Switzerland’s unofficial motto “one for all, all for one” guides leadership, teamwork, and resilience at work, in the military, and at home.
When you enter the Swiss parliamentary building, look up towards the ceiling and you will see a glass dome with the unofficial motto of Switzerland:
One for all, all for one.
The motto became popular in 1868, when a severe storm caused flooding in the mountains and the Italian-speaking part of the country. The Federal Council issued a nationwide appeal for donations. The fundraising for natural disasters helped to forge the identity of our nation of will and promoted federal solidarity.
So much for the history.
I often cite Switzerland’s unofficial motto — at work, in the military, and at home. Let’s look into some specific examples.
At Work
As the Founder & CEO of Yonder, a B2B SaaS company, I know what it takes to build something out of nothing.
When starting the entrepreneurial journey yourself, one is all, and all is one.
Later, when we started hiring more people, we designed the annual targets in a way that nobody could achieve their targets without the help of others.
Ambitious revenues can only be achieved by the customer team when the sales team generates order intakes at least as ambitious. Happy customers require just as much of a great product as a great customer team. And software engineering is not an end in itself; software is made for the market and the customers.
In the Military
Switzerland is famous for its active reserve system, where ordinary people take over extraordinary roles. Originally designed for defense, it is widely used in security, politics, schools, and associations.
As an active reserve officer in the Swiss Armed Forces, I know that military guys are hands-on. They do whatever is required for the mission to succeed. Even if you think they live in hierarchies, the reality is very simple in the trenches: One for all, all for one. Everybody’s effort is required to succeed. Just like in a startup.
At Home
During the last heavy snowfalls of the year, I was trapped with my three kids in Zermatt in a 36-hour power outage. This was a time full of life lessons for my kids: In a crisis, nobody has everything they need. But many people have some things they need. The key question is to ask yourself who can support you, and whom you can support.
Can we charge Dad’s laptop in a hotel connected to the backup electricity grid in exchange for having a drink in the hotel bar? Can we trade a hot cup of coffee from the emergency stove against something else we don’t have?
Are there people in the village who are worse off than we are? Do the trapped tourists need help? Are there any lonely people in the neighborhood we could invite to play cards in the dark?
The kids learned the true meaning of Switzerland’s unofficial motto in a situation of crisis, all without being frightened.
Conclusion
It’s not just a motto, it’s an attitude for life. Sometimes you have to give, and sometimes you can ask for help. If you only give or only take, companies, societies, and families will not work.
And given that the good times are over, get used to situations where you don’t have everything you need. Besides creativity, turning to other members of society for help will be a decisive element on the road to success.
