It’s All Greek To Me!

I WAS born Greek. When not gathering grapes in the vineyards and not working in the olive groves, I grew up studying. The Iliad and Odyssey in school, the Greek philosophers and even some of the ancient Greek language, a little. Back then, I had no idea how that heritage would end up being a valuable asset in my life journey across the world, from a small village in rural Crete, all the way to America and Asia, with Malaysia being my adopted home for the last 16 years (and counting). I did not like studying the ancient stuff back then, yet today I realise my luck and count my blessings.

Throughout my corporate life, I have held positions of leadership and power and was in a capacity to influence others. I have had many mistakes and successes, failures and learnings, and I now realise how my Greek heritage has been invaluable, unconsciously throughout my journey across cultures and people.

There is so much of that heritage to distil and share, yet here I will unpack a few Greek words that I consider impactful and critical in

our journey of becoming better leaders.

CHRONOS & STIGMI - A MOMENT IN TIME

An old Greek proverb says, “Osa den fernei o chronos ta fernei i stigmi” which, loosely translated, means that what one moment can bring, time and years can’t. So true this is. And while the Greeks have many words to describe time, I find the juxtaposition of these two, chronos & stigmi, a great lesson to think through and learn from.

If we react to circumstances and to things that happen to us without “dipping our tongue in our brain before we speak and act” as my mother used to tell me, we can blunder. I have been there. Driven by passion, excitement, and not enough patience, I reacted fast and with less thinking, rather than with calmness and wisdom (what Greeks call sofia). I reacted, without wisdom and discipline, only driven by passion and impatience to take action, forgetting that I cannot control what happens, but I can control how I react. And in one moment, in one “stigmi”, I managed to changed things, sometimes good and other times bad, and created both happiness and unhappiness, having a profound impact on my life.

We can’t hurry love, or success, or knowledge. Patience is a virtue, and it requires time, chronos. Yet, as the moment and what it brings can be very powerful, the “stigmi” needs careful attention and incredible discipline, to master our reaction in it well, assess it, and act wisely, with sofia (Greek for wisdom).

Lesson to learn: One moment can affect our path for ever. React wisely.

EGO - MYSELF, ME & I

This Greek word is a source of greatness as well as the root of evil and struggle. Believing in ourselves is of paramount importance. Like Muhamad Ali said, believe you are the greatest. Believe you can. Because if you believe you can or you cannot, you are right either way. Yet believe so with humility, because humility is not about thinking less of yourself, but think of yourself less. It is about putting others first. Because people will not care of what you know, until they know how much you care.

Ego can drive us to greatness. No doubt. It can push us to be resilient, adaptable, and flexible enough to withstand any hurdle and to succeed. It gives us that stiff upper lip to be persistent and to focus on our inner strength, attack the challenges head on, conquer our fears and achieve greatness. Humbly.

When ego takes over, however, and our thoughts and actions do not have a strong component of giving back, of adding value to others, and only selfcentredness reigns our actions, we can self-destruct and isolate. Mankind is kind (thus the “kind” in mankind), yet eventually unless we add meaning and value to others, we won’t have much of a place in its success.

Ego can be a fantastic captain steering our ship to greatness, but unless the captain does not take care of the sailors, mutiny will sip in and sink the ship. Juxtaposing ego to chronos and stigmi, the ego can take over in one stigmi, and destroy our path. Yet when ego operates well in chronos, it can lead us to success.

Lesson to learn: Keep your ego in check. Let it lead you to greatness, not arrogance.

PATHOS PASSION

There are many English words related to this powerful Greek word: empathy, sympathy, apathy, to mention a stunning powerful few that have become the topic of speeches, books, training modules and more. While they have different meanings, and some do not coincide with the exact original meaning of their Greek equivalent, the root of all these words is pathos; passion that is.

While in Greek pathos also means suffering, depending on the context, I choose to translate it to a deep desire for something, ideally something good and constructive. When we put passion to what we do, and when we take disciplined action to create (which is the D in my PDA: Passion, Discipline & Action), the outcome is what the Greeks call done with “meraki”, describing something done with our soul in it, done with passion and love, when we put “something of ourselves” into what we build (in fact “passion” is the exact English translation of meraki).

Lesson to learn: Put your soul in all that you do. With passion and disciplined action, success is a given.