Since I was a kid, I’ve been told I’m part of the Leslie clan. I still don’t quite know what that means for my identity — but I’ve always cherished the idea of belonging to something older than myself.
So I dug into the clan’s history. Around 1067, Queen Margaret of Scotland forded a swollen river riding behind her chamberlain, Bartholomew Leslie, gripping the belt at his waist. As the horse stumbled she cried “Gin the buckle bide?” — will the buckle hold? “Grip fast!” he answered. It held. She made those two words the family motto, and the buckle its emblem — the one our mark still carries.
The more I sat with it, the more it captured what consulting and advisory mean to me: hold your grip when the ground gives way, and stay steady until you’re across.
Grip fast.
