AJ Ifergan
Met 2023-09-12 19:00 at Numa Hotel, She’erit Israel 1 Tel-Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel.Australian. Four kids, age 19, 17, 14, 11. Older kids are very independent, come and go as they please. Little family routine such as family dinners, which are important, so home feels very much like a hostel.
He has many close friends in UAE. We found it curious that we both likened Dubai to Mos Eisley, the cantina on Tatooine in Star Wars. Dubai has a similar vibe. Attended a conference in Dubai, and not everyone there was who they said they were. Many posers - pretending to be rich, pretending to be royalty, renting expensive cars by the hour to show off.
Used to hold a senior management position at an large Israeli bank. Typical bank employees always seeking to relegate and shirk responsibility. He was intent on creating efficient processes, that would empower them more, so that things would run like a 'swiss clock', and would free up his time to focus on more important things. This led him to my first book.
There's a book about King David and King Saul, written from the point of view of King Saul's daughter. She spins the story around where King David was a really good marketer and he had access to the scribes, so the way he told the story makes him look good for future generations.
Identities can be heavy. Grandparents were Holocaust survivors, and he was in the Israeli military. Sometimes getting caught up in an identity is like objectifying yourself one dimensionally. That can never be good. Trying to let go of his identities, or the ones that do not serve him. Questions whether identifying primarily as father serves him.
There is a concept in Judaism's esoteric teachings called 'Empty words'. Words have power, to create and to destroy. And there are 'empty words'that like a tree that bears no fruit, bring no value to one another. We should aim to speak only 'words of sanctity' to one another, so that we invite and encourage the best versions of ourselves to emerge every day.