The School of Athens by the Italian Renaissance artist Raffaello depicts a congregation of ancient philosophers, mathematicians, and scientists, with Plato and Aristotle featured in the center.
The identities of most figures are ambiguous or discernable only through subtle details or allusions; among those commonly identified are Socrates, Pythagoras, Archimedes, Heraclitus, Averroes, and Zarathustra.
This one is more abstract, but its principle goes hand in hand with the exact same thing happening in Calumny of Apelles.
Plato is on the left, pointing up. He represents the ideal, what could be. Aristotle is on the right, pointing down. He represents the real, what is. Their debate is central to philosophy. Of course there is a lot of divergence, but more or less we could describe anyone’s life philosophy by deciding whether they are more Platonic or Aristotelian.
To me, this painting is very simple in its execution. As an advisor, I can never favor one side. I can’t be too idealist or too much of a realist. I have to keep both in harmony. You can't be too much of one or the other. It's too dangerous because it is only half the truth.
I call myself an aspirational realist or maybe a platonic realist. Realism is everywhere. You can't remove that. But we have to make space for idealism in there to imagine what could be otherwise we just get purely stuck in what is.
You can't play for one side over the other but you also can't strike some arbitrary balance. Sometimes we have to be idealists. Sometimes we have to be realists. You keep those in harmony with each other and of equal value. For advisors and UHNWIs, this harmony is axiomatic to success.