"Mann kann nicht mit den Adlern fliegen, wenn man mit den Tauben arbeiten muss."
I think and hope the above phrase means “you can’t fly with the eagles when you have to work with the pigeons,” in German. One of my bucket list items is to be conversational in 10 languages. I think I am over the halfway mark in this quest and very much a student!
We believe, regardless of their past or current circumstance, anyone, any organization, and any community can become as smart, powerful, and proud as an eagle, and soar like one, as America has so often in its short life span as a country. As individuals, organizations, communities, and as a nation we are at our best when we celebrate our differences and combine our strengths for worthy goals.
That is why we are reinvigorating Samiracles Consulting and launching this new website.
Helping Others
As some of you know, I left the corporate world relatively early, at age 49, a goal in the making from age 29. At that time, I recognized the profound inner joy and intrinsic reward I felt from giving back through volunteerism. I loved what I did in my corporate life and had a long runway for career growth, but I felt there was a different calling for me, to help others build better lives for themselves.
I considered leaving then and moving into the non-profit world, but my amazing father, an immigrant, drilled it into our heads, to save up for retirement, from a young age. He believed that companies would eliminate pensions before I got to qualify and that social security benefits might not be around by the time, I was eligible. He was right about the former and could be about the latter, though hopefully not.
So, I started planning at age 29 to achieve, accomplish, and earn what I could by age 50, and then take a different path. I was very fortunate: the plan came together a year early and I ventured into this new phase. I now spend about half of my time doing management consulting; I thrive on complex problem-solving and interactions with all kinds of people; and I have an old beach house--right on the ocean--that is both a constant source of immense happiness and requires a lot of upkeep!
The last seven years of this journey could not have been more amazing, surreal, and breathtaking. After a few years, I was able to find that balance of management consulting and giving back. These years have been incredibly eye-opening in many unexpected ways, most notably that the “work” I do in the consulting practice is changing lives.
I have seen, felt, and heard from so many of you, about your evolution to become eagles and how that has enabled you to take your teams, boards, companies, or law enforcement officers into “eaglehood” with you.
The epiphany over the last few years is the multiplicative effect of what we do at Samiracles Consulting. Just today, I was co-facilitating a workshop that I developed for a client with about a dozen leaders. Those dozen leaders collectively lead over 1,000 employees. The impact of this workshop on their leadership will be multiplied through those employees, and not just at work.
When you create a place where everyone can be their authentic selves, use their natural talents, and are appreciated and included for what they say and do, you create eagles, both in their personal and professional lives. Like the rings expanding around a pebble dropped in a lake it ripples out through businesses, organizations, families, and communities.
One day last week, three different people said the same things to me, which made me happier than winning the lottery. In Arabic- language number 8 (of 10) on my bucket list, I believe it is "'ant tajeal hadha alealam mkanan jmylan" and in English, “You make this world a beautiful place.”
So instead of yielding to the proverbial “7-year itch” and going off to do something different, I am going to double down on what we do at Samiracles!
We See Beyond...
I have assembled an amazingly talented group to help take our mission even further: helping individuals, organizations, and communities identify and achieve their best selves--which we extol throughout this new website.
In Italian, it is “vediamo oltre,” or "we see beyond."
To A Beautiful Place
If we can help you soar even higher and help you guide someone, some place, or some entity to become eagle-like, then we can create an army of strong, centered, empathetic leaders around the globe, and we can all make this world a beautiful place.