Business Wisdom from the Ancients

October 21st, 2008 at 11:19am Bob Trojan

In today’s world of fears of recession, job losses, financial crisis and all the rest, it sometimes pays for us to look backwards to see what, if any, advice we could learn from our ancient past.  I’ve done some studying as a hobby and so I thought I’d add a few tips/sayings that I’ve learned.  Here are a few:

Be the best ever and better than the rest: Hippolochus son, Glaucus told to Diomedes in Homer’s Illiad; chapter 6.  Seems like a good way to view your business and the service to customers.

You will not achieve happiness if you don’t work hard and it’s a shame not to want to work hard: Euripides, 480 BC–406 BC one the three great tragedians of classical Athens.  Good advice for each of us.

Cleverness proves better than inflexibility (describing an octopus crawling over a large boulder): Theognis, 6th century BC.,  ancient Greek poet; Be flexible in adapting to changes in customer requirements.

Well, for now, let’s see how these work and I’ll look for more!

Entry Filed under: People, Productivity, Education & Training, Economy