Why “Euda”?

I received the greatest single piece of advice of my life as a young 2nd Lieutenant just before I started flight school. A mentor of mine, a former Navy pilot, warned me about a common mistake student aviators make when the time came to list their preferences for what they would fly after training. He told me that I should resist the urge to be influenced by which aircraft I thought would be exciting or the types of missions that appealed to me. Instead, he shared that every type of aircraft has its own community, and each of these communities have their own distinct personality. The secret to happiness in Naval Aviation, he revealed, was to take the time in flight school to talk to as many different people from as many different communities as I could, and from those conversations determine the community where my personality most naturally fit.

22-year-old me did not have the perspective to recognize that this advice would be the cornerstone of happiness not just in my military career, but for the rest of my life. By now, of course, I know that he was describing “culture fit”.

Almost a decade later, my graduate school ethics professor was a retired Navy SEAL with a deep affinity for Aristotle. Through him, I learned about the ancient Greek philosophy of eudaimonia (commonly translated as “happiness”, “welfare”, and, my favorite, “human flourishing or prosperity”) and how this can be achieved through arete (generally meaning “excellence”, but I like to interpret this as living up to one’s own full potential). By searching inside themselves, individuals or organizations can discover the purpose they simultaneously love and are naturally suited for. And by pursuing arete in that purpose, they aspire to achieve eudaimonia and contribute their best selves to society.

Before I even knew what to call them, Culture Fit and Eudaimonia were the essential common threads of my life, spanning jobs, organizations, and even interpersonal relationships. When I founded a company dedicated to helping others flourish into their best selves, I wanted to capture that essence in a name.

I am excited to bring Euda.io to life, and I can’t wait to work with you to achieve your true potential.