Metaxu: The Ancient Greek Concept That Could Change How You Build Your Business

In Plato's Dialogues, he uses a small Greek word — metaxu — to describe the experience of the space between. Between our bodily existence and the otherness of consciousness. Between what we are and what we might become. Between certainty and possibility.

It means simply 'in between.' And I believe it may be one of the most useful concepts available to women building businesses today.

Let me explain why.

The Tyranny of Either/Or

We are creatures of binary thinking. Our minds are trained from early childhood to categorise, sort, and decide: up or down, inside or outside, good or bad, male or female. This system of what philosophers call univocal determinacy is efficient. It gives us fast, clean answers. It helps us navigate a complex world.

But it is also a trap.

Because when 'male' and 'female' are set up as opposites in a binary system — and when 'male' has been culturally established as the dominant pole — then anything associated with the feminine is, by definition, the lesser term. And anything a woman does that is associated with the masculine (leadership, risk-taking, vision, assertiveness) is experienced as a violation: not an enrichment of her identity, but a contradiction of it.

This is not a trivial philosophical point. It has direct, daily consequences for women in business. A woman who demonstrates the bold, decisive leadership that investors reward in men will often find herself described as difficult, aggressive, or cold. She has crossed the binary boundary, and the system punishes her for it. The either/or framework cannot accommodate her full complexity — so it simplifies her, and diminishes her.

"The either/or framework was not designed for you. It was designed to maintain a hierarchy in which you are always the lesser term. You are allowed to reject it."

Enter Metaxu

Postmodern philosophers, drawing on Plato's insight, have developed what is called metaxological ontology — a way of understanding reality that leaves the in-between open. The philosopher William Desmond, whom I consider the most profound thinker in this tradition, argues that nothing is fully defined through itself alone. Beings are defined in a rich ontological intermedium — a space of happening that is both other-relating and self-relating. He uses the word 'porosity' to describe this in-between: it is not a fixed boundary but a permeable, living space.

Applied to the question of gender and entrepreneurship, metaxological thinking would allow us to reason that 'male' does not exclude 'female,' that assertiveness does not negate compassion, that ambition and relational intelligence are not opposites but complementary dimensions of the same complex human being.

It would reduce the criticism directed at men who exhibit qualities coded as feminine — and at women who exhibit qualities coded as masculine. It would create the conceptual space for entrepreneurship to be reconceived: not as a masculine endeavour that women attempt to enter on male terms, but as a human endeavour that can express itself through an infinite range of styles, values, and approaches.

What This Means in Practice

I am not suggesting that abstract philosophy is a direct business tool. But the frameworks we use to think do shape the decisions we make and the actions we take. And I have observed, both in my research and in my advisory work, that something genuinely shifts when a woman stops trying to choose between the competing versions of herself and starts exploring what is possible in the space between.

Instead of asking 'Am I a good entrepreneur or a good mother?' — a question the binary framework forces — the metaxu asks: 'What kind of entrepreneurship is possible from the full integration of everything I am?' Instead of suppressing the qualities that have been labelled 'too soft' or 'too feminine' for business, the metaxological approach asks: 'What becomes possible in my business when I bring my full self?'

Research suggests the answers are genuinely exciting. Female entrepreneurs tend to pursue a richer set of goals than financial returns alone — balancing work and family, building strong employee relationships, contributing to their communities (Eddleston & Powell, 2008; Jennings & Brush, 2013). When these are reframed not as weaknesses or distractions but as a different and equally rigorous model of business building, they become competitive advantages.

"Social entrepreneurship data is particularly striking: women-led ventures are more innovative than men-led enterprises, especially when it comes to opening new markets. They are lead innovators — not in spite of who they are, but because of it."

The Question That Opens Everything

So here is the question I want to leave you with — not an easy one, but a generative one: What would your business look like if you stopped trying to fit into the either/or, and started building from the in-between?

What would it mean to bring all of your identities — the visionary, the nurturer, the risk-taker, the relationship-builder — into a coherent, powerful entrepreneurial self-concept? What ventures become possible when you stop managing the contradiction and start inhabiting the complexity?

In my strategic advisory practice, I work with women who are ready to ask that question and act on the answers. It is the kind of work that requires both intellectual rigour and genuine inner courage. It is also, in my experience, some of the most transformative work available.

If you are ready to explore the in-between — to build from metaxu — I would love to hear from you: NavigatingTransformation@amfortas.eu.

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References: Desmond (1995, 2016); Plato's Dialogues; Eddleston & Powell (2008); Jennings & Brush (2013); Huysentruyt (2014); GEM Social Entrepreneurship Report (2015).