I recently checked out an article regarding ancient Greek laughter -I have no idea why - perhaps I was just intrigued by the joke that was on offer. I was more intrigued that some body two or three thousand years ago wrote a joke book in Greece and had it published. Who would have thought eh? A Greek comedian called Laupheis Histeriopolous was the first comedian of note to be recognised as the founder of comedy or laughter as a form of formal entertainment in ancient Greece.
The story goes that he used to observe what was going on in his local commuity and then mimic things and turn them in something funny. While the ancient Greeks were incredibly civilised they lacked laughter and humour. Histeriopolous became the ancient version of Robin Williams or Chris Rock and took great delight in taking the absolute mickey out of Greek society.
From what I have read I believe he accumulated quite a lot of wealth and was actually sponsored by a Greek nobleman called Givitonomy. Givitonomy literally gave away money to people in need and then learned that he could give money to people and get back in return quite a lot of recognition, which meant he could make more money to give away. So the early version of sponsorship was created and by the look of it was very fruitful.
Histeriopolous used to promote Givitonomies business. His business was teaching farmers and herdsman how to better manage their herds -and eventually branched out into all forms of agriculture. He would get paid mostly in goods, of which he would keep what he needed and sell the rest to other people. Because the farmers looked after their farms better they grew more and harvetsed more and so Givitonomy became quite famous and gathered more clients. This is where it all gets quite interesting; because his business grew, he had to employ and teach others to do the same job as him and it is recorded that one of Givitnomies employees was a man called Consultium who went on to establish a his own teaching school and so the word consultant was born into business language.
It just keeps getting better because Consultium thought a better way to do business was to get others to do it and he would have a share in their business - basically the equivalent of a modern day franchise. While the word franchise was not used in ancient Greece - Consultiums first franchise holder was a man called Levaria and Consultium told franchise holders that they to could teach and earn money Levaria's way - or by what we now refer to as Leverage.
So a chain of events 2-3000 years ago was the set up for a modern business language, a chain of events set in motion by a man called Laupheis Histeriopolous who got some financial help from a Greek entrpreneur.
I just started writing my first ebook called "Stick to the Basics - because everything else is just bullshit" This Ancient Greek story will be in the book.
Monday, February 23, 2009
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