Interview to Eduardo Wells
I finally did my first interview, and it was such a pleasure. My interviewee was Eduardo Wells, my father in law. It was a wonderful experience; I really enjoyed the time we spent together talking and I am extremely thankful for his generosity. It was a fun experience, trying to find the best word to translate “Linchpin” to Spanish and figuring out how to translate his creative Hispanic terms and thoughts to describe the different experiences he has gone through.
Eduardo is a country man. He has spent most of his life in the field in Coronel Suarez, Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is passionate about animals, specifically cattle. As I was reading “Linchpin”, there were several times that I thought of him. He has inspired me since I met him the first time and I knew he had some of the “Linchpin” attributes and experiences that could inspire me and others even more.
The choice
“Do whatever you want to do but do it right”. I loved when he said this, it is so aligned to the “Linchpin” concept. In his early days, Eduardo worked in several sales roles in different fields like groceries, books, furniture, sugar and raw materials for bakeries and ice cream shops. He liked the commercial roles due to the interaction with different people. He was successful and he had a path but this was the time when life introduced him the first “Y”, a bifurcation of his current path into two different options: a. Continue in the commercial field in the city of Rosario where his mother lived or move to Coronel Suarez where his uncle lived and try to make a living in the field. “Life is full of Ys and we have to make the call. Sometimes, we have to trust our instincts more than our knowledge; we have to follow our heart”. He finds this particularly true in the early stages of a career. With time and experience, our minds start to rule over our hearts but in the beginning, it is all about the heart. The main idea around following his heart was about freedom and doing what he really liked. When he decided to move to Coronel Suarez, he didn’t have a job but he knew he wanted to work in the farm business. He has done that previously, when he spent some vacation time helping his uncle at his farm. He was so determined that he could overcome even the toughest challenges. When he first arrived, his uncle told him that he did not have a job in his farm, “Go back, I will not give you a job” where the exact words from his uncle. His response was “I am sorry, but you are not the only one that owns a farm in this area”. 40 years later, he believes his uncle was testing him. He was looking for a “Linchpin” to help him. His uncle had many nephews, but he ultimately chose Eduardo for his way of thinking, ability to solve problems and his perseverance, three key characteristics of the “Linchpin”. And where part of the magic happened is that he also enjoyed what he was doing, he was having fun. He would not doubt to do the most basic job, like cleaning with a broom or the toughest one in the most distant and coldest place of the farm. Eduardo would do it all, with honesty and perseverance and based on trust and respect until the very end.
As mentioned before, Eduardo enjoyed a lot working with people and sharing time with them and people enjoyed working with him as well. When he was young, he would do things that were usually done by older people, he would learn from and with them. And people would value him for his humility. He would always treat people fairly; he would be very respectful with everyone. This was to him like a University where he learnt how to do things to be able to lead in the future. With time, what he learnt was that if you want to be a leader in the farm you need to have a deep understanding of how things work there. “The people that don’t know, they don’t understand what it takes to do this job”.
The Resistance
Eduardo does not recall a time when he was afraid of something. He actually believes he has not been scared of anything. He has faced many problems in his life but his only fear is to lose someone he loves. His focus is always on how to solve the problems and nothing gets in his way. He would try not to pay attention to bad circumstances or people that would not add anything positive to his life. He acknowledges that he may have been scared, but he does not remember. “Before crossing a river, you look for piranhas, you try to understand how deep it is; it is all about intuition and calculated risk”. And he also acknowledges his wife Silvia as a key support pillar to overcome problems. They have faced different challenges and they have persevered together. Eduardo thinks that it is not possible to split the personal Eduardo from the professional Eduardo. “In order for us to be successful, we have to be able to integrate work, family and us as individuals”. He would rather do less but make it worthy and he would always try his best with family, at work and with other people.
When I asked Eduardo about Humility, his answer was very simple. Humility is the willingness to learn from someone else. What you know is what you know, what matters most is what you don’t know. It is through and with humility that we learn more. If you are not humble, you don’t learn. Humility is what helped him grow and understand many different things.
The Gift
I think that what Eduardo did with his uncle was a gift. His generosity, his passion, his unselfish commitment to his uncle was a real gift. He totally gets the concept of “The gift” and he believes that the more you give, the happier you feel. There is no greater happiness than to give. Give love, care, protection, support. Give those things that are not plentiful in your life. And the gift is also about sharing knowledge, doing a little bit of everything, learning, observing. He is upset about people who miss the opportunity to learn by observing others. We have to be like a sponge, absorb and keep what works for us and discard what doesn’t. Learn from those who know about a certain domain.
Navigating your own map
Eduardo is convinced that he has always drawn his own map, consciously or unconsciously. He knew where he wanted to go, he was organized and flexible at the same time. There are different paths, different journeys and sometimes we go with the flow but we have to always own the map. “Paper copies are to study not to live them…” When creating his map, he thinks it is better to have 1 good idea than 20 ideas that are worth nothing and he firmly believes in doing everything with excellence.
The Superpower
To end the interview, I have asked Eduardo what his superpower is. As Seth Godin described it, we need to have a superpower, something we would tell a person we have just met when introducing ourselves. He believes his superpowers are Humility, respect and confidence. It is funny how he described confidence in the interview. “Confidence is when you put your hand firm when shaking hands with another person”. He also adds honesty. That is kind of the basics. It is where all starts and what people value. And before finishing, he mentioned another superpower which is to be a person that is willing to take risks. “There is no place in the world for the lukewarm, for the average. But, you have to be kind, the one who is right in front of you is the same as you, not more, not less. It doesn’t matter whether it is the CEO or the person that cleans the building, you look at both to their eyes, at the same level”.
THANK YOU EDUARDO!
