Wisdom

At 7 a.m. yesterday, I received my first text of the day. Getting early-morning communication isn’t that unusual in my business, but I don’t usually get texts from 100-year-olds. This one was from Connie, a client of mine now turned good friend.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about what qualities define a wise leader in the 21st century. Before I share my list, let’s define some terms. I believe wisdom is “metabolized experience that leads to distilled compassion.” It’s not just learning from your mistakes; it’s assuring your mistakes (which lead to your wisdom) serve a social good.

"A wise old owl sat in an oak. The more he saw, the less he spoke. The less he spoke, the more he heard. Why can't we be like that wise old bird?" - Edward Hersey Richards.

The title of today’s Wisdom Well blog comes from Albert Einstein, a clever and wise human. Would you prefer being clever or wise?

Socrates said it's when we come to the realization that we know that we know nothing. Maybe that's true.

More than 80 years ago, Swiss engineer George de Mestral was walking his dog when he noticed burrs sticking to him and his pooch. Most of us would have just complained about what comes next: de-burring the dog. But George was curious. No, Chip, don't go there!

Peter Drucker had the foresight in the late 1950s, just before he turned 50, to declare the existence of “knowledge workers,” when there were relatively few who fit that description.

Rabbi Abraham Heschel wrote this beautiful sentence long ago. It feels like a deep truth for me. I have always believed a culture of wisdom holds up awe as a primary value—awe humbles us and makes us curious about life beyond the ghetto of our ego.

Is it possible that intuition is to the gut as wisdom is to the heart and mind? When we have a flash of insight—whether it's intuition or wisdom—where is it coming from?

My college girlfriend gave me a book of Henry David Thoreau (HDT) poetry not long after I said to her argumentatively, “Leave me alone, or I’ll find someone else who will.” HDT became my partner for the rest of my college career.