Before becoming a corporate buzzword for mergers, "synergy" first appeared in the 1600s to describe the cooperation between human will and divine grace. It later became jargon in physiology and pharmacology before entering the business lexicon in the 1950s, demonstrating how words evolve across different professional fields.
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Linguist Anne Kerzan reframes jargon not as a flaw, but as a specialized lexicon for a profession. It provides useful shortcuts and creates a sense of shared identity for insiders. The negative perception arises from being an outsider or when jargon is used to obscure meaning, such as with corporate euphemisms.
The concept of a "calling" originated from religious vocations. Its application to secular work is a recent phenomenon, gaining traction with the rise of knowledge work in the 80s and 90s and peaking in the early 2000s, shifting the focus from divine service to personal fulfillment.
Frustration with business language isn't just about annoying words. According to linguist Anne Kerzan, it often reflects a deeper societal concern that corporate culture and its values are becoming too dominant in everyday life, expressing a worry about the "outsized" influence of business on society.
The most powerful way to build a business is to focus on a 'divine lever'—an action that is both a causal force for growth and is objectively good, serving demand purely without self-centered motives. This creates a sustainable, meaningful foundation for a company.
The word 'empathy' is surprisingly modern, adapted from the German 'Einfühlung' ('feeling into'). The original term described how people connect with art, like a sculpture, by imagining themselves into it. This aesthetic origin predates its common psychological use and explains its distinction from the older word 'sympathy.'
Constantly focusing on your one 'divine lever' acts as a global optimizing function. It forces a unique and often strange set of business decisions that, while confusing to outsiders, creates a company shape that is perfectly and defensibly fit to serve demand over the long term.
In the 19th century, this phrase described an absurd, impossible act, as one cannot physically lift oneself by their own bootstraps. Its meaning has completely inverted over time to signify succeeding through one's own efforts, despite its literal impossibility, highlighting how idioms can radically change meaning.
A primary cost of focusing on a 'divine lever' isn't financial delay, but social and professional illegibility. Your business decisions, shaped by this internal conviction, will not make sense to outsiders operating with traditional business logic, making it difficult to explain your strategy.
A key advantage for couples in business is when their skill sets are complementary. This natural synergy allows them to "share the load" effectively by splitting responsibilities according to their innate talents, helping the business go "further faster" than a single owner could.
By changing the lexicon from an adversarial "versus" to a complementary "generation and capture," Ally's marketing team created a shared language. This simple reframe aligns disparate functions toward a common goal, dissolving internal friction and fostering collaboration.
