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Striving Together: The Intersection of Competition and Collaboration

September 7, 2019 by Avi Kantor

“…in jazz we share, we listen to each other, we respect each other, we are creating in the moment…”1 – Herbie Hancock, Grammy award winning jazz musician

At first glance, competition and collaboration seem diametrically opposed. Competition conjures up images of winning and losing; triumph and failure. Collaboration suggests camaraderie, working side-by-side. If we’re competitors, we’re not collaborating; if we’re collaborating, we’re not competing.

But did you know that “compete” originally meant “to strive together?” It’s true. The word “compete” was originally derived from the Latin root “com” which means “with, and “petere” which means “to strive, seek, fall upon, rush at, attack”. In Late Latin “competere” came to mean “strive in common, strive after something in company with or together”2. Doesn’t that sound a lot like “collaboration?”

It turns out that as the French adopted and used the word in the Middle Ages, “compete” gradually took on the meaning “to enter or be put into rivalry with.”3 Today, it seems that there’s “friendly” competition – as in some sports or business situations – and “cutthroat competition” for scarce resources, opportunities, and “winning” in sports, business, and many other situations in life.

“I’m a fighter. That’s my culture…The longer I own this team, they’re gonna pick up more of my culture. We had ’em. We should have stepped on their throats the other night and cut their throats.” – Tilman Fertitta, owner of the Houston Rockets NBA basketball team, commenting after being eliminated in the recent NBA playoffs. 4

Rather than cutthroat competition, The Certior Group embraces the original notion of competing; that is, “to strive together” with our co-collaborators and clients to optimize wealth and wellbeing. In fact, we’ve identified collaboration as one of our core values. For us, collaboration isn’t just a nice sounding word that goes on our website and into our company literature. Collaboration is fundamental to the work that we do. Without collaboration, we can’t do the work and provide the value that we promise our stakeholders. Rather than relying solely on our own internal domain expertise, – which we certainly have in several areas – we’re invested in a process that combines not only our own expertise but also that of others. It is our belief that by striving together with other professionals, like well-performed jazz, we can best serve our clients, collaborators, and team members.

(1) Brainyquote.com/quotes/herbie_hancock_592363

(2) Origin and etymology of compete, Online Etymology Dictionary, etymonline.com

(3) Ibid.

(4) Rockets owner goes on epic rant after Warriors’ clinching Game 6, Ali Thanawalla, NBCsports.com

Filed Under: Your Team Tagged With: Collaboration, Structure, True Wealth

Lessons from El Capitan

March 7, 2019 by Avi Kantor

“If you’re free soloing it’s about perfect execution…or certain death” – Jimmy Chin

On Sunday evening, Jackson Hole resident Jimmy Chin, along with his wife filmmaker Chai Vasarhelyi, won an Academy Award for co-directing the film “Free Solo”. The movie features climber Alex Honnold and Honnold’s dramatic, unprecedented free solo climb of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.

In this interview with Vanity Fair, Chin and Vasarhelyi describe what sets Alex Honnold apart from most people, even if he weren’t a uniquely talented climber.

Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

Chai: Alex lives every day of his life with intention. He’s doing exactly what he wants to do with his life.

Jimmy: But there’s also this misperception…people think “Oh, he’s a free soloist. He has a death wish”…that’s not who he is.

Chai: If he was a daredevil or a maverick, we wouldn’t have been interested in making the film. It was actually his process, his discipline…It was kind of a perfect storm for a documentary film…real existential issues lay in the dangers involved….in his courage he was connecting with people.

Ironically, although the movie focuses on Alex Honnold it also says a great deal about Jimmy, Chai, and their team. What Jimmy and Chai said about Alex Honnold also applies to themselves and their team. It took great discipline and a unique process for everyone involved in the project in order to create the gripping drama that audiences experience. “Free Solo” is more than a film about an extraordinary athlete accomplishing an astonishing fete. In fact, this movie is the story of two extraordinary human feats: Alex Honnold’s free solo of El Capitan and Jimmy Chin’s team filming it. Chin led a highly-skilled crew that filmed the accomplishment, shooting video and photos from positions on El Capitan that few – other than world-class climbers – could even reach, let alone film or photograph from. The experience that he, his wife, and their team produced is a testimonial to what can be achieved with collaboration, a sound process, and great execution.

Most of us can’t aspire to free solo El Capitan or win an Oscar. But we can aspire to live life intentionally, with courage to face obstacles we encounter, and with discipline, collaboration, and a well-conceived, well-executed process.

Filed Under: Collaboration Tagged With: Collaboration, Fulfillment, Process, Structure

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