Professionally speaking, my venture into the world of CEO Peer Advisory Groups began in the spring of 2010 after accepting a position to lead corporate communication at Vistage Worldwide. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, Vistage had fallen off the national media stage, and the CEO wanted to raise the company’s profile, so he hired me to make that happen. Before accepting the position, I explained that to do my job effectively, it would require my venturing outside the confines of its San Diego headquarters and into the field where the real work for CEOs and business leaders was being conducted. Only then could I truly understand the business and earn the kind of credibility internally and externally to make a real difference. Fortunately for me, he agreed.
Early in my career, I enjoyed the good fortune of working with The Stop & Shop Companies, a publicly traded diversified retailer in New England. Back then, we always reminded each other that there were no cash registers at headquarters. The closer we could get to the customer and what happens at the point of sale, the more effective we could be at our work. It was true then and during my time at Vistage, where, through the generosity of countless Vistage Chairs (group leaders), I experienced the magic of these forums firsthand. Little did I know it would spark a passion for this work I could have never imagined.
French novelist Marcel Proust, considered one of the most influential authors of the 20th century, is famous for authoring the longest novel ever written – a 1.2-million-word narrative, published in seven volumes, titled In Search of Lost Time. To put that in context, Proust’s book is more than double the length of Tolstoy’s War and Peace. The reason I am citing Proust is that the following quote speaks to the heart of why seeing things for ourselves is so essential to building understanding: “We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.” Turns out, Proust could be succinct, too.
Lesson Relearned
My wife and I recently returned from a trip to Italy and Portugal. It was the first time we left North America since COVID, and it sparked a renewal of what we have always seen as the power of travel. We visited our good friends Mike Dias (CEO of Scaleup Valley) and his wife Mary Menezes in Portugal, where our time together in Porto, Ponte de Lima, and Guimaraes provided unique culinary and visual experiences and a renewed sense of what the country of Portugal means to the world. Try as we might, it’s not something you can experience in a Zoom call.
“We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.” –Marcel Proust
Our time in Italy and Portugal also connected us with people we’d never met from Chile, Uruguay, Canada, Germany, the US, and countless other countries. Ships passing in the night, if you will, exchanging brief yet beautiful exchanges that we, as peers (which we were for those brief moments), could relish for the rest of our lives. They are meetings that feed our souls and remind us that we are part of a one-world community. Whether it was our view from the stands to the arena in the Colosseum or from the floor to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, physically being there places you in a world that’s what was and what is all at the same time. It’s both indescribable and utterly understandable for anyone who has ever been anywhere.
What Did We Take Home with Us?
For starters, there’s nothing like being there. This point is valid for all aspects of our lives. If there is a meeting you are thinking of skipping because you believe the meeting will go on without you, it will, but it will be a different meeting. If you suppose you can draw conclusions about what is happening in the field by looking at an Excel spreadsheet, think again. Go there and see for yourself. And if you somehow imagine you can understand how people from other parts of the world think and feel by reading about it online, you can’t.
Finally, let me say that I grew up in New England and have since lived in Florida, Colorado, and now southern California. I have since visited all 50 states, 6 provinces in Canada, and several parts of Mexico. I was 40 years old before I ever traveled outside of the US. While I have been to nearly 20 countries, I realize there is so much more to see and learn so I look forward to making up for lost time.
That said, I am grateful for where my travels have taken me, as they introduced me to a vocation I love more than anything I have ever done professionally. Best of all, my travels to California and Vistage are responsible for introducing me to the love of my life – the amazing woman with whom we celebrated our wedding anniversary together in Europe. While I appreciate home more than ever, there’s also more life to live, more places to see, and so much to discover about ourselves and others. Let the journey continue.
“We travel not to escape life but for life not to escape us.” – Anonymous
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