Hippie CEO Life #10 - Observance of Juneteenth
June 17, 2022
Today, i want to share an email with you that we sent to the team this week regarding our observance of Juneteenth.
ALL:
From the very beginning, 33 Sticks was something so much greater than just an analytics consulting agency. Hila and i were just talking about this just this morning and if i can steal a line of thought from Simon Sinek, “we fundamentally change the way people think about work and life, we just happen to be really great data analysts.”
While most companies, including those that work in our marketplace, put profits before people, we have radically flipped that equation. Not just for our employees but for our clients, our partners, and our community.
The way we put people first is by embracing empathy. To strengthen our empathy, we must take time to reflect, study, and better understand the basic human condition. That while we all come from different backgrounds, worship in different ways, that it is in those differences that makes us truly whole. The stronger our ability to practice empathy, the better our ability to stand firm on the foundation of people before profits.
As we announced in 2020, as a company we will forever observe Juneteenth not only as an official holiday but a day to take time to truly reflect and learn about the true meaning of the holiday. A time to strengthen our empathy and become more complete by embracing the beauty of the different backgrounds we come from, to be part of a unified people. Not as a religion, or an ethnicity, or geographic based citizenship, but as humans.
June 19th marks the day, June 19, 1865, that enslaved people in Texas were freed from their physical bonds. While slavery was abolished years earlier through the Emancipation Proclamation, many slave owners fled to locations like Texas to continue the inhumane practice of slavery. And while we as humans have made incredible progress since 1865, there is still so much to do to not only eradicate the blatant symbols of racism that so many people feel incredibly embolden to fly in the year 2022 but more damaging, the hidden systematic racism that has been codified into our laws, institutions, religions, and political systems.
If we are unable to observe and sit with these uncomfortable truths, that throughout history large groups of people have been mistreated by employers, local and national government agencies, police departments, religious leaders, educational systems, housing authorities, and on and on and on, then our ability to empathize and create change will be greatly reduced, we will become part of the system, we will put profits before people.
Please join me in taking this Friday, June 17th and the following Monday June 20th, off of work. Not just for us to slow down and enjoy the freedoms we have but more importantly to think deeply about those who don’t have the same levels of freedoms that others are able to enjoy, not because they are lacking in any way but simply because of the color of their skin.
We do what we do so that we can fundamentally change the way people think about work and life, we just happen to be really great data analysts.
✌🏼💛
-Hila and jason
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Running a business, building a brand, being a leader, is much more than the business fundamentals of sales, marketing, and finance, it’s about taking care of your people, practicing great empathy, and doing your part to make this world a better place.
