A worthy goal for a year is to learn enough about a subject so that you can’t believe how ignorant you were a year earlier.

→ Kevin Kelly, 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

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When I first began developing what would eventually become Functional Branding, I knew some things. I had helped start a few companies. I'd produced a lot of content. I'd read some books.

But looking back, it's clear to me that whatever knowledge I had was piecemeal, at best, & woefully inadequate at worst. It was a collection of half-thoughts & accidental experiences. It was a jumble of incomplete opinions, feelings, & other people's ideas.

While I have plenty still to learn, I don't feel nearly so emptied of actual insight as I was back in the summer of 2018 when I first began scribbling notes while watching the CrossFit Games from my couch.

The difference between then & now isn't due to the books I've read, the conversations I've had, or the courses I've taken. Those all helped, certainly. But nothing was more valuable than my recognition that what I was starting was not a company so much as an opportunity to learn on purpose & out loud.

Whatever you're building, whatever change you're seeking to make, recognize it first & foremost as an opportunity to learn experientially. Recognize yourself first & foremost as a student. Aspire to one day be both embarrassed by what you didn't know & proud of how far you've come.

Too often, we believe that doing & learning are mutually exclusive. That the former can only be embarked upon when we finish with the latter.

The true unlock comes when we recognize that both - done in tandem, with intention, & in public - is the ultimate propellant.

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Functional Branding exists to help change-makers make change. If you feel like you're running high on passion & hunger, but low on strategy, I can help. Just hit reply. Let's talk.