I love Austin Kleon’s recent blog post about using a notebook as a safe space to explore bad ideas.
Rusty and I have been spinning and thrashing with our to do lists these last few days. We’re churning and swimming with a lot of new things for Badass Backpacks. [3 Critical Paths, all at the same time – (1)Making more bags, (2)Website and storytelling, and (3)Proving our business model.] While that work keeps brewing, I wanted to share the below raw bit of text I found while rummaging through some old notes, and through some of our loquacious lists of ideas and thoughts.
2013 BFD Notes, Adam & Rusty: Put Yourself Inside
“… This is an invitation to bring your full self — to think about what you put in your backpack and to ask big questions, questions that start conversations. A backpack is a vessel, it’s a companion, it’s a part of your everyday style. The inside story of every backpack is different. What’s inside your bag? What will you put inside? What does it mean to put yourself inside? We want this bag to be an invitation to think about that, with intention and purpose. For each journey that we might go on, be intentional/purposeful with what we choose to bring along. “Sincerity Inside” theme has this great visual of a silhouette “facing the FRONT”. I like that — facing the front, choosing to be present, conscious, aware and intentional – paying attention to the life that is happening right before us. While you can’t plan for screen magic, you can certainly be intentional about bringing your full self to the table. Once again, this is a full-sail invitation to do just that — to put yourself inside. …”
This snippet of text leaps out at me. It grabs my attention partly for its audacity and vulnerability … but also because of its age. This was written in 2013 shortly after Rusty had created one of our favorite Badass Backpacks Mantras: Put Yourself Inside.
I love watching the persistence of this project. Slowly, our good ideas are surfacing through the mud… bouncing their way past the muck of our bad ideas, so that they can be a part of who we become.
“…don’t ask where they get their good ideas from, ask where they get their bad ideas from … ”
paraphrasing Seth Godin from the altMBA
