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The Nature of Progress. For any of us, 'making progress' involves transitions from existing to imagined states of affairs - the better versions of the realities we all inhabit. At the most fundamental level, these transitions envisage a kind of evolution of oneself - from 'the person I am today' into 'the person I would be tomorrow'. When we imagine ourselves within those projected realities, we are picturing that we have become more able. Perhaps our capabilities or understanding will be enlarged, or our choices or independence, or our health or strength. Regardless of the particulars, we will have become different, better, more like 'the real me'.
Basic to the nature of these evolutions, however, is that in nearly all cases they are impossible without the help of others. Inherently, each of us – from pauper to prince - is incomplete. And, by virtue of the exquisite complementarities that individual diversity and variety generate, each of us holds different keys to the enabling that will overcome another's obstacles to progress.
In our firm, we view this intrinsic interdependence as the basis for the creation of value – all value. All instances of value-creation in any sphere occur because people interact in enabling ways - one person acting as the enabling key to the other's realization of a different state of affairs that for him or her signifies progress, but would be impossible without help.
As we exercise the principle of First-Order Value to enable others, our thoughts and actions are ordered and integrated in a unique way. We enjoy a clarity and efficacy that can't be found by other paths. In one of the delightful paradoxes of human experience, we 'come to ourselves' - we realize our own unique value and manifest it most vividly - by enabling others to achieve their better selves.
In the contemporary world, that achievement is both more difficult and more earnestly desired. It is more difficult because the pressures of daily life make actionable clarity more rare. It is more desired because the complex world feels more transitory and impermanent, which makes deeper-rooted meaning more precious.
Our purpose – the motivating logic for our firm – is to promote the creation of First-Order Value in all our interactions.