Year 1…
It’s October 2018 and the world hasn’t heard of COVID-19. Our story begins....
“To have a dream is something, but it requires action to reach out and grab it.” - The3engineers
Overlooking our new ‘office’ was the inspiring mural of Greta Thunberg - North Street, Bristol
So when Jon came home after rowing the Atlantic, we kidnapped him and took him to our new office (aka the pub), which became home for the next 6 months on Friday afternoons. After all, if you are going to start a new project, you grab the person closest to you who has just rowed for 2hrs on, 2hrs off, 24hrs a day, for 50 days and nights straight. What an achievement.
Starting from a blank canvas with not a single idea between us other than entrusting each other to embark on this journey together; we sat down with sheets of paper, multiple coloured pens (sharpies are essential), sticky notes, sandwiches and a pint of beer each – Nick’s round.
Thank you Bristol Beer Factory for our temporary office
We started with the basics; mapping out our own personal interests and passions, along with highlighting each other's talents. This was quite an interesting session, considering at the time there was a hierarchy structure between the three of us at work (Matt being Jon’s boss, and Jon being Nick’s boss). Nevertheless, we came through unscathed and felt both motivated and humbled after receiving positive vibes from one another.
In our next session, we continued where we left off and explored our passions and interests in more detail. Grouping these interests to find some commonality was essential, because ultimately having a passion for something channels one’s positive energy towards a greater goal which can lead to success. We quickly realised that with our collective talents and passions identified we could apply ourselves to many things. If we didn’t have the skills to do something now, we had the capacity to adapt, the capability to learn and the time to each grow in the future.
Now, the term success was discussed in great detail and it became a fantastic debate. To some of us, success meant more money, more time and more freedom. To others, it meant fulfillment and passion. This was such a refreshing conversation to have because naturally each of us had differing views and opinions, constructed and fabricated through different lives, environments and upbringings. Not the usual conversation one would have on Friday afternoon after work in the pub. Obviously, we all thought our own version of success would be the natural path the project would align to, but this was not the case. Three pints in, the conversation developed into a much deeper and more meaningful dialogue, focusing on friendship, community, a sense of wanting to do something positive and give something back to society (whatever that meant at the time). Our thought process started to trend towards a more outward projecting approach rather than an inwards egocentric viewpoint.
Refreshingly, the outcome steered the need for our first objective for the project; to remain friends no matter what stood in our way, how successful we became or not, and a mechanism to control our individual egos if they started to wonder.
Thought #1 - Friendship comes first.
Stay safe everyone.
The3engineers
