Having been born in São Paulo, Brazil, Gabriel Fairman, (Bureau Translations CEO) grew up speaking Portuguese. He also learned Spanish early on from his Argentine father and picked up English attending American schools, where he was also taught French. At Swarthmore, he learned Italian during a semester abroad in Italy. And, in his senior year, he began studying Mandarin Chinese, which he polished during a 5-month stay in a Zen Buddhist monastery in Taiwan.

So it's not surprising that Fairman -- now back in São Paulo -- makes his living working with words, as CEO of Bureau Translations, a global translation firm where translators interpret in over 20 languages.

Beside his love of languages and translations, Fairman has a penchant for philosophy and psychology -- thanks to his College courses, he says, especially those taught by Frank and Gil Mustin Professor of Psychology Emeritus Kenneth Gergen. Fairman graduated with a special major titled The Death and Rebirth of Human Agency.

"This is just a fancy name for the study of how people are impaired in their decision-making by influences subconsciously engrained as a result of their culture," he says. The rebirth of these processes occurs when we become actively aware of this cultural conditioning of our modes of thinking and allow ourselves to be open to alternative explanations for human behaviors, rather than passively seeing only one "right" explanation. "I could never really accept any one way of thinking as the ultimate way," Fairman says.

Fairman's route to his current job at Bureau Translations was not a direct one. After months of monastic routine "working as a gardener, meditating, teaching English to children at an orphanage inside the monastery, and practicing kung fu," he worked at a New York consulting firm for a while, followed by a year with his father in international trade and 6 months in the export department of Brazil's largest mineral exploration company.

Back in São Paulo, Fairman was struck by the clash between the harshness of the business world in "this do-or-die, cut-throat city" and the insights he had gained in his pursuit of philosophy and personal inner exploration. "I was disillusioned by business practices that put the importance of human relationships in the background, so I took over the home business my mother founded 25 years ago and turned it into a start-up translation company that had at its core an emphasis on relationships," he says.

In light of Fairman's drive to reach beyond the limitations of culturally imposed perceptions, his choice of profession--in which he must strive on a daily basis to reconcile the cultural differences that reveal themselves through language -- seems entirely appropriate.

His staff -- experts at building connections through language -- are expected to be equally adept in forming relationships based on traits like tolerance of differences, understanding, and compassion.

For example, Fairman describes Bureau Translations being commissioned to translate a set of highly sensitive documents pertaining to a multimillion-dollar contract between a Brazilian company and Chinese company. "We had to understand the thought process of the Brazilian supplier and figure out how the wording in the original Chinese version of the contract would fit within this context. Brazilian texts are typically not concise and are often filled with flowery language. So, with the help of consultants, we examined the language of the original Chinese document before translation. Then, after translation, we consulted with lawyers in both countries and did more rewording or rephrasing before producing the final contract," he says.

Fairman's carefully chosen staff at Bureau Translations comprises 15 in-house consultants and 35 translators. All spend a fair amount of time in the office attending training sessions, seminars, or presentations. "I am looking for people who have the basic set of characteristics needed for working in a company, such as punctuality, diligence, and thoroughness," he says, "but above all, they should be able to understand and accept differences and be willing to learn from these differences, not just sit back and accept the status quo."

At weekly meetings, employees share ideas on topics such as project management, translations, health issues, and company-client relationships. "We have a continuous learning system," Fairman says. "I'm trying to balance my theoretical background with the pressing demands for productivity to build a business based on harmonious and evolving relationships rather than just a product."

--Carol Brévart-Demm