Many times, the world of art and business embrace each other and share ideas. Sometimes, the foundation that germinates in good artistic and business projects springs from brilliant minds that seek an aesthetic intention or a corporate goal. The truth is that when an intelligent person detects a need, they have discovered the great vein that can bring success. Lucid minds are appreciated in all areas.
I was fortunate to interview Amin Maalouf, in the context of the Guadalajara International Book Fair, he is the winner of the FIL Prize and he told me that literature is the vehicle for a present and a future with more hope “Literature is more indispensable than ever”, especially now that we live in the era of social acceleration and artificial intelligence. Obviously, in the artistic field this is pertinent and to my great amazement, it is also relevant in the business environment.
It filled me with surprise and joy to talk with an affable, calm man with a lucidity that gave me hope. Amin Maalouf is a man committed to our times. His intellectual efforts when talking about language and how “Writing and reading are part of the development of critical thinking, reading is not an act of consumption, but rather the trench of the uncomfortable, where a conversation takes place between the book and the person who reads it.” Indeed, excellence and innovation are favorite children of critical thinking.
With my bad French and his excellent disposition we managed to talk, something difficult in our time. “A Mèxic salvem les nostres paraules”—In Mexico we save our words—he said. Amin Maalouf arrived with a white scarf over a dark suit and gray hair that refuses to stay flat. On the one hand, he had no qualms about expressing his admiration for technological discoveries, which allow me to have “at my fingertips, at any time, all the knowledge of the universe; that I could converse face to face with my children and grandchildren, on the other side of the planet; that I could participate in a conference in Milan, in Mexico”; On the other hand, he pointed out that he would never have thought that violence would continue to increase, that democracy would be weakened, that wars would not disappear.
But, Maalouf told me very clearly that he still has many reasons for hope, despite what he has seen throughout his life. “We will never return to the world we used to be,” he expressed without bitterness, “We can regret it or celebrate it, but in any case we must be aware of it in order to move forward.” He recognized the importance of collective effort to overcome the challenges of the moment, which move at dizzying speed, and it is humanity’s job to rise “above its greed, its selfishness, its prejudices.” He trusted in one of the missions of literature, which can take two paths. “Either we survive together, or we disappear together… Because it is it (literature)—that is, all of us—who is responsible for repairing the present and imagining the future.”
And, in the same way that it is up to literature to pay attention to the present and imagine the future, it is up to executives of large corporations, entrepreneurs who manage local projects, leaders of broad industrial portfolios, and managers of specific portfolios to make up for what is wrong in the here and now to elucidate how we are going to adjust our paths to generate a better future. In these moments of high uncertainty we cannot assign responsibility to anyone other than ourselves in our field of action.
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So, does literature save? I asked him and with great tenderness he answered yes and shared a secret with me: everything begins with a question, the question that inhabits your mind, the one you ask yourself when you wake up, the one that accompanies you all day and is the last thing you worry about before falling asleep. That question that makes us be humans and not machines that refer information.
And, it is at that point where art and business converge. They are the questions that inhabit our minds that aim to provide answers and purpose to our business plans, to our projects regardless of their size. When we start something, when generating an initiative, we have a question for which we are looking for an answer.
These questions are the manifestation of a curious mind that longs to find answers. Searching and finding these answers gives us purpose, generates a route and helps us understand what level of progress we are at.
For Maalouf, those questions: yours and mine are the salvation to a world that is indifferent and violent, racist and hates what is different. A curious mind is the one that allows itself to be inhabited by these questions, the one that takes the time to find these answers, the one that upon finding them, reflects on them and evaluates them to see if they are true or not and once that evaluation is justified, it makes them its own. Isn’t that the critical path of thought we should follow when launching any initiative? Stopping to think about the questions that arise to look for a new job, to open a new branch, to close a business, to start a new strategy, to move locations is what we should be obliged to do, instead of starting off blindly. If we know the question and we know the answer, it is more difficult for us to deviate.
What is the question that inhabits your mind, Mr. Maalouf? I had to ask him. With a kindness and sweetness that is reflected in his eyes and smile that filled his entire face, he answered me that his question revolves around what will be the future of humanity? And my reflection always finds reasons for hope, he told me. Neither economic uncertainty nor political manipulation nor business risk nor the attacks of progress have taken away that optimistic perspective. Optimistic but not naive.
I said goodbye with a soul full of joy for having spoken with a wise and profound man, one of those we need so much today. And, just as I was leaving, Maalouf stopped me and asked me: Excuse me, what is the question that inhabits your mind? And, that same question is what I ask you.
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Twitter: @CecyDuranMena
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