We live in a world that’s overrun with information, but all too often lacking in wisdom.
When we want information, we can turn to Google, YouTube, or our favorite AI tool. That’s helpful if we’re planning a vacation or figuring out how to fix the P-trap under our kitchen sink. But we’re a long way from trusting technology with the deeper questions of life – or business, for that matter.
As for information related to our businesses, we have all sorts of tech-driven tools that spit out data about things like revenues, expenses, profits, and losses, and that data often identifies trends that inform our decisions. But how do we infuse real wisdom into those decisions?
Marcus Tullius Cicero, the Roman statesman and philosopher, touched on one piece of the answer centuries ago when he wrote Tusculan Disputations. In a series of conversations with friends on topics like death, pain, grief, and happiness, Cicero drops in this quote from Cæcilius Statius, a comedic Roman playwright: Saepe est etiam sub palliolo sordido sapientia.
Translation?
“Wisdom is oft conceal’d in mean attire.” (Translation by Charles Duke Yonge)
Never miss a post about leadership, transparency, and trust by signing up for my weekly mailing list, delivered right to your inbox. Sign up here.
Or …
“There’s often wisdom even underneath a shabby little cloak.” (Translation by E.H. Warmington)
Or my favorite …
“Under a grimy coat is wisdom often found.” (Translation by Quintus Curstius)
The point by Cæcilius, and repeated by Cicero, is that we shouldn’t judge a street philosopher’s wisdom (or his virtue) by his appearance.
An additional point for us is that we often need to look beyond appearances and traditional sources to find wisdom as leaders.
That doesn’t mean wisdom can’t be found right where we’d most expect to find it – in the Bible, for instance, or in the advice of a parent, coach, or mentor who has earned our trust. It just means wisdom can show up in less obvious places, as well.
Personally, I’ve discovered wisdom …
- In the lives of my colleagues the summer I worked on a garbage truck in Pittsburgh.
- In the innocent question from a second-grader in a school I once visited in Denver.
- In a conversation with a doctor from Africa who told me several profound truths such as, “I’ve learned that dignity is not a luxury, but something that needs to be protected.”
- In the gratitude of a note a maintenance technician sent me a few years after I retired as CEO of Prologis.
In my experience, we typically make two big mistakes in our search for wisdom as business leaders.
One, we think that because we have a title, we already have wisdom and it’s our job to share it with others. Thus, we lead with arrogance and never grow our wisdom.
Two, we know we need more wisdom, but we only look for it where we expect to find it. Thus, we find it only in those expected places. But in an era of overwhelming information (and misinformation), the last thing we can afford to do is miss opportunities to filter what we know through wisdom, even if we find it under a grimy coat.
