Courage is very important when relentless. I remember when I moved to Paso Robles and camped out in a modular. It took courage. Without courage, it’s hard to be relentless and therefore had to have resilience. Courage knows no bounds. It allows you to get out of your comfort zone to accomplish the unimaginable.
Resilience has been described as the ability to withstand adversity and bounce back from difficult life events. Times are not easy now. How do we develop greater resilience to withstand the challenges that keep being thrown at us? In this interview series, we are talking to mental health experts, authors, resilience experts, coaches, and business leaders who can talk about how we can develop greater resilience to improve our lives.
As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Daniel Daou.
A California first-growth Cabernet Sauvignon without peer, fulfilling the Adelaida District’s destiny as the world’s next benchmark for Bordeaux varieties. Patrimony is the Cabernet Sauvignon-focused creation of brothers Georges Daou and Daniel Daou, proprietors of DAOU Vineyards & Winery. Patrimony is rooted in the DAOU mountain’s unmatched alchemy of soil, aspect and climate, and realised through meticulous vinification of the estate’s noble vineyard rows. The phenolics produced here are known to be among the highest in the world, fostering an immensity of colour, depth and structure that is only enhanced by the rigorous viticulture required to make Patrimony.
Can you share with us the most interesting story from your career? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘take-aways’ you learned from that?
While I have many interesting stories, the most interesting to me is when I decided to abandon everything to pursue being a winemaker. in 2007, I moved to Paso Robles, erected a modular that had no power or water the first few months, planted the first 26 acres by working in the vineyard every day in order to pursue my life’s passions.
What do you think makes your company stand out?
Patrimony stands out in many ways by incorporating an incredible team that can be described as the most talented team of individuals that has ever built a super-premium wine brand, an incredible site that takes your breath away and that does not exist anywhere on planet earth and disruptive wines that can attain arguably some of the highest phenolics in the world for Bordeaux Varieties consistently year after year.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
Without a doubt my brother. Together we are the Ying and the Yang. Together we are unstoppable. When one of us starts a sentence, the other brother can finish it. We can walk into a room and know what we are thinking by looking at each other. Our Father used to say in French “L’union fait la force” which means our union is our strength.
Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the focus of this interview. We would like to explore and flesh out the trait of resilience. How would you define resilience? What do you believe are the characteristics or traits of resilient people?
There is a word in French that is called Acharne. In English, it means relentless. For me, to be Resilient is to be Acharne — you have to be relentless in pursuing your dream and never quitting or letting people, circumstances or events talk you out of continuing on the path you believe you need to be on.
Courage is often likened to resilience. In your opinion how is courage both similar and different to resilience?
Courage is very important when relentless. I remember when I moved to Paso Robles and camped out in a modular. It took courage. Without courage, it’s hard to be relentless and therefore had to have resilience. Courage knows no bounds. It allows you to get out of your comfort zone to accomplish the unimaginable.
When you think of resilience, which person comes to mind? Can you explain why you chose that person?
I think of my father, brother, and family. it’s a characteristic that circumstances have instilled in us. Being blown up in the Lebanese Civil War, moving to two different counties and encountering many difficulties along the way, facing death, being the immigrants not once, but twice — all of these things have instilled in our family the spirit of resilience and courage knowing that we have nothing to lose and going through life with full throttle.
Has there ever been a time that someone told you something was impossible, but you did it anyway? Can you share the story with us?
I have heard it all my life. When I was 21 and my brother and I started our first company competing against giants in the industry like IBM and EDS and SAIC. We were told you can’t compete against these companies. We did. When we moved to Paso and told the world that we will make a Bordeaux style wine that will compete with the best in the world, we were told you cannot do it. It’s closely tied to life circumstances that have instilled in us the spirits of acharne.
Did you have a time in your life where you had one of your greatest setbacks, but you bounced back from it stronger than ever? Can you share that story with us?
I can think of a few but when I was 20 years old, I was told by our dad that he could no longer send us money. We found ourselves as two immigrants in a faraway country with 20 dollars in our pocket and no family or friends that could help. We managed to get jobs, pay for our education and eventually take care of our parents by starting a company that became in 10 years the 5th best IPO on Nasdaq. When you know you have no options for an out, you become acharne in wanting to succeed.
How have you cultivated resilience throughout your life? Did you have any experiences growing up that have contributed to building your resiliency? Can you share a story?
As a described previously, life circumstances teach you to become resilient. For us it was facing death at 8 and 12 years old, immigrating to a country where we were the immigrants that had to fend for themselves, running out of money a few times to try to make ends meet, immigrating again to another country and having to face adversity again by being out of money. All of these things have instilled two things in us: first the closeness we have as brothers and second a relentless spirit that has taught us that courage knows no bounds.
I am not sure that there is a formula for resilience. Some people encounter many difficulties that teach them to become resilient. This is the story of America. This is the story of the American dream. There are countless stories about people coming to America and becoming successful and in many cases it was as a result of people coming from hardships and finding a place that they can flourish in. Life teaches you to become resilient under certain circumstances.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I wish we could find a way to help eradicate poverty in the world. There is such a gap between those who have and those who don’t. I believe the world can do this not by taking money from those who work hard but rather involving them in a worldwide effort to eradicate poverty, by making them part of the solution and not part of the problem. I believe there is a way to do this.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!