6. The Journey of a Bag - Part 1
Part 1: A Team is formed
There are so many things I want to share with you. We’re on a design inspiration, materials hunting, factory auditing, story building trip. It’s been a total adventure filled with unexpected challenges and lessons but also with things we didn’t expect. And that’s always the way it is, isn’t it? The journey wasn’t what we expected but it was exactly what we needed.
We had so many tasks on this trip that several times along the way we thought, this just doesn’t feel possible. The doubts come in, you think, how can we do this? And then right at the end…. The miracles scoot in, sometimes on the last day in a location.
Before I get into what I was inspired by from a design lens, because there was a lot of be inspired by, and before I get into how difficult our materials hunting was, and before I get into seeing the prototypes for the first time, I’m going to share what this trip was really about.
This trip ultimately and fundamentally became about connection: the beautiful interconnection of human beings. The things that unite us, the things that inspire us, the things that make us so unique and needed in this world. And also how people who were once strangers can be so helpful and supportive no matter where you go.
Five of TheOne08 Team members came together on this trip. Forming the team that would make the product come to life, and the team that would record this happening.
Three of us began in Toronto, meeting for the first time in person. Our first stop was to meet with a materials supplier, inspiration shop and begin recording our journey. Then we were headed to meet with our initial factory base. Before we are able to build infrastructure in Africa, we need to have our bags made somewhere else in order to be able to fund our mission. We did not choose the easy route;, we for sure have tasked ourselves with something that at times we question if we’re going to be able to do it. But when you get a group of people together who believe with their hearts in our WHY, you are able to move mountains. At times, we do feel like we’re moving a mountain.
As a team we came together. Our connection to each other solidified. Our mission driving us. Our support of each other and what has to be done materialized.
I used to get so excited about seeing new cities, eating new cuisines and trying new things when I traveled. Now my cup is filled by experiencing people in their fullness, when they’re challenged, and when I’m challenged. How to be supportive and supported. How to be clear, ask what I need, allow things to unfold as they should and how to be giving in return to others in their needs and desires. How to share the burdens and joys with each other so the impossible (seeming) can become possible.
When you start a business, you can choose to be an entrepreneur of something you are skilled at, and do it your way, taking a more known route. Or you can choose to do something that isn’t being done, because it’s a difficult thing to do, and know in your heart you are strong and brave and fully supported by a team of individuals that are also all of that and more.
And when you become the embodiment of strength and grace, fluidity and agility and supportiveness you meet people all over the world who are this too. Imagine what we can do when we all come together and create the change that the world so needs right now.
We are doing it. It may not look the way we thought it would look but our journey has begun.
Keep following our journey to hear about each leg of the trip and what we were able to accomplish.
Marnie Quinn