The story behind our name

What do you think when you hear our name: enough.consulting?

What does the word “enough” mean to you? 

A few weeks ago, we told a friend and former colleague about the name of the company we were launching. Like most people, her reaction was something along the lines of “ha! I love it!” She asked us how we came up with it. We both grinned, because it is a story of serendipity. 

The list of potential names was long. It ranged from way-too-far-out-of-the-box to way-too-bullsh*ty. Some were fine, but none of them were “it”. 

Within a week or so in October, a few things happened at the same time. On the same day, independently from each other, we watched and shared Gaya Herrington’s TED talk, in which she talks about moving from “never enough” to “enough for all”. A few days before, Jess had written a song based on the concept of radical abundance, the chorus starts with the line “enough, enough, enough”.

The word was obviously on both our minds. 

This is what it means for us. 

1) You are enough. We are enough.  

We live in a world that constantly tells us that we ate not good enough, and need to be smarter, faster, more productive. To counteract this, “I am enough” is frequently used as a mantra for self-compassion, and we strongly believe in the need for inner change to bring about outer change. As one of our heroes Brené Brown says we are all “worthy of love and belonging”.  

In practice, it is about treating everyone, in the workplace and beyond, not as a replaceable resource from which we need to extract as much productivity as we can. But as whole beings with precious, complex lives and endless creative potential. 

2) There are enough. of us. 

The news can be really unsettling and bringing about a world in which we can all survive and thrive, can feel like an impossible task. We are convinced that the majority of people in the world are fundamentally decent human beings and want to live in peaceful, healthy and thriving communities. It is just, that not everybody knows how to create real change in their specific context and with their specific skills, or they are hiding from difficult emotions and realities. The problems that humanity faces will not be solved through further separation, but through connection. If we can develop the skills to connect, communicate, create with each other, then we are already calling a different world into being. 

3) enough. is enough.
We’ve had enough. It’s enough. now.  

Shout out to our friend and designer Sabine Mann who put it best when she said “When you get to the point of saying “enough is enough!” you are not angry anymore, it’s a positive feeling. You are ready to change things!” This is about the need for radical change, and redefining what we mean by success. This is both true at a global level, and at the level of our organisations. We often still use outdated models and tools for today and tomorrow’s problems. What brought us here will not get us there.  

4) There is enough. for us all.  

The pursuit of infinite growth is killing both ourselves and our beautiful finite planet. It doesn’t have to be this way. As Gaya Herrington said in the above-mentioned TED talk “I believe the only realistic plan to avoid breakdown and maintain global well-being lies in this mindset shift from „never enough“ to „enough for each.“ Change the goal of our economic system from growth to human and ecological well-being.” And this is the thing: the economic system is not this abstract thing out there: we are all part of it and our organisations actively contribute to it. We wanted to support organisations to shape their future and a more promising future for all of us. To become more “ready”, as well as to actively contribute to building a different way.  

Which one of these is your favourite?
Is there another meaning that is not included here? (tell us in the comments)