This morning (March 21, 2024) I gave a keynote talk to a group of business leaders about my recent book Camping with Kierkegaard. I tried to show them the philosophical lessons that we can learn about flourishing in business by going on a camping trip. The talk went well and I hope that the attendees genuinely benefited from thinking with me for a while.
That said, on the way home from the talk, I started thinking about another keynote talk I gave a few years ago to a group of young business leaders. It came to mind in light of my Music Mondays post this week about the “Purdie Shuffle” and the philosophy of Jacques Derrida. Since I have gotten some questions about Derrida from folks who read that post, and because I have been thinking a lot lately (in preparation for the talk today) about what philosophy can say to business leaders in ways that might foster a commitment to virtue and faithfulness, I decided to update that talk I gave a few years ago and share it with you here. I hope you enjoy it.
Etymologies and Other Sticky Things
I once gave a talk to a large audience of business leaders and on one of my PowerPoint slides I accidentally spelled Business with a ‘y’: “Busyness.” This was entirely an accident, but often mistakes lead to the greatest achievements (just think about the invention of Tang!).
In light of that mistake on my slide, I did some research and discovered that, etymologically, all the way from Middle English until the 18th Century, ‘business’ (with an ‘i’) was historically the spelling for the word indicating “the state of being busy, or having a great deal to do.” It has only been since the 18th Century that we have replaced the ‘i’ with the ‘y’ in order to distinguish between one’s occupation or profession, on the one hand, and being overwhelmed with too much to do, on the other hand.
Even more interestingly, and perhaps more profoundly, the root of the term ‘business’ (whether with the y or i) is the Middle English term, ‘bisignis’ which simply meant: “anxiety”!
Let that sink in!
No, really. Think about it. Maybe having a “case of the Mondays” is actually deeply etymologically defensible?!
This basic idea that business is linked to a state of stress is also in play in Latin where the basic term for business is ‘negōtium’ which is a combination of ‘neg’ and ‘ōtium’ – which amounts to a negation of the idea of leisure or relaxation.
So, engaging in business is precisely not to be relaxed!
Well, that sounds about right. Sigh.
Look, we all know that words change their meaning in various ways throughout history, and various phrases go in and out of vogue (right, cool cat? Give me some skin, daddy o’ – high five!). Yet, philosophers and philologists have done impressive work to show that etymologies are almost like historical skeletons in our contemporary closet—they continue to hide in plain sight, even when forgotten most days.
Importantly, histories are dynamic things, but they also are sticky.
Like socks stuck on our pants after coming out of the dryer, they cling to us even when we wish that they did not. Importantly, though, it takes work to see the ways in which histories function—in other words, we might say that histories have life precisely in the present (hence, for example, the continued difficult and yet crucial conversations about civic memorials in a variety of contexts).
Sometimes we want to shake off our history in order to move out from its problematic shadow. Other times we want to let the shadow fall upon us for the shelter that it provides. Just like the painting of dogs playing poker that is meant to hide the Rembrandt underneath, it is often worth scratching a bit off of the surface of things to see what might be hidden there.
Perhaps we will find hardwood floors under the outdated shag carpet!
But, it is also possible that we will find water damage that requires us to start over from the foundations.
Rethinking Success and Disruption
Consider the impacts if we actually allowed this etymological weight to press upon us in our contemporary world:
What if the national Business Magazine were instead to appropriate its etymological history and rename itself the “Anxiety Magazine”?
What if the University Business Departments were to become the “Departments of Not Relaxing”?
What if we were to rethink the Master of Business Administration degree as the “Master of Being Busy Administration”?
When rethought in such ways, it is worth asking ourselves what one actually accomplishes by being successful in business.
Does this mean that one has successfully managed to overcome the temptations of being busy, or does it mean that one is just busier than others?
Does it mean that one has made a habit of navigating the anxiety of adult existence in compelling ways, or that one has made a habit of being anxious?
My genuine worry is that the idea of success ends up just allowing you to hide your anxiety under a financial security blanket or behind the armor of professional reputation. Importantly, though, there is no investment strategy that overcomes the human condition of being finite. There is no professional status that ultimately protects us from the fear of being alone.
Wow. I am quickly realizing that what I intended as an “inspirational” talk is not inspirational in the ways that you might have expected (or in the ways I had planned), but funny things happen when we allow ourselves to put question marks where everyone else puts periods.
#philosophyforthewin
I often tell my philosophy students that we should take seriously what others take for granted. I actually think that this is a good approach to the idea of entrepreneurship, innovation, and disruptive business practices as well.
Think about it.
We remember Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth, and Serena Williams differently from the rest because they didn’t just change the score, they changed the game.
So, my question to you is what game are you playing as a business leader? Is it one that you have inherited from others such that the rigidity of the rules is changing who you are? Or are the rules changing because of the way you play? Are you just game-players? Or are you rule-makers. Are you simply doing a job? Or are you leaving a legacy into which others will then live.
I hope it is the latter.
Hope Beyond Tragedy
Hope, like history, is a dynamic and yet sticky thing. Hope clings to us when we refuse to let it go—regardless of circumstance and irrespective of situation. The most inspirational stories of hope are those that highlight individuals who refused to give despair the last word even when so many others did. Hope changes history because it opens spaces for telling a different story. As James Cone says somewhere, the goal is to find “hope beyond tragedy.”
Think about heroes of hope like Martin Luther King, Jr., Anne Frank, Helen Keller, Jane Addams, Viktor Frankl, and countless others who stood against oppression, disease, poverty, suffering, and critique in the name of what seemed impossible. It is due to the lives of such people that we are now able to ask “why not?” about such things as civil rights, disability opportunities, women’s rights, and social justice, rather than simply be overwhelmed by the weight of bemoaning “why” things have to be the way they are.
How, then, ought we to orient our hope as business leaders? Do you hope to engage in business that matters? Or do you just hope to be seen as busy enough to be thought of as successful?
Business or busyness? Notice that the difference is one that disappears if we are not careful. It requires our constant attention, our constant effort, to keep our business from becoming nothing other than that which serves to keep us busy.
Business or busyness or bisignis? Similar to KRS-One’s example of saying “Overseer” really fast and it blurring into “Officer,” If I pronounce these three terms in ways that lean closer into their historical roots, they begin to blend together.
How will we hear what threatens to become silent? How will we see what threatens to become invisible?
Derrida in the C-Suite
In order to get some help on this front, let’s turn to a philosopher not often mentioned at gatherings such as these. Jacques Derrida was an Algerian Jew who wrote in French, he was born in 1930 and died in 2004 at the age of 74. He famously wrote an essay entitled “Différance” in which he showed how the transition between an ‘a’ and an ‘e’ was something we could see, but not hear.
Through that simple point, he was able to speak to the ways in which we tend to ignore the small stuff because it doesn’t yet demand our attention—too busy with what is currently facing us today, we fail to anticipate what might be coming tomorrow.
Flash floods are bad, but the leak that goes unacknowledged for years can often be worse.
We have all heard that we can’t sweat the small stuff. Well, let me encourage you to realize that, like history and hope, the most important things often hide in plain sight and tend to get overlooked as a result. When we pay attention to the small stuff, the things others forget about, or simply refuse to see, we resist the slide from business to busyness.
The simple différance between an ‘a’ and an ‘e’, or between an ‘i’ and a ‘y’, ends up making all the difference!
The mundane encouragement not to sweat the small stuff is meant to help us avoid the historical tie between business and anxiety, but when we ignore the small stuff we forget how easy it is to think that everything is a really big deal!
My wife told me for years that I operated according to the logic of “if only . . . then I’ll . . . “ – if only I can make to the summer break, then I’ll have time to take my son fishing; if only I can just make it to tenure, then I’ll slow down a bit; if only I can make it to next Thursday, then I’ll be able to take a day off; if only I can make it to 40, then I’ll be able to rethink my priorities; if only I can make it to retirement, then I’ll be able to enjoy myself more; if only I can make it to . . .
The problem is that we never seem quite to make it.
Well, I am now 46 and I think that I have finally shifted not only my thinking, but my living in ways that have overcome this deadly logic of “if only . . . then I’ll.” Indeed, Camping with Kierkegaard is in many ways a matter of bearing witness to such a transformation in my own life and hopefully stands as an encouragement for others to do so in their lives as well.
The point is this. When we think life is about accomplishment, about success, about “more,” about being “busy,” we forget that we must already be living in order to accomplish anything.
When we really appreciate that business and busyness are too often indistinguishable, we might be able to realize that even the big stuff that caused us anxiety at 28 or 32 or 34 is likely to be small stuff when we are 50, 64, or 81. But, if we can figure out how to see it as small stuff now, then maybe we can realize that the “small stuff” like investing in personal relationships, realizing time is limited and precious, and being defined by our character rather than by our portfolio, such “small” things are all actually the really, really big stuff.
In this way, we can shift from a logic of external accomplishment (success) to a logic of relational investment (faithfulness).
Ask yourself:
Are you a leader in business because you invite others to live into their hopes as they understand their histories, or because you just keep them too busy to pay attention to anything else?
Are you recognized as successful because you are taking the time to look under the metaphorical old carpet and patiently to scratch away the dog painting, or because you have refused to challenge the status quo?
Inspiration is about taking a breath to continue moving forward. That is what I have hoped to do in this little essay. I have tried to be inspirational, without being patronizing.
You are all the sort of people that I hope to have as friends and I hold up to my students as models of how to live. But, don’t forget that even though we can’t hear the difference/différance between an ‘a’ and an ‘e’, and even though we may think we are too busy to care much about this business/busyness occurring between an ‘i’ and a ‘y’, we can easily see the difference between someone who understands success as a matter of being better, and busier, than others, and someone who views true “success” as a matter of faithfully having made it possible that others be more effective in their own business of living and loving well.
That, I believe, is a différance that makes all the difference.
Thank you all so much for taking the time to walk with me and talk along the way. If you are a paid subscriber, please leave a comment and tell me what this post invites you to think about and ideas that it stimulates in your own life.
Additionally, this philosophical community will only grow with your help. Please share this post and encourage others to join us in doing some “Philosophy in the Wild”!
Excellent Aaron. Thanks for sharing. Really enjoyed this one. You're one of the few philosophers I know that can translate the finer points of postmodern philosophy into something that isn't only accessible, but vitally important. It's why I gave my dad a copy of your new book; the first book I've read of yours that made me go, aha, he's done it; he's broken through the muck and jargon and distilled it down to what really matters for the rest of us. Thanks pal.
Good stuff! As a small business owner, I hope to model this sort of faithful living. It is easy to get caught up in the day-to-day grind as a means to an end, but it is certainly a charisma to live and share life with others in the context of work and not simply staying busy/anxious. Thanks for this!