Preliminary Notes from the Author — Marco Borgato:
‘The way of the butterfly’ is a living breathing writing-video-visual project to discover the startup #FashTime. Moreover, it’s the first project of the publication project “Startime, the new way of perceiving startups and startuppers”. Finally, it aims at being the reference for those startups/startuppers who are going to make use of the publication.
Interesting facts: the title takes inspiration from the FashTime’s logo (a colorful butterfly) & philosophy and from the following poem by Z. Abbas ‘It takes time’
First of all, you can go click whatever story captures your attention from the ‘Latest Stories’ and ‘Table of Content’ sections (here below). It’s a more fractioned, indipendent and fast way of discovering content. (ps. the Table of Content may contain pieces that still are a work in progress).
Alternatively, you can follow ‘the way of the butterfly’ directly from the FashTime’s Story Box (at the end of the Table of Content). It’s a more seamless, organic and book-like way of discovering content.
Moreover, you can go back and go through each featured page (accessible from the home) in order to easily filter content :)
Ps. If you are a startup/startupper and you want to create content, click here 🔥
Latest Stories
*
[links to new stories are gonna appear here]
*
Table Of Content — Links To & Notes about all Stories
Introduction & Startup’s Origin
#. The Key: Living a life of gratitude can make you happy
Notes from the Author — Marco Borgato:
Dedicated to the most influential people of my recent life journey (and future one).
I quickly mention what i’ve been through in the past 2/3 years, recognize those moments of extremely weak energetic presence and reveal my fresh new enthusiasm for the upcoming future.
I then give open vent to my personal tribute.
##. I Put Out The Universe What My Dream Is: That is how they become true
Notes from the Author — Marco Borgato:
Through this creative poem, I aim at showing my approach to life and the power of sharing our true dreams, visions and ideas with the world. At the same time, I recognize that the act of “sharing” can be a challenge and often is misinterpreted.
I mention FashTime as an example of my romantic living breathing dream, vision and idea processing, that I’m willing to share with the world.
###. The Beginning…A moment Of Impact: Madison, Love, Entrepreneurship
Notes from the Author — Marco Borgato:
It all started from a moment of impact.
We can say my new life journey… my heart journey, my entrepreneurial journey… started thanks to a 4-months exchange program in Madison, Wisconsin.
A spark, Love.
My short biographical video summarizes that life-changing experience.
Inner Experiences & Heart’s Journey
#1. (interlude) The Definition of Perfection: Will I experience it again?
Notes from the Author — Marco Borgato:
This interlude summarizes the starting point of my 3-years journey and it portraits the essence of perfection.
‘The definition Of Perfection’ is about my exchange program between Madison, Chicago & New York: 4 months during which I had the privilege to experience the most perfect moments of my life and lay the foundations for my future. Not surprisingly, my entrepreneurial journey started during that period.
All good things come to an end, but the question is: how many times will we experience true perfection in our life?
#2. Honorable Mentions: Dear Professor, You Broke My Heart
Notes from the Author — Marco Borgato:
This piece deals with the fact that people sometimes choose to push you down instead of lifting you up. The perfect example is what I experienced with a university professor few years ago, some time after my exchange program:
During that period, I was certainly naive, still not well trained for entrepreneurship. I didn’t have a perfectly clear and structured life purpose, vision statement, mission statement and idea yet. What I owned though, was the romantic dream of making an impact on this world and I was willing to share my great enthusiasm with people to change the world for the better, together.
That professor stepped on my dream and enthusiasm. I was hurt and broken inside. Personally though, I chose to not give up on me and my dreams. I rolled up my sleeves and kept working harder. However, how many people might not be able to transform negativity into positivity?
The first purpose of this piece is to say “hey professor, you are wrong and everyone who thinks and act like you is wrong too.”
The second purpose of this piece is to say “hey everyone, believe in the beauty of you dreams and don’t let people bring negativity into your enthusiasm. Life is all about positivity.”
#3. Mentionable Rants: Me, speaking to the universe
Notes from the Author — Marco Borgato:
This is me, speaking to the universe.
I had to pay attention to my heart and love myself again while still pushing hard on a bunch of different things.
‘Mentionable Rants’ is portraying that period of my heart journey full of darkness, rather than light. My ‘love-related’ heartbreak paved the way to negativity. This piece is about me, dwelling on the past, feeling that sense of refusal from the universe and that sense of missing a life purpose.
But let’s get to the good part. There is hope, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, the best has yet to come out of you and know that “Hey, if Borg did it than I can do it”.
If you don’t get lost, there’s a chance you may never be found and even the no sense eventually makes sense.
#4. The Importance Of Allowing Yourself To Truly Love
Notes from the Author — Marco Borgato:
A story about Loving, Dreaming & Changing for the better.
‘Mentionable Rants’ is about negativity. ‘The importance of allowing yourself to truly love’ is instead about that part of my heart journey where I decided to make a step back, acknowledge the past, react, re-discover myself and find a new life purpose.
Through this intense biographical story, I talk about how I loved, not who, not why. I acknowledge the power of allowing ourself to truly love. I show what True Love for one person means and what it’s capable of achieving.
Again, all good things come to an end. I’m humble to recognize FashTime, together with my recent vocation toward entrepreneurship, as the result of that inspirational genuine love I experienced during the previous months.
#5. A Letter From My Future Self: Our future is written, we write our future
Notes from the Author — Marco Borgato:
The tricky part of riding an emotional roller coaster is that sometimes you’re up and sometimes you’re down. During a moment of weakness, I let negativity enter my life, once again.
Even in this case, I decided to make a step back, acknowledge the past, react, keep myself together and not let my new life purpose fade away.
This Time, I follow a different creative-writing approach: this is an imaginary letter I received by my future self, back in 2013, during the end of my exchange program in Madison-Wisconsin. The letter portraits myself and reports some of the facts I’m going to experience during the following 2/3 years (especially with respect to Love and Entrepreneurship).
I believe this piece helped me to understand whether I was still on the right track towards my dream. Moreover, it wants to show how our future is actually written. By us.
#6. (interlude) Back From A Romantic Interstellar Journey: I did suffer from jet leg
Notes from the Author — Marco Borgato:
This poem celebrates my final re-birth.
At the surface level, the poem appears to be a nostalgic reminiscing of a human presence and of a past that looks light years away from the present.
Instead, this is me… coming back from my romantic interstellar journey and reminiscing with a smile a few moments of impact from the past: I’m good, I feel healthy, I changed for the better (and I keep doing it) and I’m ready to take off again towards other interstellar directions.
#7. Together: Broken Hearted, let’s create…
Notes from the Author — Marco Borgato:
This an imaginary dialogue between me and a brilliant, creative, emotional, charismatic, entrepreneurial girl who used to believe in Love.
The girl is following my same emotional rollercoaster or, to put it differently, she represents my self and a delicate transitional period of my life. Since the umpteenth heart break, she’ve been struggling to not lose her confidence, her romantic dreams and her enthusiasm, while keep being creative and creating. Moreover, she’ve been on a inner-journey to figure out her sense of purpose, vision and mission again.
This is my message to her. If only she would decide to open her heart and go out tonight…we might create together.
*Inspired by my own experience and a story I’ve recently read on Medium.
Startup’s Overview & Journey
#i: That incredible sense of purpose… An inspiring Vision, a powerful Mission
Notes from the Author — Marco Borgato:
It’s all about opening your heart to people. It’s all about making people feel part of an inspiring vision. It’s all about implementing a powerful mission, together. It’s all about being moved by an incredible sense of purpose — The Why.
We simply want to make an impact on this world and to involve people in our journey.
#iv: New Startup Models: Me and my Startup’s Origin + My Heart’s Journey + My Startup’s Journey = FashTime Itself (today)
(Work in progress)
#v: Mentionable Team Fights: Yes, founders fight…a lot
(Work in progress)
******************************************************************
In the past 2 years, I’ve spent tons of time and emotional energies on my ideas and projects (and heartbreak). Risk, confusion, fears, misunderstandings, cries, sometimes isolation. Uncertainty.
I know. People might have seen me, sometimes, acting weird or being in a weird mood. But that’s ’cause I’ve been on a constant emotional roller-coaster. Things extremely difficult to translate into words have happened to my recent life — journey. Light and darkness. Love and fear.
It helps to have real people next to you. Not many. Just real people. Not fake love. A call. Skype. A text.
It’s Key 🔑
Now, I’m excited: I can finally think just about my start up and other ideas, for the next months (even though these next months are still gonna keep Uncertainty alive).
So, I dedicate this special day full of bless to…
My parents.
Thank you, Mami and Papi, for the constant support, sacrifice and presence. You are my pillar. I know, it was hard for you to understand what I had in mind. My ideas. My choices. So, Forreal. Now it’s time to pay you back.
My Bromance.
Thank you. Damnnn, I cannot even imagine where I would be today were it not for that handful of real friends who have given me a heart full of joy. I learned a lot from you. Shout out to my Bromance. Bromance for life.
My ex(change) roommates.
Thank you. We started the entrepreneurial journey 3.5 years ago without knowing shit about entrepreneurship or start ups. Back in the days, we came up with OUR idea. OUR babe. Well, we were too young and naïve but you know what? You always need a spark of enthusiasm: if I’m here now, it’s also because of you.
My Squad.
Thank you, for the daily dedication and for the passion you have been putting since the very first day that I met you. You decided to embark on this journey and believe in this project even if you could catch so many planes. You could aspire to different careers, places or destinations. You chose the most difficult one.
My ex professor.
Thank you. You fired me up with your “You should stay grounded. Don’t fly too much. Reality is different. Watch out with your dreams.” Hello, Hello, Hello, it’s me. Dear professor wassssupp? If you are reading this, well, it might be too late, but let me say something anyway: Reality. Reality ain’t different lol. Reality is just tough.
My ex.
So you heard it all before but thank you. For being my muse, my inspiration, my engine, my wings and the reason behind the fact that I didn’t give up on me and my visions during these years. You blessed me with the best gift that I’ve ever known: you gave me purpose. Love should be considered the main source of innovation: thanks to you, I re-invented my life.
Myself.
Thank you. You are my hero. You are yourself. They don’t want you to love, dream and change. Enjoy life man, live it up;) Life is worth living again;)
To…
whoever, you know, was able to show me different prospectives and give me precious insights, advices or every kind of contribution.
And to…
whoever is going to love, dream and change with me;)
About what you’ve just read: Notes from the Author — Marco Borgato:
Dedicated to the most influential people of my recent life journey (and future one).
I quickly mention what i’ve been through in the past 2/3 years, recognize those moments of extremely weak energetic presence and reveal my fresh new enthusiasm for the upcoming future.
I then give open vent to my personal tribute.
Look, I’m honest. I have visions ok?
I allow myself to visualize my future starting from my feelings. And… since all looks fantastic, I allow myself to create my future starting from my visions. Nothing better.
Future.
*
You shouldn’t be scared
*
‘bout that.
*
’cause you can
*
see that
*
whenever.
*
Out of nowhere.
You know, just like it happens to artists: they envision a paint, a song, a poem, a book…they witness their art… before actually creating something.
and then remember,
*
you can share that,
*
and we can create that,
*
Together.
Honestly, I’m just not scared about letting my heart burn with and be open to positive energy. Cause positive energy brings positive dreams — visions — and positive dreams are made to be shared. Positive dreams bring enthusiasm and enthusiasm is contagious.
For example.
How many times
*
do you wake up
*
and feel like
*
you need to share
*
what your dream was like
*
with your closest friend?
*
Have you ever
*
realized that
*
sharing a dream
*
has the
*
power
*
to make a dreamer
*
connect with
*
the planet?
“It’s the power of human connection. Relating to someone else on an emotional and personal level. It’s a basic human need”
The same shit happens when you daydream. You just gotta let your heart do its “dirty job” (like when you sleep). At the same time though, you gotta listen actively to the sound, the simple melody of your feelings and then…well, reproduce it!! You know what I mean?
Share that!!
It’s amazing.
Why am I telling you this shit?
Sometimes,
*
we don’t want too see
*
’cause we don’t want to be
*
we don’t want to share
*
’cause we don’t want to appear,
*
awkward.
*
And we, we
*
struggle
*
inward.
*
To Live Jointly.
*
Yes,
*
I’d rather let you join me
*
in discovering
*
how beautiful life is,
*
than just watch me
*
get through this journey,
*
lonely.
“You always have to put out to the universe what your dream is — that is in part how they become actualized”.
About my start-up, FashTime?
FashTime is one of the results of my romantic living breathing dream process.
And through the “FashTime Journey”, I’ve been able to find my true life purpose, have multiple visions and coming up with strong missions and ideas, that I wanna share with you.
You may not understand,
right now.
You may not see it as I see it,
right now.
But guess what?
I promise you will.
My team and I decided to be open since the beginning even if we weren’t perfect. Even if we weren’t immediately beautiful. Even if we weren’t expressing our full potential. But it’s all about being patient, you know. No rush, no pressure.
We’re just allowing ourselves to love, dream and change.
After all,
“…It takes time for a caterpillar to turn into a butterfly…”
Extra 1: Putting yourself into somebody else’s shoes.
People sometimes
*
are not able to externalize
*
their true feelings,
*
born inside
*
their heart
*
and living inside
*
their mind,
*
so easily.
Don’t judge someone just because when you saw him/her that couple of times or spoke with him/her those few minutes he/she looked like mmm uncomfortable, empty, weak etc. When the heart has its troubles, everyone emanates a different energy. But it’s not his/her real essence, you know. It’s just like a transitional period that eventually makes someone grow. Maybe you will be lucky to see it, maybe not.
I guess my friends, my family but even random individuals had the chance to see different transitions of my life: the confident but shy Borg, the douchebag Borg, the confident Borg, the depressed Borg, the mature Borg.
For those of you who didn’t, one thing I know for sure: what you are reading it’s “me”.
Extra 2: “Telling” is not “Sharing”.
It seems to me that nowadays having a true dream you know, having a vision and be willing to share it with another person, with people, is becoming tougher and tougher.
We are individualistic ’cause we are merely ambitious.
(That’s also why today is so fucking difficult to fall in love or make a love last.)
We don’t give a fuck about trying to SHARE our dreams WITH others. We just TELL our ambitions TO others. Dreams have the power to involve people. Ambitions are just about ourselves.
Can I be part of your life
*
and would you like
to be part of mine?
*
Will you allow me
to help you
*
and will you put yourself
into my shoes?
*
Will you allow me to create something
together with you?
About what you’ve just read: Notes from the Author — Marco Borgato:
Through this creative poem, I aim at showing my approach to life and the power of sharing our true dreams, visions and ideas with the world. At the same time, I recognize that the act of “sharing” can be a challenge and often is misinterpreted.
I mention FashTime as an example of my romantic living breathing dream, vision and idea processing, that I’m willing to share with the world.
You can fail at what you don’t want so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love, right?
I’m Marco Borgato but I go by the name of Borg or Borgy :)
I’m the Chief Innovation officer, Chief Visionary Officer and Chief Product Officer (but, fuck these titles) of FashTime, a young start up.
I’m an explorer, experimenter and entertainer who loves innovation and supports creativity, without being afraid of changing or making a change for the better. Moreover, I’m a design thinker, a romantic dreamer, a vision / purpose / mission-driven hard worker and an enthusiastic lover with a past swimming experience and a recent and future entrepreneurial one (lol).
I’m not a doctor who can cure cancer.
Honestly, I just wanna make people HAPPY or HAPPIER. And If I can do it with an App or whatever idea I come up with, I’m gonna do it.
What if i can’t do by myself? Well, I’m gonna help others do it (Just gimme a great purpose, a great vision, a great mission and great values 😇)
Even with respect to the stories I’ve been writing on Medium, I mean… I don’t care whether only 5 hundred people or a thousand, or whatever, read my stories. I care whether I’m able to make an impact, on their life…If someone spends TIME on what I post.
’Cause, again…
“The effect you have on others is the most valuable currency there is.”
“When someone give you their time, they are giving you a portion of their life that they’ll never get back. Their time is their life. That is why the greatest gift someone can give you is Time.“
Now, let me tell something about my project, FashTime.
Let me start with this video 🎥. For those who don’t wanna watch it, here below a summary:
- Photo — -> Madison, Wisconsin
- The Time of my Life
- Finance
- Stucked
- Exchange
- Love
- Happiness
- Freedom
- Creativity
- Entrepreneurship
- New Life
- Dreams
- Changes
You didn’t get it, right? I have a solution for you: watch my video 😏
So, as you may have understood, a product has always a cool story behind: a moment of impact, a spark, Love.
We shouldn’t forget it. I didn’t 😏
“Ok….we got it, you, your story, the origin of FashTime, bla bla bla. So….what is FashTime dude?”
Well, before approaching our product (yes, we are a team of four crazy individuals), I wanna start from our Vision (what we see), Purpose (why FashTime?) and Mission (how we are going to achieve our vision, What we do) as a young start up. As I see it, products have to be the practical and natural translation of a clear purpose, vision and mission.
So, here we are…
FashTime …
.
.
.
.
Actually you know what, follow the next story (link below)…follow the way of the butterfly:)
︎This story was published in Startime, the new way of perceiving startups and startuppers. Follow us 😎
About what you’ve just read: Notes from the Author — Marco Borgato:
It all started from a moment of impact.
We can say my new life journey… my heart journey, my entrepreneurial journey… started thanks to a 4-months exchange program in Madison, Wisconsin.
A spark, Love.
My short biographical video summarizes that life-changing experience.
To dream dream dream like lovers do. And It might come true…
***********************************************************
“New
friends,
New crew,
New chances
New dreams,
New fu-ture,
*
True Love,
More Life”
Madison, Chicago, New York. Into my heart.
Forever, Mine.
This story was published in Startime, the new way of perceiving startups and startuppers. Follow us 😎
About what you’ve just read: Notes from the Author — Marco Borgato:
This interlude summarizes the starting point of my 3-years journey and it portraits the essence of perfection.
‘The definition Of Perfection’ is about my exchange program between Madison, Chicago & New York: 4 months during which I had the privilege to experience the most perfect moments of my life and lay the foundations for my future. Not surprisingly, my entrepreneurial journey started during that period.
All good things come to an end, but the question is: how many times will we experience true perfection in our life?
June, 2014.
“You should stay grounded. Don’t fly too much. Reality is different. Watch out with your dreams.”
My professor yelled at me.
*
*
*
My final bachelor “dissertation” on her iPad screen.
*
*
*
Words that still ring in my fucking ears to this day.
No.
I could never forget it.
Nothing was the same.
*
*
*
My Professor and I had an insane argument.
Indeed, I usually hate being told I shouldn’t dream.
Or even worse: being judged in a negative way. It easily pisses me off. A lot. That is, when someone want ME to NOT be the good part of ME, you know what I mean? Nothing more frustrating.
You can tell me how I can do it. I’m willing to learn as much as I can. But, please, pleaseee…don’t stop my enthusiasm. What the hell. Why do you wanna transform my genuine dreaming process into something “harmful”?
I’m not ashamed to say this but, actually, I cried. I’m a sensitive guy.
“Damn, this shit hurts”. It’s not what you say but how you say it, you know.
Well, maybe I was acting like a douchbag too. After all, my pride had been hurt to the core.
Anyway.
Moral of my “thesis — story”: I got 1 point out of 4. And, believe it or not, the thesis was about my start-up: FashTime.
I quickly entered a spiral of thoughts.
“Is it my fault? Is my idea so bad? Did I behave like an asshole? What did I do wrong? And what if I can’t, what if I’m just an ordinary man?”
And you know, it’ really really sad.
It’s really really sad when we start stressing our heart with these kind of questions.
Trust me.
Why? Two simple “emotional” reasons:
- We start hating our dreams, our vision, our ideas etc.
- We start doubting ourselves: we lose our confidence and forget our enthusiasm.
Well,
“Dear professor,
My parents wrote me a quote by E. Roosevelt, couple of birthdays ago:
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams”. (Thanks Mami and Daddy).
Hello, Hello, Hello, it’s me, dear professor.
If you are reading this, it might be too late. I’m pretty positive. But let me say something anyway, for god sake:
Reality.
*
Reality ain’t different lol.
*
Reality is just tough.
*
“You shouldn’t dream!”.
You may’ve heard this pathetic shit many times in your life. But don’t trust this shit anymore.
We believe “truly dreaming” and “being ambitious” to be the same fucking thing. And you know, as soon as we realized we are stuck in our fucked — up life, well…
*
we start losing faith in the power of “owning a true dream”.
*
Even.
If.
We’ve.
Never.
Own.
A damn.
Nothing.
*
Reality looks awkward whenever we are merely ambitious.
Machines.
We don’t succeed in something we’ve been working for for many years and yes…at that point our mind is gonna tell us “Ok, Life sucks, it’s not how I pictured it”.
Even worse. Our ego is gonna make us share our unbeatable cynicism and coldness with whoever sees (and want us to see) Life from uncommon prospectives.
Dear future professor,
Reality is a transposition of our authentic dreams.
Our feelings, Our ideas, Our dreams are physical in the universe.
That’s it.
Dear future professor,
Owning a true dream is totally a different deal.
That’s it.”
This story was published in Startime, the new way of perceiving startups and startuppers. Follow us 😎
About what you’ve just read: Notes from the Author — Marco Borgato:
This piece deals with the fact that people sometimes choose to push you down instead of lifting you up. The perfect example is what I experienced with a university professor few years ago, some time after my exchange program:
During that period, I was certainly naive, still not well trained for entrepreneurship. I didn’t have a perfectly clear and structured life purpose, vision statement, mission statement and idea yet. What I owned though, was the romantic dream of making an impact on this world and I was willing to share my great enthusiasm with people to change the world for the better, together.
That professor stepped on my dream and enthusiasm. I was hurt and broken inside. Personally though, I chose to not give up on me and my dreams. I rolled up my sleeves and kept working harder. However, how many people might not be able to transform negativity into positivity?
The first purpose of this piece is to say “hey professor, you are wrong and everyone who thinks and act like you is wrong too.”
The second purpose of this piece is to say “hey everyone, believe in the beauty of you dreams and don’t let people bring negativity into your enthusiasm. Life is all about positivity.”
Are you fucking serious,
*
are you leaving me alone?’
*
Mannnn this is useless
*
I don’t wanna do this anymore.
Love took me here.
*
Love taught me
*
to be both vigilant and open heart
*
to not be afraid
*
of the hard,
*
to not be afraid
*
of discovering,
*
understanding,
*
protecting,
*
and showing
*
my feelings.
*
To not let my visions start fading
*
away.
*
To keep my visions alive,
*
anyway.
*
To keep believing in what I see,
*
always.
But Love
*
is no more here.
*
So, why I’m doing what I’m doing?
*
Why am I here?
But I cannot quit,
*
I cannot quit what I’ve been doing for a while
*
Yes,
*
but for who I’m doing this for?
*
How can I keep
*
My enthusiasm alive?
***************************************************************
This is me, speaking to the universe.
I had to pay attention to my heart and love myself again while still pushing hard on a bunch of different things.
But let’s get to the good part.
There is hope, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, the best has yet to come out of you and know that “Hey, if Borg did it than I can do it”.
If you don’t get lost, there’s a chance you may never be found and even the no sense eventually makes sense :)
This story was published in Startime, the new way of perceiving startups and startuppers. Follow us 😎
About what you’ve just read: Notes from the Author — Marco Borgato:
This is me, speaking to the universe.
I had to pay attention to my heart and love myself again while still pushing hard on a bunch of different things.
‘Mentionable Rants’ is portraying that period of my heart journey full of darkness, rather than light. My ‘love-related’ heartbreak paved the way to negativity. This piece is about me, dwelling on the past, feeling that sense of refusal from the universe and that sense of missing a life purpose.
But let’s get to the good part. There is hope, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, the best has yet to come out of you and know that “Hey, if Borg did it than I can do it”.
If you don’t get lost, there’s a chance you may never be found and even the no sense eventually makes sense.
Shit. This is just crazy. Too much to take.
It is what it is. I’m a lover. I’ve been diagnosed with one of the most dangerous and powerful diseases on earth: Love. I was made to love. I love to love. And, since I truly love, I always put my heart before my mind.
During my short life, I have come to learn that instead of trying to hold on to it, we should be giving away the creative love burning and bursting inside us. I believe in the: “the more you give, the more you get”, a strange law of the universe, one might argue. Do you believe in it? I believe that, even if not in the shorter term, you end up having what you deserve. Not more, even if you gave 1000% of yourself, not less, even if you think you weren’t worth enough. It may be a consequence of a previous failure. A punch in the face can make you grow and become deeper about life.
But let me tell you when, in my opinion, this is especially true: when you truly love. Keep this in mind, because you’re gonna understand why I’m saying some real shit here.
Now, without any doubt, I love my family and best friends, they have been instrumental in influencing the path of my life and they keep being a solid presence.
However, the Love I’m referring to, through this short but intense auto-biographical story, is that inspirational, unbelievable, spiritual feeling we might be lucky to taste during our love relationships and it’s what John Legend wisely articulate through his poetic songs “Dreams”, “You&I”, “For the first time”, “All of me” etc. etc.
Love is a feeling.
I’m gonna talk about “how” I loved. Not who. Not why. This is my personal tribute to the power of authentic Love.
To me, genuinely loving someone is able to define what and how you dream, how you change, what you do and how you do it (dream, change, act).
In the future, I might speak about the importance of allowing yourself to truly dream and allowing yourself to truly change: as I see it, truly loving is a necessary condition not only for truly dreaming and truly changing but also for understanding why it’s important to truly dream and truly change.
But before that, you need to allow yourself to do it.
Think about it: you’re working hard. It’s a really really tough period. You’re suffering. Or maybe it’s all good. But this is not the point. The point is that it happened you started to be in love with someone and you allowed yourself to exploit this feeling as much as you could. For real.
So, I bet now you are facing your life totally in a different way, aren’t you?Just the thought of that someone you are in love with is making you face reality with a stronger and proactive attitude. Just the thought of that someone you are in love with is making you work harder, even on yourself. You’re appreciating what you are doing because you’re doing it for your muse. You’re having visions about your future — visions that are becoming goals — and your Love is starting to be part of them. You’re creating a strategy in order to achieve your ambitions. You’re becoming someone you are proud of because you’re not afraid of changing for the better. You’re truly growing because you opened yourself to Love.
Therefore, trust me:
How you love is going to build up yourself and your purposes in life and eventually, when you let yourself to truly love who you are doing something for, you are going to make it, not matter what.
Love is your engine.
You know, it’s like a math formula: truly growing=f[truly dreaming +truly changing+truly acting], where truly dreaming=z(truly loving), truly changing=w(truly loving) and truly acting=y(truly loving)
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -
If you keep reading, I owe you something;)
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Well, let’s go back now to my story.
For those of you who didn’t know, I split my summer time working between LA and Chicago, and have recently moved to Copenhagen for an internship program. Why? I don’t feel ashamed to say this.
Few months ago, I made this choice out of Love. To literally follow someone I loved.
You know, I just didn’t want a love situation to stop because of the natural course of events (a campus abroad, an erasmus, an internship, different careers, distances, places, etc. etc.). You know, I didn’t want to regret I couldn’t be able to fight for Love. As Leo said in The Vow: “How do you look at someone you love and tell yourself it’s time to walk away?”
I didn’t want to prevent myself from truly loving. I didn’t want to let it go. Our emotional intelligence is more rational than what we think.
Actually, even if I’m only 23 years old and I should say “fuck Love, I’m gonna enjoy my life”, I realized I’ve been living for the past 2 years for the sake of it. One day, I got the chance to have the Time of my life and I remember I told myself “No, I’ve never felt like this before. Don’t let her go for any reason”.
AlI I have been wanting to do was to show who I was genuinely in loved with that I believed in something bigger than my individual self.
That’s why I developed the need to involve somebody I cared about in this race: an intense journey driven by a dreaming attitude. I knew that “dreaming” and “loving” at the same time had the power to create miracles. I started dreaming about achieving my latent and full potentiality (what I was supposed to be), with the self-confidence that I didn’t have to give up on my new visions because of Love. I just needed to “re-direct” my journey in order to let my heart be satisfied and fed. And you know what? I feel blessed for this opportunity: even if everything has changed, today, I can say I’m headed in the right direction to reach my whole potential.
The Love I explored for that person allowed me to do my best. I swear it’s the truth.
I used to wake up every fucking day with a thought: “What can I do today to impress this person?”.
Love is an action.
The solution was always the same: “Well Borg, you can let your dreams be real. You can listen to your heart — beating like a drum, and you can sing together with it. You can show that you are not only a romantic dreamer, but especially an achiever. You can take this person higher and higher, ’til the cloud nine.” Every fucking day.
So, I found my entire self. I found it again. And Nothing was the same. Being to give, Giving to become. Cause at the end of the day, loving someone else makes you understand how to love yourself. When you decide to open your heart, listening to your heart becomes easy, normal.
I wasn’t scared to just listen to and discover my essence, I wasn’t scared to dream and translate everything into something real, I wasn’t scared to accept myself changing. “Trust me, trust me, don’t be scared, I can do it. I really can. Don’t be afraid of the future. What’s the point in being scared?”. I used to say.
Love is an attitude.
Now, not matter if “all of me” wasn’t enough and something didn’t work (situations, timing, priorities). This is not relevant anyway. You need to accept failures in Love too.
I mean, it’s so important that you allow yourself to love, even unilaterally and unequally: most of the art we have — songs, poems, paintings, etc — is a consequence of a one-sided emotion.
But listen to me: at some point, you’ll realize you’ve played all your cards and you’ll have to draw the line of determination from desperation. Only at that point, you’ll need to let it go.
I was like “What did I do wrong? Why am I such a fucking romantic asshole?
Then, fortunately, it is a question of whether one regards the glass as being half full, or as being half empty.
I realized every cloud have a silver lining.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -
Don’t miss this part, it’s the most important of your life;)
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Indeed, if I’m here now it is because of Love.
I did what I did, I’m doing what I’m doing, I’m achieving what I’m achieving, because I was inspired by Love and I wanted to prove it. Because I allowed myself to truly love.
That’s why authentic Love is always good and refreshing. It makes the “the more you give the more you get” real.
Ok, Love made me suffer (now I’m fine) and I’m aware that after I was hurt I needed to protect my heart and I was tempted to feel offended and nurse a grudge. But let me say this:
Forgetting the past or not opening your heart to the future will sometime cause you to miss out on the blessings and opportunities that you experiment and that are meant for your life.
And Love honored me with something big. Even if I can’t completely share with my past muse what I’m accomplishing right now, I can celebrate what I used to share (the best moments of my life), without being and feeling hateful. Even if I wasn’t able to make the most skeptical a believer, I can celebrate what destiny allowed me to live.
I have the duty to celebrate. Why? “Look at the kid now, Mannnn!”. Now more than ever, I know who I am and what I’m doing in my life and I’m happy with the man I’m becoming.
I moved my ass from my comfort zone to an-only-dreamt-land and I grew the fuck up. In the last two years, that young kid and teenager, who loved swimming every single day of his life, has come back and he’s now more complete, more mature. There is not much time for sleep now: who can and would sleep when building something from zero and developing ideas from scratch, while studying and completing an hard-core and enriching internship?
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
You made it, but even this last part is super important;)
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Because yes, I’m about to launch my first start-up — FashTime — craaaazily soon. Yes, you read well, I said “first”: it’s just the beginning, I have so many surprises for you;)
Entrepreneurial attitude (or pursuit) is the most important gift (but not the only one) Love blessed myself with.
Well, maybe it was a matter of DNA and education too. But Love fired me up and helped me to recognize it and push it hard.
This journey started exactly 2 years ago (more than 200 packs of m&m’s ago, 1 every 3 days — I love them).
I came up with the first scratches of the first business plan of my career and I pitched my first idea ever. Such a bad experience. But I learned from that. After almost 2 years of business planning of a new idea, brainstorming sessions, calls, meetings, sketches until 4am, doors shut in my face, cries, pitches, finally I can say that my start up is no more just a dream.
It’s been hard, but incredibly inspirational. I had to start from the bottom but I was willing to show my true value to someone I was in love with. I promised I would make it and I made it. That’s it.
So, even if I’m in Copenhagen in the shitty weather, on my shitty bike, even if I’m alone with my deep self (God may bless Skype), I can’t help but feeling the heat.
If you spent time reading this, wow, thank you :)
Time. What a valuable and undefinable thing, uh? If you say “I don’t have time”, it actually means I don’t want, I don’t care, I don’t like it. Reality is that the best gift you can give to someone is your Time.
So, thank you. If you either share or recommend this, you will make me, Borg, happy. It took me almost 1 month in order to let you know what and how I feel and I’m glad I was able to do it in the best way possible. #allme
Dream like Lovers do and it might come true.
If you play all your cards right, your luck’s gonna strike. And if somebody is gonna tell you “You changed” remember to answer back “Why didn’t you?”. #LovingDreamingChanging
Ps. Just one last thing, if this can make sense to anyone: we legally founded the start-up the 15th of September. An unbelievable and meaningful date, not a random one;) #destiny
This story was published in Startime, the new way of perceiving startups and startuppers. Follow us 😎
About what you’ve just read: Notes from the Author — Marco Borgato:
A story about Loving, Dreaming & Changing for the better.
‘Mentionable Rants’ is about negativity. ‘The importance of allowing yourself to truly love’ is instead about that part of my heart journey where I decided to make a step back, acknowledge the past, react, re-discover myself and find a new life purpose.
Through this intense biographical story, I talk about how I loved, not who, not why. I acknowledge the power of allowing ourself to truly love. I show what True Love for one person means and what it’s capable of achieving.
Again, all good things come to an end. I’m humble to recognize FashTime, together with my recent vocation toward entrepreneurship, as the result of that inspirational genuine love I experienced during the previous months.
20/12/2013 — second last night in Madison (WI)
“Dear 2013 Marco, wasssup?
How was the concert of John Legend, how was that Friday night dinner in New York;)? I guess…you experienced the most beautiful days of your life ah;)? Glad you were able to spend those moments, full of bless, with the girl you’re in love with.
Well, surprisingly enough, Time machine is a big fucking deal now in 2016.
Sooo…iiiiifff fffor you it’s ok… If you don’t mind… I’m gonna tell you something about my past and my present (that actually is your upcoming future lol). Sounds good to you?”…
At that point I was like “should I go on? Maaaan, like, what the hell is happening here. For real though. Am I dreaming? Yo, maybe I’m still drunk. After all, the turn up was sooo real last night. I’m not even sure I wanna see my future right now”.
…“ During the next years — thanks to your relationship — you are going to discover what type of guy you are.
You’re the type of guy who is not afraid to listen to his heart.
Who is not afraid to act (you know, heart wants what it wants).
You’re an “actor” but you don’t play: You love for real
You are the type of guy who is not afraid to achieve something in the name of Love.
Weeelll, I would say… self-empowerment is your biggest achievement.
But, heyyy, You’re more than this:
You are the type of guy who loves singing and writing his muse letters.
That’s also why I’m writing you this letter.
Hell yeah, in the next 30 months, You are going to write so many “love” letters and remix your favorite songs with your own lyrics and your own music videos.
I’m not sure if you’ve already started with it but… for a short period of time, You are even going to establish a special day of the week called “Music Friday”: You’re going to go by the silly name of “Chris Borg” (because you love Chris Brown) and You’re going to make the person you are in loved with listen to your songs and…maybe.. maybe I’m biased but… You are going to kill it mann;) It’s going to be dope.
You’re the type of of guy who turns a shoe rack upside down transforming it into a kotatsu for a home-made Japanese-style dinner lol ;)
Dear 2013 Marco, wasssup?
You are going to suffer a lot during the next years.
You are going to experience failures and critiques.
You are going to experience depression.
You are going to cry. A lot.
You.
You are going to learn more about yourself and keeping it 100 is going to be your fortè.
You are the type of guy who, inspired by Love, is going to come up with an idea and pursue it at any cost.
Maaan, the start up You are going to do will be way way tougher than you could expected though.
Waiiitt wait wait. I’m not talking about “Famewall”, the idea you have been working on with you roommates for a couple of months now. Nope. Sorry.
Ehmm, soon (enough) You are going to build your own business called “FashTime” but not everything from Famewall is going to be completely lost and thrown away. Trust me man.
(By the way…chill braww, it’s May 2016 and I still see no sign of cashhh in my, well… in your, ummm in our (?) pocket. But heeeyy. No rush, No pressurrrre?!! I meaaaan, daaammmn…Vision is real. Mission is real. Purpose is real. Matter of fact, you know what? Don’t even talk to me about money, I’m all about creativity maaan)
You are going to grow. A lot.
They don’t wanna you to change. I changed. A lot. You can change too.
Ah, and yooo you’re the type of guy who is going to re-direct his dreams in other countries because, in the era of instant gratification, you are one of the few guys who keep believing in true Love.
You’re going to work in LA and Copenhagen for a few months LMFAO?!!
Maann, Copenhagen’s weather is rainy af but LA clubs are sooo lit though.
But it’s not going to be enough.
The girl you love so much? She’s going to break up with you, but don’t be sad. It’s not your fault. It’s not her fault. Don’t hate her because of what is going to happen. Remember: thanks to her you’re going to re-invent your life:)
Again, You’re going to accomplish every single godddammnn thing that I’ve just revealed to you, for her, for you, because of her, because of your true love, because you are not going to be afraid of dreaming, because you are going to change for the better for her.
You’re going to write even a short fucking book, can u believe it?
Keep going maaan, Keep Being Yourself, Keep growing, Keep changing.
There is nothing as powerful as a changed mind… You can change your hair…your clothing…your address…your spouse…your residence… but if you don’t change your mind… the same experience will perpetuate itself over and over again… because everything outside changed, but nothing inside you changed.
Most people go through life never discovering what their talents are. Most people never develop their talents.
The only thing that’s going to make you happy my friend in this year, or any other… is to step up, it’s to raise the standard, it’s to discover what you’re capable of and feel that incredible power of pushing through whatever is holding you back and get to the other side of more of your true self.
That’s what this game’s all about man.
Be your true self, be your true colors. Keep it 100 ;)
Your Future Self,
06/05/2016”
*Dear reader: If you’ve understood the moral of this story, I owe you a pizza (since I’m Italian) ;)
This story was published in Startime, the new way of perceiving startups and startuppers. Follow us 😎
About what you’ve just read: Notes from the Author — Marco Borgato:
The tricky part of riding an emotional roller coaster is that sometimes you’re up and sometimes you’re down. During a moment of weakness, I let negativity enter my life, once again.
Even in this case, I decided to make a step back, acknowledge the past, react, keep myself together and not let my new life purpose fade away.
This Time, I follow a different creative-writing approach: this is an imaginary letter I received by my future self, back in 2013, during the end of my exchange program in Madison-Wisconsin. The letter portraits myself and reports some of the facts I’m going to experience during the following 2/3 years (especially with respect to Love and Entrepreneurship).
I believe this piece helped me to understand whether I was still on the right track towards my dream. Moreover, it wants to show how our future is actually written. By us.
Why?
Why do I keep thinkin’ ‘bout her?
Well,
Well, it ain’t her…
It’s
Those perfect moments, (now) light years away from me…
The way she used to stare at me.
The way she used to stare at that single hair on my neck ’cause I couldn’t shave properly and I missed that motherfucker every time.
The first time she kissed me.
The first cuddles.
The way she used to speak to me.
‘Bout when she used to say “I love your enthusiasm. I’ve never met a guy with such a great enthusiasm towards life and his ideas”.
Damn, ‘Bout when I used to sing “All of me” to make her fall in love with me: “You see, it just hit 2500 views on YouTube but trust me, one day it will reach 1 billion views. This is THE song!”.
Her heart beating for me.
Those first months full of true Love.
That unbelievable concert of my hero JL, “Maybe, we go. maybe not;)”
Music Friday, “Tic Toc, you ready?”
That romantic dinner in New York, “I’m gonna take you higher”.
Why?
Why do I keep thinking ‘bout her?
Well,
Well, it ain’t her…
It’s
Those perfect moments, (now) light years away from me…
I’m fine though.
’Cause, when You get back from a romantic interstellar journey,
You see the world through rose-colored glasses.
’Cause You see yourself through rose-colored glasses.
’Cause everything inwardly changed.
For the better.
PS. You might suffer from jet lag;)
PPS. I did ;)
This story was published in Startime, the new way of perceiving startups and startuppers. Follow us 😎
About what you’ve just read: Notes from the Author — Marco Borgato:
This poem celebrates my final re-birth.
At the surface level, the poem appears to be a nostalgic reminiscing of a human presence and of a past that looks light years away from the present.
Instead, this is me… coming back from my romantic interstellar journey and reminiscing with a smile a few moments of impact from the past: I’m good, I feel healthy, I changed for the better (and I keep doing it) and I’m ready to take off again toward other interstellar directions.
M: You’ve been home for months, like you got stuff to do.
G: “Love gave me purpose. But Love ain’t here no more. What would you do, if you was me and I was you, would you move on and find someone new”?
M: Girl, I guess your room is clean, there’s nothing more to do.
You are like:
G: “I need him. I’m born in a time where if something is broken it won’t be fixed. But I’m me and I need him.”
M: Awake through the night ’cause You can’t help the tossing and turning.
You’re like:
G: “I gave him all of me.”
M: Yes, You did.
As soon as You wake up:
G: “I live in a generation of not being in love and not being Together. But I’m me. Please, tell me he’s gonna come back. He had somebody who really cared. How did he fuck it up? ”
M: You want to write him. You look at those letters. I mean, about how to put them together with your swag.
You’re like:
G: “How can I say something casual, but also fun, but also cool, but also flirty, but also just-saying-hi, but not clingy, but also sexy, but also friendly, but also maybe-romantic, but also not-too-romantic, but also not-weird-either, but also maybe-a-little-weird, but, like, cute-weird, but also chill, but also intentional, but also you’re-special, but not-too-special, but also do-you-still-like-me?…
M: STOP!!!
G:…but also, not like, like-like-me, but also it’s-cool-if-you-don’t, but also I-know-we’re-not-a-thing, but also you-do-make-me-happy, but also I-can-make-myself-happy, so also you-don’t-even-have-to-text-me-back, but also I’d-love-it-if-you-did, but also you-still-totally-have-space, but also so-do-I, but also look-at-all-this-space-we-have, but also it’s-cool-if-you-want-less-space…
M: STOOOOPPP!!!
G:…but also this-is-still-fun, but also you-still-think-this-is-fun-right?, but also I’m-fun-right?, but also look-at-how-fun-I-am, but also-you’re-probably-actually-busy, but also you’re-probably-not-that-busy, but also maybe-your-phone-is-dead, but also just-thinking-of-you, but also not-too-much, but also are-you-thinking-of-me?”
M: Ok…
You know what? You don’t need that boy. He didn’t keep it 100. He did it all “no-right”.
Still…
You, You’re doing it wrong.
I mean…
I completely get it. I experienced the same pain.
But damn…
do you wanna know the truth? Love changed You for the better.
So…
I think You should allow yourself to love and keep changing. Again.
It’s NOT too late.
You should just get dressed and keep being your amazing self.
Don’t even overthink, get yourself together
and Go out.
Go out tonight girl, ’cause we might just crash into each other and feel something.
I’m dreaming about what You’re dreaming about.
We might start dreaming like lovers do.
Together.
And we might “you know what I’m saying right?”
Together.
And we might live better.
Together.
And we might get there.
Together.
And we might create.
This story was published in Startime, the new way of perceiving startups and startuppers. Follow us 😎
About what you’ve just read: Notes from the Author — Marco Borgato:
This an imaginary dialogue between me and a brilliant, creative, emotional, charismatic, entrepreneurial girl who used to believe in Love.
The girl is following my same emotional rollercoaster or, to put it differently, she represents my self and a delicate transitional period of my life. Since the umpteenth heart break, she’ve been struggling to not lose her confidence, her romantic dreams and her enthusiasm, while keep being creative and creating. Moreover, she’ve been on a inner-journey to figure out her sense of purpose, vision and mission again.
This is my message to her. If only she would decide to open her heart and go out tonight…we might create together.
*Inspired by my own experience and a story I’ve recently read on Medium.
As I said in the first part…
I’m Marco Borgato but I go by the name of Borg or Borgy :) I’m the Chief Innovation officer, Chief Visionary Officer and Chief Product Officer (but, fuck these titles) of FashTime, a young start up.
Yes, so…I was talking about how products need to be the practical and natural translation of a clear purpose, vision and mission.
Well…here they are 🔥
Our Purpose — Why we do it (why we started FashTime)
FashTime was born to:
• Add more colours and bring more light into our (digital) life.
• Be an inspiration for self-expression, -transparency, -awareness and -improvement.
We believe in adding More to Life through design-and-tech-driven social-digital products and inspiring living breathing creative projects.
Our Vision — What we see for the future
“You have to know where you’re going to be able to figure out the best way to get there.” FashTime vision is the framework for our Roadmap and guides every aspect of our business by describing what we need to accomplish in order to continue achieving sustainable, quality growth.
*Notes: This is just the first part of our vision. It lays the foundations for our actual future existence and it’s the catalyst of our ultimate ‘re-branded’ vision. Yes, there is more…and I’ll share it with u soon (at the right time) 😉
Planet:
FashTime see a world where we, all of us, can:
• Wear our true colours and feel like our best selves: without the pressure to please others and fear of non-recognition, while still being respectful and open.
• Feel truly recognized for who we are: in the future everyone will have their ’15 minutes’. Literally.
Product:
• Be world-recognized as a comprehensive, fun, impartial and efficient social-digital ecosystem.
• Be seen as a social-digital reference point of the online fashion world (and beyond).
Our Mission — What we do (or how we achieve our Vision and stay true to our purpose)
*Notes: This is just the first part of our mission. It lays the foundations for our actual future existence and it’s the catalyst of our ultimate ‘re-branded’ mission. Yes, there is more…and I’ll share it with u soon (at the right time) 😉
Key Mission statements:
FashTime is on a mission to create social-digital disruptions that:
• Transform how we perceive Fashion and ourselves.
• Make the world more connected, wishful to share and willing to help (through Fashion).
How? By empowering us to connect smartly, share and discover magically, like and think differently, help and decide quickly.
Mission related to people:
People use FashTime to:
• Share life moments that inspire the world, by wearing their true colors.
• Feel like the best version of themselves, by sharing and deciding together on life challenges.
• Feel truly recognized for who they are, by killing ‘the Likes’ and thinking in Seconds.
Our logo represents our purpose, vision and mission.
The Butterfly is the symbol of unity, fun, freedom and transformations. This powerful insect is an inspiration for adding more color into our life and self-expression. Those who have the butterfly as a totem may be naturally inclined to express themselves openly and change constantly, to reflect their colors into their environment.
Our Values & Messages
Unity. Fun. Freedom. Transformation.
Standard vs Pop
“Wear Your True Colors” or “#Keepit100 :)”
“Feel Like Your Best Self” vs. “#Bedope :)”
“Feel Truly Recognized” vs “#KilltheLikes :)”
“Ok….we got it, your purpose, vision, mission, values bla bla bla. So….what is FashTime? Tell us please, we’re losing our patience 👿”
Well, I guess now you are ready 😎
Here we are…
FashTime is…
.
.
.
.
Actually you know what, wait for the next story…follow the way of the butterfly 😇
About what you’ve just read: Notes from the Author — Marco Borgato:
It’s all about opening your heart to people. It’s all about making people feel part of an inspiring vision. It’s all about implementing a powerful mission, together. It’s all about being moved by an incredible sense of purpose — The Why.
We simply want to make an impact on this world and to involve people in our journey.
