethics, a balance that’s necessary and non-negotiable. A person with a very clear life purpose always does everything in their hands to achieve what they long for. Integrity between what we say and what we do is the key to making things happen.

Warm regards and all the best,

• Rodrigo Baccaro

Author: Rodrigo Baccaro

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