//Respect//

A friend purchased his dad’s graphic design studio and it’s now a premier creative agency. Our working relationship and friendship began in the analog world of brochures and, over a couple decades, has continued into the digital world where they provide innovative leadership.

Along the way, he’s remodeled their building multiple times. Unassuming from the outside, it’s a digital Disneyland inside. On a tour of the facility, he unlocked the door to a small room in the basement. As the lights turned on, so did his smile. “This,” he said, “is where I come to think and gain clarity.”

Gesturing to the large layout table, graphic designer utensils, pivoting desk lamps, and backless stools, he explained that the room held the original tools of the trade his dad used in the studio’s early days. “I love this space because it reminds me of where we’ve been.”

Did I mention that he owns a premier firm and has figured out how to also partner with organizations that improve the world? My friend has a humble, grounded view of true success.

That brief moment breathing in his firm’s history delivered a timeless lesson; respect the past in order to inform perspective about the road ahead. So many answers for today’s challenges already exist for those willing to revisit experience -- their own or that of others.

Such a simple journey could start with esteem for ancient wisdom:
“For what does it profit a man to gain the world and lose his soul?”

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©Copyright 2021, David Staal, all rights reserved

©Copyright 2021, David Staal, all rights reserved