On Terroir and Ranch Dogs

June 22 2024. By Carlos G.

Compliant with what is expected from an overeducated financier like me, I have recently been attending wine tasting events. They have been extremely helpful, for I have learnt all about how to pronounce Syrah and how to distinguish tobacco from leather notes. But the most profound concept I rediscovered (rediscovered indeed, but that’s another story) is the concept of “Terroir”.

Terroir

Terroir is the French word par excellence. The word Terroir somehow manages to condense all of what happens when humans live in a community for many, many years within a specific geography.

So what exactly happens when humans interact with the natural randomness of a certain territory and try out many different ways of doing things, different ways of coping with life, love and loss? What happens when generation after generation the young listen and learn from the old? Knowledge is created, workmanship is refined, and volatility is tamed, that is what happens.

What I’m saying here is that sommeliers call Terroir the actual knowledge, that is so unique, that some part of it can be bottled and exported.

But please, let me propose that from millennia of human experience also comes a non-alcoholic knowledge. The one I call The Ranch Dog knowledge, not very French terminology, I know.

The Ranch Dog

Time for a little story, the time a client of mine gave me some tough love, the kind of love you would never brag about with your MBA classmates. This client was a self-made, no-bs businessman, he walks to me after hanging the phone looking quite upset and tells me:

-Of all the bankers I work with, you are the most effective

Okay, so far so good, I think to myself. And then he continues:

- I love that you are a Ranch Dog.

Surely, it was after the 10 seconds of uncomfortable silence and my left eye twitching uncontrollably that he decided to provide further explanation for the canine concept.

-Yes, a Ranch Dog… the other bankers I’ve met are conversationalists, extremely well-versed in everything except my business, but you, you are a Ranch Dog, like the one grandma used to have, the kind you keep in the back yard whenever there is a party going on, but the first one you come to when there is a burglar trying to get into the house.

Okay, and maybe it’s thanks to the years of therapy I had to go through after that event, but I decided to extrapolate (for my own mental health) the concept of critically important, actionable, independent and unpretentious knowledge to a ranch dog.

The knowledge of the Ranch Dog will save your life, even if it does not come with a fancy degree and the letters PhD attached to it.

The Ranch dog does not overthink, he (allow me to use he instead of it) is not trying to mathematically prove the unprovable, he knows the truths of nature are applicable to everyone and he does not believe in self-proclaimed gurus.

He does not look around to see what other dogs are doing, if it rains, he gets inside and lays next to the fire, no second thoughts. If he sees everyone playing around with the new angora cat while leaving the food unchecked, he will treat himself, no questions asked, no externally imposed regrets will haunt him that night.

The Ranch Dog knowledge will help you see past the collective delusion of well-intended people who are unconsciously mimicking and outsourcing their learning to an abstract entity who “knows better”.

This knowledge will let you live more, hopefully so you can thrive in a community filled with authentic, meaningful connection. So you can keep finding actual ways to live better, love better and yes, to eventually, lose better.