Karl Raats:
Empathy, the willingness to walk in someone else’s shoes.
ABOUT KARL RAATS
“Empathy: the willingness to walk in someone else’s shoes. Even if that idiot is wearing Crocs. Especially then!”
I was destined to become a rhinoceros. A secret I entrusted my brother with when I was five after our dad had slapped me on the wrist for playing in the dirt, again. A little later I redirected my efforts towards becoming a goalkeeper. Down in the dirt again, even more laundry but slightly more socially acceptable.
In the end I become a journalist. And after that a business developer. And then a marketing director. And a teacher after that. Or, as a client of mine once reframed it, ‘Karl, you have the most astounding portfolio CV.’
And all of a sudden, there she was, the professional love of my life: creative thinking. Ever since that day I’ve been wallowing in corporate creativity’s horn of plenty, shamelessly, like a five-year-old that knows becoming a rhinoceros is the greatest possible good. Hands just as dirty, less laundry this time around.
