In 1845 Henry David Thoreau settled by Walden Pond, building a shack that he lived in for two years and two months.
He wrote, ” I went to the wood because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when it came time to die, discover that I had not lived.”
This was an experiment in living, answering the question, “How simple can a life be and still be a good one?” He wrote of it in his classic work, Walden. Thoreau was a harsh critic of conventional life, seeing people enslaved by excessive lifestyles and accumulation of possessions, observing that, “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation”. His experiment in stripping life back to the essentials on Walden Pond revealed a richer, fuller life – walking the woods, noting the changing of the seasons, observing birds and animals, and cultivating his small garden - “making the earth say beans instead of grass”.
I was introduced to Thoreau during my last year at school – the phrases ‘live deliberately’ and ‘lives of quiet desperation’ have stayed with me as a very helpful signpost – “go this way, not that way”.
I started my own business because I wanted to live deliberately…
to choose how I used my time
to choose who I spent time with
to choose when and where I worked
to choose how I dressed and the words I used
to choose the products I consumed
to choose my influences
to smile and say no to the work that was wrong for me
to avoid the unnecessary
to find out what a business could be
to show that it could be done
that there are no rules that must be upheld
to show that it is possible to strip back to the essentials
to do the work I care about
to do work that matters.
And not to come to the end of my time and find that I had not done anything worthwhile.
And you?
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