Some time ago, I mentioned to you all about my daughter who happens to study philosophy and literature in college. Since college is over for the summer, this series is also coming to an end.  We’ve discussed multiple different ways her world of arts and my world of business coincide and have even produced a blog series from those very discussions. Today is the final version to those that I have already shared with you and it will be the last in this expansive series. While I believe that Shakespeare has so much to teach us, there are other places we should look to learn from as well. However, this day is a day we take some final advice from the greatest playwright of our time and apply it to the business world, because what Shakespeare taught us about love and war, he can also teach us about business. Today’s topic: As You Like It.

If you are unfamiliar with the plot of the play, here is a very brief summary: Rosalind, the daughter of a banished duke, falls in love with a young man named Orlando, a disinherited son of one of her father’s friends. She is banished from the court by her usurping uncle, Duke Frederick , and then takes on the appearance of a boy, calling herself Ganymede. She travels with her cousin Celia and the jester Touchstone to the Forest of Arden, where her father and his friends live in exile. By the end of the play Ganymede, once again Rosalind, marries Orlando. A series of young characters are married and the Duke is softened by this and steps down to let Rosalind’s father regain the throne.

 What can we learn from this story, which is definitely a lot less treacherous than the others we have covered so far? Well…

1. If you believe in something, be good and do everything you can to achieve your goals. Rosalind took on the appearance of a man to escape the kingdom properly in order to find her love and her father. She doesn’t give up because she believes strongly in her love and because of this she ends up finding him and succeeding in marrying him in the end. If you believe in a potential partnership or business dealing and you really think it can bring you somewhere new or great within your company, do it! Believe in yourself, and face all odds and success will be yours.
2. It is very easy to change and if you want to change yourself, do so surely. In the second act of the play, Jacques gives a soliloquy about the ways in which human life can be changed and how it happens. He talks about common paths and the similarity of human experiences. This topic is also brought up when Rosalind decides to dress as a man for preservation. She does not dance around the situation, she makes her decision and sticks with it which is ultimately very good for her. If she had changed her mind or dallied for too long, things could have ended up a lot less pleasantly. This is the same with decisions in business – if you make a decision, stick with it and do your very best with it because if you abandon something halfway through you can never see what it could have been and it is likely that it will be difficult to ever get back to where you were when you first tried it.

 The point of these blogs is to remind you that the best ways to handle your business can be found just about anywhere and the sooner you start looking, the more you will find “the answers” in places you would never expect. To stay at the edge of issues on HR and staffing, be sure to subscribe to the Human Capital Supply Chain Blog.