By Leonardo Faig

Wolf pack and strategy is a popular picture with an interesting point of view. You can see three wolves in front of a group. The elder ones, they have to be in front of the others because they are weaker and need their own time to advance. Next, you can see the five strongest wolves. In the center of the group, the other wolves. After them, the other five strongest ones. They stay in strategic positions to defend the other wolves. At last, you can see the Alpha Wolf. His role is important because he can see different enemies, in front of the group and also in their back. He can decide which path they will choose and check if any of the wolves have some problem. The elders moving in front of the others have the function to lead them. The other wolves keep up with their rhythm. They do that to help each other. This is the meaning of the picture you see on the internet. But it is not completely true.

If you look into information on internet, you will check that wolves don’t behave like that. According to BBC, the pack was going to hunt a bison, and the “alpha female” wolf was leading the entire group, creating a track so they could save energy to attack the prey. Since the wolves don’t have natural predators, they don’t have the concern to be aware of something trying to attack an entire pack. Besides that, the expression “alpha” is also something that doesn’t exist inside the wild environment. They try to work together to help each other, no matter what.

This idea of working together can be used inside the translation field as well. Since we are in a different environment, trying to reach our clients, it is important to help each other instead of trying to become bigger than the other professionals by yourself. Sometimes we can be tempt to do that. But believe me, somewhat you will need help from a friend. The most important word for professional translators is “connection”. Connection in the sense of connecting with other people, helping each other, giving pieces of advice and asking for pieces of information, sharing knowledge, growing as a family and also connection in the sense of studying the world. Well, the translator has to know a little bit about everything, read a lot and be informed with what is happening in our world, because everything around us can be used as material to work and develop more information to other people. Imagine yourself being the “Alpha” wolf in a pack. The other wolves are everyone in our world, like our clients. We want to lead them forward but also work and grow with them. To do that, we have to work as a good leader, a good “alpha”, a great professional and also a great human being. And think about that: It doesn’t matter if you are a great professional. If you aren’t a great human being, you have nothing. This is the real meaning of being a great “Alpha” for your pack.

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Writer Leonardo Faig is Brazilian Portuguese and English Language and Translation Intern at Modlingua, India's No1. certified translation and Language service providers based in New Delhi