I love being married. I really do. My husband is a genuinely good person – a funny guy, a great father, a responsible provider – he takes and applies his accountant view of life to the pragmatic management of our family and lives. As his “gray area,” more emotionally oriented counterpart, we balance each other nicely, we love each other deeply, and I feel like we’ve built our partnership into a solid foundation for our family.
So marriage is great. We each take our separate, individual strengths to build each other up – to make each other, and our relationship better. Which is a beautiful thing. We also take those strengths and go out into the world, applying them to our individual jobs and lives. Because, even as part of a strong partnership, we are still our own unique people.
As someone coming at it from that mindset, I can appreciate the oft-cited reference that comes about when research suppliers say they effectively “marry quantitative and qualitative.” Take the best of both! Put them together! With lots of love! And … in a dazzling beach side ceremony! … With “Qualitative” in an intricate lace gown featuring a low back and a short train with scalloped edging, delicate beading judiciously applied throughout … I can totally see her tearing up as they say their vows, while the sun gently sets over the water. Gorgeous. So touching. I could run with the analogy all day, people …
Super neat. You know what I love even more than marriage, though? Babies. I would have 12 of them (if I were not married to a super pragmatic accountant. See above). They are hands down the best thing ever. They are adorable, they snuggle. They are new and fresh and full of goodness and potential. One of the many things I appreciate about my own babies, the product of my marriage, is seeing the way some of their characteristics are the best combination of my husband and myself.
Some of our best qualities become inextricably fused into a better version of ourselves than we could have even imagined.
I could go on about children – and particularly my own – for a while. Or, to be more precise, FOREVER.
But I have a point – when other companies say they are “marrying quantitative and qualitative” – it is a lovely analogy. But it still suggests combining two entities. Two separate-able entities. I like to think, at Quester, we’re past that. We are not marrying quant and qual. We are their offspring. Their love-child. The place where their best qualities become inextricably fused into a better version of them than anyone could have previously imagined.
It’s powerful. And it’s fun. And I like to think it’s one of the things that is taking us a step beyond what is happening in other places. It’s an exciting time for us, as we continue to advance those capabilities and take them in new directions, new places. Watch them grow up and thrive. Almost as exciting as a wedding or a baby. I kid, HA! It’s nowhere near as exciting as a baby.
But it is pretty great.
