The Journey: A Pilgrimage Through The Ancient Kumano Kodo

My mother, Adina Brisker, passed away peacefully on October 21, 2022, surrounded by love.

She was a strong, enlightened, creative, and loving woman who lived a long wonderful life. It was not that she did not have challenges or tough times - she did - but Adina, my mom, whose name means "gentle" in Hebrew, had a strong drive to learn, to experience, to do, to be - and those defined her.

She had a combination of ambition, fearlessness, curiosity, a love of adventure, people, and friendship, and a passion for music, theater, film, art, travel, food, and parties. All of these were accompanied by a buoyant flair for style that reflected her embrace of everything life offers.

Her passionate, limitless appetite for living, and her sly humor, served as a beacon for me and everyone she touched.

I can confidently say that so much of the person I am is a direct reflection of the richness of her approach and love for life, for the creative, expansive, limitless potential for making the most of every moment we have in our limited time on this earth.

This episode of my podcast is a special one and is dedicated to my mother. Jay and I reflect on the 4-week leave of absence I took recently to travel, reflect, spend time in Japan, and walk the ancient spiritual mountain pilgrimage trail, the Kumano Kodo.

A future episode will reflect on Japan in general, a country, culture, people, and land that inspires me and that the more I get to know - the more I love and admire.

I hope that through this reflection, you can soak up that life-loving spirit that was my mom and that it will uplift and inspire you, too, to see the beauty in living every day.

Yuval Brisker

Yuval Brisker

Yuval is the CEO and co-founder of Alviere. Prior to Alviere, Yuval co-founded TOA Technologies, the leading global provider of field service management SaaS solutions.

He led TOA over 40 straight quarters of recurring revenue growth, raising $133m in capital from Draper, Intel Cap & TCV. Oracle acquired TOA in the summer of 2014 for the highest multiple they had paid for a company to date.

TOA is now Oracle Field Service, its own pillar in Oracle Service Cloud. Under Yuval’s leadership TOA grew from a two-man start-up based in Cleveland, OH to over 700 employees worldwide in over 20 countries, including the 7 largest countries in Latin America, and numerous name brand customers including Cox Communications, Dish, Liberty Mutual, Virgin Media, Telefonica, Home Depot and more.

Before founding TOA, Yuval spent years growing and managing technology ventures. He has a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Design, a Bachelor of Architecture from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and almost completed an MA in Cinema Studies from New York University. Yuval was a Captain in the Israeli Air Force.