From fear to innovation
Finding courage in the face of uncertainty
I want to share is a series of reflections I’ve been having over these holidays.
Sometimes we end up in the comfort zone because we fear to change.
We fear complexity.
We fear our own abilities.
Before I started my career as a designer, I worked as an intern in an architectural firm. At that time I had not yet graduated, I was working with a miserable salary, and my partner told me that she was pregnant.
I don’t know if in English there is a more elegant way of saying ‘cagarsi in mano’ which literally translated sounds like ‘shitting in my hand,’ but during that time I shit my pants more than once.
Fast forward to today, 15 years later: I have 3 kids, and in the last 5 years we moved from Italy to France and changed 5 cities and 5 different places.
I’m telling this story to tell you that if I had not been in fear, I would never have done what I did. I would never become who I am.
I am someone who sees things very differently.
As a result, I have a high capacity to innovate and anticipate.
I care deeply about human connections, with colleagues, clients and end-users.
I value flexibility and what I mean by flexibility is trying new things.
Doing things in the same way over and over again isn’t innovation.
I live to innovate.
Fears, are part of our personal history and needs to be listened to. If you have no fear, it means you are not taking risks.
I am a design. I have spent my whole life designing things, collaborating with my classmates first and colleagues later. We used to spend whole days arguing about how to design a roof, a staircase or the arrangement of windows in a building.
With the designers who support me every day, the best ideas come from our disagreements: if there are no conflicts, there will always be a lack of the spark that gives birth to good ideas.
Those who know me little say that I am not diplomatic. But I am a designer and by definition I am not diplomatic. To be diplomatic means to be a cog in politics, in bureaucracy. I look for contrasts because I look for ideas. But as I said before I deeply care about human connections with colleagues, clients, and users. Not being diplomatic does not mean being rude or treating others badly.
Respect for people is my value number one.
I spent my holidays, with my family who have supported me over the years to celebrate this long journey together.