December 9
CEO Blog: It’s the People, Not the Place
Carolyn Bradfield
We’ve just finished our first week on our cruise through the Caribbean and watched our newly found friends disembark from the SeaDream yacht. When there are only 100 passengers on board, you get to know them intimately. They all have incredibly interesting backgrounds that you uncover over a drink at the bar or when they join your table for dinner.
Let’s take the tale of Gus and Maria. They are natives of both St. Thomas and Germany respectively. Maria met Gus at a party in Cambridge, Massachusetts and he was instantly smitten. After they met, Maria left Gus at the party and being an enterprising young man, he tracked her down. They instantly connected and decided to get married.
The problem was that Gus was black and Maria was white and it was 40 years ago when the world wasn’t nearly as tolerant. Maria’s family from Germany disowned her and the two finally settled on a country to get married in which happened to be Nigeria. Had the family met Gus, they would have discovered that he graduated from high school at age 13, went on to earn a degree in engineering at MIT, then a PhD, then an MBA. He worked for Arthur Andersen for years as a high level consultant. Meanwhile, Maria raised wonderful children, with one becoming a doctor in San Francisco and the other a financial analyst in Boston.
It was interesting to gain their perspective on being an interracial couple, and quite successful personally and financially. They shared their discomfort at traveling to some areas of the United States over their marriage and their relief as times slowly but surely began to change. Her family relented over time and accepted Gus for the fine gentleman he is. Things have a way of working out.
We don’t often hand out or take business cards on trips, but Gus and Maria are people we would love to see again. They live in Boston and St. Thomas – what a great life! We forget how much times have changed and how people have progressed past their paradigms of what makes a proper couple and a good marriage. It’s people like Gus and Maria who show the courage to have followed their hearts years ago when the world had not yet caught up to them.
Carolyn Bradfield is the CEO of Copper Conferencing. To learn more about Copper Conferencing, visit our website at www.copperconferencing.com.
