Uncover your mission.
#9 • Stories & Lessons of Founding Baron Fig
“Get a giant pot. The biggest pot you can find.” A white-mustachioed man gesticulated in front of the class. “It should be big enough to fit a cow. Do you know what you do next? You put a damn cow in it.”
At that point my classmates exchanged sideways glances. It was our first day of Graphic Design 1, and so far this squat older man in black suspenders had been going on for ten minutes about everything but design.
“And then — here’s where it starts to get good — and then you boil it. You boil that cow for days and days. Then you go up to the edge of the pot and look over.” He paused, his thick glasses magnified his wide eyes. “Do you know what’s in the pot now?”
No one offered an answer.
He sat on his desk with a shit-eating grin. Finally he said, “A cube.”
Again, side glances drifted from student to student.
“The cube is the Essence of Cow. It’s beef bullion. Everything that makes up the cow is reduced to absolute necessity. And this — this is design.”
I never forgot this message. My teacher was trying to explain that good design is about reduction and simplicity. There is no excess, no distraction; the only thing left is the message. But this idea doesn’t stop at design — it’s a universal rule: Get to the core and therein lies the truth.
When building something it’s critical that the why is clear. It’s not easy to figure out the exact goal of an endeavor, but getting to a point of clarity is essential to making it successful.
Our mission at Baron Fig is a simple: To champion thinkers in their journey to create and inspire the world.
Everything we do is weighed against this single tenet. If it matches the goal, we’re good to go. If it doesn’t — back to the drawing board.
Joey Cofone is Co-Founder & CEO at Baron Fig. The Founding of Baron Fig shares the stories and lessons learned on the journey of creating our startup.
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