Midwifing thought

Coaching is an ancient practice.

Around 2,500 years ago, in Ancient Greece, humans were doing so much more than just surviving.

It was a culture of extraordinary cohesion — a world where philosophy, religion, politics, art, science, and civic life were woven into a single, elegant worldview that stood on its own.

The gods and myths explained the world and taught morality. And for the first time in history, democracy gave citizens a voice in their own governance.

It was a society that believed it had figured out how the world worked — and how humans fit inside it.

Then came Socrates — stepping barefoot into that certainty, and questioning the unquestioned.

He challenged priests, generals, poets, and politicians — not to insult them, but to become sure himself of the truths he was basing reality on. Because his only true certainty was this:

“All I know is that I know nothing.”

He showed that:

• Authority doesn’t always equal wisdom.

• Tradition doesn’t always mean truth.

• And real growth begins when we’re willing to say, “I don’t know.”

That idea — that truth isn’t handed down, but best drawn out from within — became the foundation of Western philosophy, science, and reason.

Socrates was the first known coach! Plato, Aristotle and the whole lot, follow him in giving us freedom of our own minds and will.

He didn’t offer answers. He asked questions that still shape how we think today.

He called his method maieutics — from the Greek word for midwifery — because, like a midwife, he helped others give birth to their own insights.

That’s the original coaching conversation: Asking. Listening. Reflecting. Revealing.

🎤 Socrates didn’t tell people what to think. He helped them face what they’d never questioned.

It upset a few people.

A world who was just starting to be sure of itself was not ready to question that.

But today — we are ready to carry on without fear. We've been sure for a while now.

Coaching is helping you birth your own truth.