Striding onto the stage in a brilliant red cap and gown, my son Ari accepted his diploma, signifying not only the completion of four years of high school but a 13-year primary education career that started in a Lego-adorned kindergarten.
As he extended his right hand to accept a handshake from his principal, images chronicling my older son’s ascent from precocious tot to maturing 18-year-old flashed in my mind.
Blessed with melting dimples and an easy laugh, Ari has long dazzled friends and instructors, trainers and coaches, with an equally striking combination of heightened curiosity and personal growth: from toying with a guitar at 12 years of age to becoming one of his school’s best musicians; from dabbling in an after-school arts class to having sketches and paintings displayed; from being an uncertain student to graduating with honors; from cowing from simple confrontations to representing his high school wrestling team.
Ari’s development has served as sign posts as I celebrate 14 years this month at what was then only CSP. My journey here started much like Ari’s first steps in kindergarten, eyeing a new culture with wide-eyed fascination and uncertainty. I remember in my first weeks as Paul Reuter and Myra Kressner debated the details of creating an online industry program tentatively called R U Online (it would be launched months later as CSPNetwork CyberConference) and Paul asking who I thought was right.
Less than a month into my new position, I sought to play it both ways, extolling both his ideas and Myra’s, until Paul blurted out, “I didn’t hire you just to repeat what Myra and I said. What do you think?” (For the record, I sided with Myra.)
As much as this column celebrates nostalgia and a yellow-brick road to CSP past and present, my mind centers on the warm embrace of Ari and his principal, of the diploma passed like an Olympic torch from master to padawan, signaling a sense of completion and the keys to a new journey.
Beginning Anew
In Judaism, every Saturday in synagogue, we read from the Bible. In the course of a full year we complete the Five Books of Moses. In our tradition, Jews of all backgrounds across all lands celebrate the completion with a festive holiday called Simchat Torah. What is striking is that when the singing and dancing are done, we re-congregate that same day, take out a Torah (which records the first five books of Hebrew scriptures) and start all over again with the reading of creation in the Book of Genesis.
It is easy to think that we are repeating, but by returning to the beginning we are starting anew, to see the ancient texts with a new sense of appreciation, with the experiences of being a year older and, hopefully, a year wiser.
We are, in a sense, graduating and moving to the next chapter.
In business, we move from day to day, year to year, in the blur of life’s gravitational pull. Some of us celebrate occasional milestones: our first transaction, a 25th anniversary or 50th.
But do we pause to recognize our own graduations? And when it comes to our workforce, do we recognize those we promote with pomp and circumstance, or, more likely, do we tell them privately and unceremoniously?
As we celebrate graduations of our children, why don’t we hold similar recognitions in our companies?
In May, Ari found a letter in the mailbox addressed to him. It was from our county’s superintendent of elections—a voter acknowledgment card. The postcard was simple, a throwaway, perhaps.
To Ari, it was not garbage. It was a keepsake, a milestone recognizing his right to participate in our electoral process and to cast his ballot one week later for mayor and our local council. It wasn’t just a moment. It was a validation of 18 years of life.
As we enter the dog days of summer and soon begin thinking about the holiday season, how will you commemorate your company’s accomplishments? How will we recognize, beyond a raise and new title, those we advance?
How will we celebrate our graduations and start anew?
Mitch Morrison is vice president and director of Winsight’s Retail Executive Platform. Reach him at mmorrison@winsightmedia.com.
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