Some years ago, I was invited to join a cohort of U.S. tech leaders on a curated journey through the Middle East, meeting with local tech leaders of all stripes to build bridges to the U.S. industry.

At the end of that experience, we were asked to write down one word for each of the other people that captured what they brought to the collective and should aspire to embody. We were then asked to select one of the words given to us as our aspiration.

One person chose a word for me that I had not heard before. Being a word-person (pretty sure that’s a thing), I knew instinctively that, regardless of its meaning, it would be my word. I told this person, that while I didn’t know its meaning, I was choosing his word and asked him to share his rationale for selecting it. I was humbled, honored, and challenged by their response.

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Here it is:

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“The feeling you give me swirls somewhere in the gossamer of: cared for, nurtured, protected, ballast against turbulence, warmth, enlightened wisdom in a sea of disarray, and steward of growth. Those are mere fractional components, each insufficient single descriptors of you. Many of these qualities are unusual to come across in my daily doings, so there's a lone ray of contrast nature to them when put in context. This is all nicely encapsulated, however, in the metaphor of standing in the cold and feeling the sun's life-giving force. QED --> Apricity”

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My core philosophy is simple. I aspire to bring the feeling of Apricity to every human I interact with, every time.