Click above to watch the full video of August Turak’s Business Secrets of the Trappists lecture at Duke University.
Service and Selflessness at Work: The Secret to Success
Click above to watch the full video of August Turak’s Business Secrets of the Trappists lecture at Duke University.
I met Augie when on the monastic guest program he speaks of here and in specific relation to Father Malachy. I was a novice monk at that time and had just left the Carthusians, a hermit order of Western Monasticism to explore Trappist life at Mepkin. What struck me about Augie immediately was his intense search for what I can only define as “altruism.” Aside from working together, memory provides me with vivid recall of a long walk we took one day, whereupon I had the good fortune to speak at length with Augie. I listened. When Augie spoke, he spoke from a place that invited listening and this is when I discovered the man I write of here. His words came from the heart. He had the heart of a monk, though I’m sure Augie went unaware of this. He was the embodiment of the type of person that was seeking for that which he had already found, or better yet, retained. Augie had what he was looking for. He brought it with him, in his being. His was such a spirit and remains such today. Intellectually curious and eager to discover his true self spiritually, Augie was and remains one of the most sincere men I have ever met. Though his own way of communicating the experience of Mepkin would differ from mine, we connected on a level that found us both sharing in the altruism which is the essence of monastic life. Augie is a “businessman” by profession, but do not be mistaken by that title, the imagery it may offer to imagination. He is a deeply spiritual man. A person of the highest integrity and of solid character. Only a businessman who is humble can learn from monks. His success is grounded in a posture of placing others before himself.
Fourteen years went by since I met him and spent that summer with him at Mepkin Abbey. I wrote to him a few months ago, to tell him of my possible return to monastic life and he replied graciously. Augie remembered every detail of our walk and talks together. He evidences here again, being “other centered” and “altruistic.” Like a strong undercurrent beneath a rapid river rolling, Augie is steady, sure and strong.
I am honored to have met him at Mepkin Abbey over a decade ago and I am blessed to call him friend and brother today.
B. Michael Foley