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This will be work-at-your-own-pace educational modules & exercises.
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time to think & being reckless
This past week was nonstop.
Client deadlines. Brand shoots. Endless decisions that couldn’t be handed off — too many of them required judgment, taste, and a dozen micro-choices you just can’t outsource.
It was one of those weeks when everything felt urgent. It was the kind of week that left you feeling wrung out by the end, even if things technically went right.
But in the middle of it all, I had one quiet morning.
There were no calls, no calendar, just time to move slowly. Driving to the YMCA, I asked God for peace & guidance. I sat in the sauna for an hour, letting my mind wander for the first time in days.
It ended up being the best day of the week, by far. Helps to start the day on the right foot instead of a bunch of coffee and emails.
What I keep coming back to — both in my work and in life — is that space isn’t just a luxury. It’s totally essential if you’re building something creative.
That morning reminded me of something I heard recently in a Founder's podcast about Brunello Cucinelli — the Italian fashion designer and king of cashmere.
He restored the beautiful Italian town of Solomeo and moved his factory there. He pays his workers above market rate, built an opera house, doesn’t allow phones in meetings, and shuts the whole company down for a long lunch every day.
More than cashmere sweaters, he’s building a culture.
He really values silence and time to think, which are so critical to the creative spirit. Here are some quotes that really spoke to me:
“I long for solitude as if it were a distant, beloved friend. Silence is not emptiness. It is space — for thought, for spirit, for beauty.”
“We must defend our right to think. A life without moments of reflection is a life spent only reacting. And reaction is not creation.”
And listening to him talk about his philosophy — what he calls humanistic capitalism — it struck me how rare this kind of thinking is:
He said:
“Avoid work that creates a malaise of the soul.”
Here are a few other lines that stayed with me:
“Being spontaneous and a little reckless is what makes life fun. Joy fades if you only go off wisdom”
“Enthusiastically build an extraordinary reality, day after day. This is why today, there are still too many women and men who suffer because they struggle to hide from their children the sorrow and humiliation in life. Every morning, they get up to face the world only to return disappointed. If people tell you your plan is too ambitious, do not listen; they are trying to clip your wings."
This is what he says to his employees during the 2008 financial crash:
As far as your job goes, you have nothing to fear. But I want to ask you a special favor: starting tomorrow morning, you should try to be even more organized, creative, and brilliant. It's the only thing we can do because everything else is beyond and above us, and therefore, there is no point in worrying about it."
That’s the spirit I want to work from.
Somewhere in the pressure and pacing of the week, I forgot what I already know: the best things don't come from being busy. They came from being clear. From stillness. From instinct. From a slightly reckless “why not?”
The "why not," the reckless spirit, allowed me to help bring the Arrington Woods development (which is progressing really well!) to life—something I arguably had no business being a part of. I just had an idea and found the best partners in the world.
Something like this needed to exist.
You really can "just do things."
But it requires space, solitude, and time away from the screen for dreams to form, ideas to take shape, and the soul to breathe.
It doesn't have to be every day. But a day or two a week spent thinking, walking, and reflecting is essential nutrition for the creative spirit.
that's a wrap!
Thanks a ton for reading, whether this is your first or 93rd time. I sincerely appreciate you. Please let me know if there is something you would like me to write about.
-HANS
See you next week.
