Virtues For The Pursuit of Meaningful Work
An ongoing story about innovative and creative endeavors, told through scarves.
Over the last year I’ve been making scarves, something of a project of mine. Like all good projects, this one has a project name; I’ve been calling it Composure. Composure is a feeling, and perhaps someday it’ll be more than a feeling, something like a proper store.
Meanwhile, I’ve been talking more about virtues recently, the result of few things coming together over a number of years.
One of those things is a longstanding obsession with how we make decisions, how we form habits, how both physical and mental environments guide our actions.
Another comes from the work my colleagues and I put together last year, a sort of interactive documentary told through the stories of creative businesses. With Makeway we were in search of an answer to the question: what allows some businesses to thrive, despite entire industries being radically upended? We found that inner character matters more than ever.
Makeway came about from our backgrounds in studying how innovative businesses were adapting to a new kind of consumer. But it doesn’t take long to observe that our generation is full of young people eager to be a big part of a radically new world. They value authenticity, vision, and purpose, resonating with lifestyle brands — institutions that embody one of many definitions of a life well-lived.
Most importantly, they seek meaningful work that brings these values to life. The people Composure strives to reach are passionate, creative, and entrepreneurial.
But the path is never clear and the landscape is always changing. Anything worth doing is always disorienting, and people pursuing creative work face constant uncertainty: is this move the right one to make among countless other choices? Am I really following the right path?
Of course the reality is that we never have it figured out, we walk into chaos every step of the way.
Perhaps the right mindset is one that embraces this uncertainty, able to find an unlikely sense of balance in the tension between risk and reward. One that navigates chaos with the kind of composure afforded only by a strong foundation of virtues.
Composure is a lifestyle brand built to foster holistic well-being for those pursing meaningful work, through the ongoing development of worthwhile virtues. Composure is about rituals that develop consistency and clarity — its products will allow us to design habits that provide the self-reflection necessary to identify and maintain those virtues. I’ll be able to put an obssession with studying habits and decisionmaking to good work.
So as I continue to make scarves, I’ll also be making the assertion that by striving to hone our inner virtues as guidance we may do our best work in the face of constant chaos and change, able to find an unlikely balance among the tensions that come with pursuing meaningful work.
We’ll know we’ve done our job right when we’ve fueled creative work that matters, meaningful work that reaches others. Because we strive not just for a better self, but for better ventures — platforms for those who share our visions as creators.
I’ll be talking more about those rituals and the pursuit of meaningful work, later. For now, I’ve opened an early test market where they are available for purchase here.
Consider one as fall wraps us in its crisp embrace, or perhaps simply press the share and favorite buttons as hard as your heart commands. My heartfelt thanks. More to follow.
