[Music]
so it was the first week of summer break
and if you’re a parent you understand
the tenacity and the intensity of that
first week for whatever reason my wife
and I felt as though we were the
overseeing party committee for our two
sons a very frenetic first week at home
with us and it was frenetic in this way
it felt like we had a lot of different
parties that we were going to and
sleepovers and campfires and movie
nights and all being a really good time
and we enjoy being together as a family
but that eight morning that eighth day
the boys came down the stairs kind of
looking at us like all right mom and dad
do your thing entertain us and we said
listen I gotta go back to the shop and
my wife had some projects she was
working on so there was no more white
space to play and we opened up the
proverbial back door and a little bit
too literal back door and pushed him out
inside could go play wax old school play
with your bike throw a ball around hang
out with your friends and had and of
course they left all exasperated I then
went to work and I show up at home that
evening in my back yard and here is my
son a picture of my son laying in a
hammock that he made this old sheet and
a couple pieces of rope of which by the
way he had been talking about for weeks
but due to his very busy schedule at
school and being over entertained he
never got to it sitting on his chest is
also a second book that day that he had
devoured and all of a sudden everything
came full circle about ten days earlier
my other sons third grade Montessori
teacher of decades of history and
brilliance and teaching she brought all
the parents and the students together
and had this sort of commissioning
service to go out into the summer and
she said to us parents your default is
to go is to try to fill up your
your kids summer with all these nuances
all these pieces of entertainment all
this fun all these camps she said maybe
the best thing you could do is she sort
of pointed her finger with the sense of
wisdom and said let them be bored it
made sense now I’m looking at my son
with this grin on his face lying in this
hammock that he had made earlier in the
morning having devoured two books and it
was as though he was saying to me look
at what I did dad that the monotony of
his morning when he stepped out into
that backyard because we forced him to
was the impetus he’s creating that the
the impetus that the founding of some of
the the things that we make most special
in our lives come from a place of
boredom 1929 my great-grandfather
started a jewelry store my grandfather
became his clock maker my father his
watchmaker and when it was my turn
fourth generation to be a part of this
family firm I decided I wanted to go off
to college I didn’t want to work with my
hands I wanted to become live more in
the in the academic systems side of
things so I went and got the proverbial
degrees jumped into the nonprofit sector
even had the time of my life
traveled 240 some different countries I
was helping meet international needs
with US domestic resources and waking up
to a whole new way of seeing things my
the the call of changing the world was
being satiated I was having the time of
my life in my early 30s
another couple friend of ours we move
here to Charlotte and we started a
spiritual community called watershed
again another profoundly
transformational time in my own life and
for the last 13 years watershed has been
something that we have focused on great
intensity and great passion as people
are waking up to who they really are but
about eight years ago I was bumping into
40 a little bit of a meaty mid cry
life crisis thing I’m not exactly sure
what it was but I was bumping into 40
and for 20 years I had lived in the
service sector nonprofit creating
systems creating infrastructure
fundraising and to be honest with you I
was loving my work but I was just a
little bit bored it was as though
somebody kicked me out into the backyard
and said alright you got to live with
this a little bit do something what’s
what’s next and I remember in that space
just being bored thinking what’s next
what’s going to happen next I remember
in that in that space thinking all right
I I need to play with something else I
have other friends I have other people
who don’t just work their nine-to-five
gig and then come home many of you are
the same you have these other sort of
proverbial outlets that you have you
might work with your hands and maybe
it’s steel or it’s wood maybe you are
into painting or music or art and for
myself I tried to think what what could
I introduce into my life that would
maybe stave off some of the the monotony
that I was experiencing professionally
and I thought well I love all things
leather I love a good bag a good belt
good wallet so maybe that would be the
medium in which I play so I bought a
height of leather a fistful of tools and
I went back to my screened-in porch and
made a little makeshift studio and I
began to make I began to work with my
hands something I had never done and
three or four nights a week I would come
home and I would make a coffer a comb
sheath because everybody needs a comb
sheath right or a belt or a wallet and
my sons would maybe join me and I began
to find myself waking up like wow
there’s something profound about working
with my hands and what I also began to
discover that my other work life I was
coming alive as well around the same
time
Steve Jobs comes on the scene with the
iPad and me and however many millions of
others probably many of you we order the
iPad within days of the announcement it
shows up at my house the box I open it
up on top of the counter and I laid a
towel out on the counter because I
didn’t want to scratch the iPad right I
even put some pillows around the floor
in case it slid off and so as I’m an
earthing this iPad from this box I think
there was like a light from heaven
shining on it I’ve lived it and put it
on top of the counter I turned it on and
the first thing I googled was a case for
my iPad I didn’t want this thing to get
scratched and I might have been the
first time I ever googled something and
got a big fat zero the industry had yet
to catch up so I thought well I’m gonna
go back to my little makeshift a studio
and make a sheath so I went back there
and this is the sheath that I made
nothing fancy really basic no nothing
that anybody would clearly want and so I
show it to my wife and she says listen
you need to put that on Etsy I said babe
I don’t deal in beanie babies and I
don’t knit why would I need an Etsy
account and so I relinquished and I put
it on Etsy in my inbox lit up people
were buying it faster than I could make
them I was having the time of my life I
was working by day at watershed and at
night I got to come home and to make
something and these things would pile up
and I could see with my eyes what my
hands were creating and then people were
wanting to purchase them and they were
consuming them and it was a sense of
life and energy that I had never
experienced so I began to think well
what if I make a wallet or a belt and
sell that next when people buy those and
they did what if I taught myself as
being a custom leather guy because after
all I can make an iPad sheath clearly I
can do other custom stuff right I toured
myself as that and people believed it
and they started having me make things
one customer calls me up and says listen
I need 150 bags and eat him in eight
weeks can you make it happen and I had
sort of out-of-body experience where the
person there that was me holding the
phone was saying something that the
person here was freaking out and clearly
he should have said no but the person
holding the phone said of course mr.
Smith we would love to make those bag
for you and hung up and so all I had was
just me a whole bunch of weeks later and
a lot of stress and everybody that I
knew helping me out we produced and we
made that client happy but I quickly
began to realize we got to scale this
better so I did what every entrepreneur
would do I moved the operations back to
my ten by ten shed and I hired a friend
of mine and quickly he went to full-time
I hired a second person before I knew it
I had three people working in my ten by
ten shed in my back yard my Neighborhood
Association and OSHA would I had a hissy
fit had they known and so for a year
they were back there we moved over to
Plaza Midwood where we had our studio
for the last five years and now we’re
literally just down the street here in
Elizabeth where I’ve got four amazing
creative leathersmith two beautiful
amazing people who helped me run
operations and we are having the time of
our lives and I never would have
experienced that had I not allowed
myself to sit with that space of boredom
and if my great grandfather and my
grandfather and my father could now meet
me over in my studio they would say
Scott what we have known for decades
you’re finally learning at 20 and 20
years into it that there’s something
sacred dare I say and working with your
hands and that never would have been a
reality that I would have known had I
not somehow realized that the monotony
was a place that I needed to rest in and
what began to happen was the world of
watershed and the world of leather
now those two spaces have are more alive
for me than ever before somehow because
I’ve learned that working with my hands
and working in the spiritual community
is is a way that I guess I get to do and
live in to do
front spaces university research says
this that when you and I sit with
boredom we have this longing to do
something the research uses this word
something meaningful that monotony
actually breathes something that is of
consequence so when you dream about that
nonprofit or when you dream about your
business or when you dream about maybe
taking that marriage that feels boring
and you dream about what else it could
look like or parenting or your career
but the impetus to creativity might be
boredom it might be monotony but here’s
here’s the tension that I’m living with
again there’s other research out there
that says New York Times is up to 85% of
us are unhappy in our work some other
research says 50% of us are unhappy in
our work so it’s very possible that at
least half of us dare I say are bored
with what we do 40 plus hours a week so
if boredom is the impetus to creativity
then why is it that more and more of us
aren’t finding sort of awakening up to a
new way of being or a new way of
becoming I think it’s a relatively
simple answer but 10 or 12 years ago
remember when you would go into like the
doctor’s office walk into a waiting room
you’re always waiting at least fifteen
to thirty minutes in an office for
whatever reason and what would you do
you would sit down and you might pick up
the dated People magazine and you might
start Fanning through the magazine it
might be a relatively numbing experience
because your mind probably is elsewhere
it might been in the meeting that you
had earlier or the the fight that you
had the night before or maybe just maybe
you’re you’re thinking about the
vacation coming up or maybe your mind in
that space of boredom is
dreaming about something of consequence
dreaming about what else could be but
invariably here’s what happens nowadays
if you have 15 extra minutes what do you
do pull out your phone right and what do
we do with our phones if we have that
time generally two things the first
thing we typically do is we get
productive I mean after all your ability
minutes you better help the bottom line
so you begin emailing being texting you
get stuff done or if you don’t get
productive then you jump into
entertainment mode social media gaming
whatever it might be and what begins to
happen is we numb ourself from the
luxury of being bored with something as
trite as technology and in doing so we
miss out on the opportunities of what
else could be what you could become and
so maybe maybe the wisdom that I can
give you today is not mine but that of
my son’s third grade Montessori teacher
when she in so many words commissioned
us as parents and his kids as I will to
you today if you want to experience
transformation in your life if you want
to experience change if you want to
gamble what a new future could look like
if you want to play with a different
destiny if you want to wake up to a
potential new reality maybe the best
thing you can do is to allow yourself to
be bored
you
so it was the first week of summer break
and if you’re a parent you understand
the tenacity and the intensity of that
first week for whatever reason my wife
and I felt as though we were the
overseeing party committee for our two
sons a very frenetic first week at home
with us and it was frenetic in this way
it felt like we had a lot of different
parties that we were going to and
sleepovers and campfires and movie
nights and all being a really good time
and we enjoy being together as a family
but that eight morning that eighth day
the boys came down the stairs kind of
looking at us like all right mom and dad
do your thing entertain us and we said
listen I gotta go back to the shop and
my wife had some projects she was
working on so there was no more white
space to play and we opened up the
proverbial back door and a little bit
too literal back door and pushed him out
inside could go play wax old school play
with your bike throw a ball around hang
out with your friends and had and of
course they left all exasperated I then
went to work and I show up at home that
evening in my back yard and here is my
son a picture of my son laying in a
hammock that he made this old sheet and
a couple pieces of rope of which by the
way he had been talking about for weeks
but due to his very busy schedule at
school and being over entertained he
never got to it sitting on his chest is
also a second book that day that he had
devoured and all of a sudden everything
came full circle about ten days earlier
my other sons third grade Montessori
teacher of decades of history and
brilliance and teaching she brought all
the parents and the students together
and had this sort of commissioning
service to go out into the summer and
she said to us parents your default is
to go is to try to fill up your
your kids summer with all these nuances
all these pieces of entertainment all
this fun all these camps she said maybe
the best thing you could do is she sort
of pointed her finger with the sense of
wisdom and said let them be bored it
made sense now I’m looking at my son
with this grin on his face lying in this
hammock that he had made earlier in the
morning having devoured two books and it
was as though he was saying to me look
at what I did dad that the monotony of
his morning when he stepped out into
that backyard because we forced him to
was the impetus he’s creating that the
the impetus that the founding of some of
the the things that we make most special
in our lives come from a place of
boredom 1929 my great-grandfather
started a jewelry store my grandfather
became his clock maker my father his
watchmaker and when it was my turn
fourth generation to be a part of this
family firm I decided I wanted to go off
to college I didn’t want to work with my
hands I wanted to become live more in
the in the academic systems side of
things so I went and got the proverbial
degrees jumped into the nonprofit sector
even had the time of my life
traveled 240 some different countries I
was helping meet international needs
with US domestic resources and waking up
to a whole new way of seeing things my
the the call of changing the world was
being satiated I was having the time of
my life in my early 30s
another couple friend of ours we move
here to Charlotte and we started a
spiritual community called watershed
again another profoundly
transformational time in my own life and
for the last 13 years watershed has been
something that we have focused on great
intensity and great passion as people
are waking up to who they really are but
about eight years ago I was bumping into
40 a little bit of a meaty mid cry
life crisis thing I’m not exactly sure
what it was but I was bumping into 40
and for 20 years I had lived in the
service sector nonprofit creating
systems creating infrastructure
fundraising and to be honest with you I
was loving my work but I was just a
little bit bored it was as though
somebody kicked me out into the backyard
and said alright you got to live with
this a little bit do something what’s
what’s next and I remember in that space
just being bored thinking what’s next
what’s going to happen next I remember
in that in that space thinking all right
I I need to play with something else I
have other friends I have other people
who don’t just work their nine-to-five
gig and then come home many of you are
the same you have these other sort of
proverbial outlets that you have you
might work with your hands and maybe
it’s steel or it’s wood maybe you are
into painting or music or art and for
myself I tried to think what what could
I introduce into my life that would
maybe stave off some of the the monotony
that I was experiencing professionally
and I thought well I love all things
leather I love a good bag a good belt
good wallet so maybe that would be the
medium in which I play so I bought a
height of leather a fistful of tools and
I went back to my screened-in porch and
made a little makeshift studio and I
began to make I began to work with my
hands something I had never done and
three or four nights a week I would come
home and I would make a coffer a comb
sheath because everybody needs a comb
sheath right or a belt or a wallet and
my sons would maybe join me and I began
to find myself waking up like wow
there’s something profound about working
with my hands and what I also began to
discover that my other work life I was
coming alive as well around the same
time
Steve Jobs comes on the scene with the
iPad and me and however many millions of
others probably many of you we order the
iPad within days of the announcement it
shows up at my house the box I open it
up on top of the counter and I laid a
towel out on the counter because I
didn’t want to scratch the iPad right I
even put some pillows around the floor
in case it slid off and so as I’m an
earthing this iPad from this box I think
there was like a light from heaven
shining on it I’ve lived it and put it
on top of the counter I turned it on and
the first thing I googled was a case for
my iPad I didn’t want this thing to get
scratched and I might have been the
first time I ever googled something and
got a big fat zero the industry had yet
to catch up so I thought well I’m gonna
go back to my little makeshift a studio
and make a sheath so I went back there
and this is the sheath that I made
nothing fancy really basic no nothing
that anybody would clearly want and so I
show it to my wife and she says listen
you need to put that on Etsy I said babe
I don’t deal in beanie babies and I
don’t knit why would I need an Etsy
account and so I relinquished and I put
it on Etsy in my inbox lit up people
were buying it faster than I could make
them I was having the time of my life I
was working by day at watershed and at
night I got to come home and to make
something and these things would pile up
and I could see with my eyes what my
hands were creating and then people were
wanting to purchase them and they were
consuming them and it was a sense of
life and energy that I had never
experienced so I began to think well
what if I make a wallet or a belt and
sell that next when people buy those and
they did what if I taught myself as
being a custom leather guy because after
all I can make an iPad sheath clearly I
can do other custom stuff right I toured
myself as that and people believed it
and they started having me make things
one customer calls me up and says listen
I need 150 bags and eat him in eight
weeks can you make it happen and I had
sort of out-of-body experience where the
person there that was me holding the
phone was saying something that the
person here was freaking out and clearly
he should have said no but the person
holding the phone said of course mr.
Smith we would love to make those bag
for you and hung up and so all I had was
just me a whole bunch of weeks later and
a lot of stress and everybody that I
knew helping me out we produced and we
made that client happy but I quickly
began to realize we got to scale this
better so I did what every entrepreneur
would do I moved the operations back to
my ten by ten shed and I hired a friend
of mine and quickly he went to full-time
I hired a second person before I knew it
I had three people working in my ten by
ten shed in my back yard my Neighborhood
Association and OSHA would I had a hissy
fit had they known and so for a year
they were back there we moved over to
Plaza Midwood where we had our studio
for the last five years and now we’re
literally just down the street here in
Elizabeth where I’ve got four amazing
creative leathersmith two beautiful
amazing people who helped me run
operations and we are having the time of
our lives and I never would have
experienced that had I not allowed
myself to sit with that space of boredom
and if my great grandfather and my
grandfather and my father could now meet
me over in my studio they would say
Scott what we have known for decades
you’re finally learning at 20 and 20
years into it that there’s something
sacred dare I say and working with your
hands and that never would have been a
reality that I would have known had I
not somehow realized that the monotony
was a place that I needed to rest in and
what began to happen was the world of
watershed and the world of leather
now those two spaces have are more alive
for me than ever before somehow because
I’ve learned that working with my hands
and working in the spiritual community
is is a way that I guess I get to do and
live in to do
front spaces university research says
this that when you and I sit with
boredom we have this longing to do
something the research uses this word
something meaningful that monotony
actually breathes something that is of
consequence so when you dream about that
nonprofit or when you dream about your
business or when you dream about maybe
taking that marriage that feels boring
and you dream about what else it could
look like or parenting or your career
but the impetus to creativity might be
boredom it might be monotony but here’s
here’s the tension that I’m living with
again there’s other research out there
that says New York Times is up to 85% of
us are unhappy in our work some other
research says 50% of us are unhappy in
our work so it’s very possible that at
least half of us dare I say are bored
with what we do 40 plus hours a week so
if boredom is the impetus to creativity
then why is it that more and more of us
aren’t finding sort of awakening up to a
new way of being or a new way of
becoming I think it’s a relatively
simple answer but 10 or 12 years ago
remember when you would go into like the
doctor’s office walk into a waiting room
you’re always waiting at least fifteen
to thirty minutes in an office for
whatever reason and what would you do
you would sit down and you might pick up
the dated People magazine and you might
start Fanning through the magazine it
might be a relatively numbing experience
because your mind probably is elsewhere
it might been in the meeting that you
had earlier or the the fight that you
had the night before or maybe just maybe
you’re you’re thinking about the
vacation coming up or maybe your mind in
that space of boredom is
dreaming about something of consequence
dreaming about what else could be but
invariably here’s what happens nowadays
if you have 15 extra minutes what do you
do pull out your phone right and what do
we do with our phones if we have that
time generally two things the first
thing we typically do is we get
productive I mean after all your ability
minutes you better help the bottom line
so you begin emailing being texting you
get stuff done or if you don’t get
productive then you jump into
entertainment mode social media gaming
whatever it might be and what begins to
happen is we numb ourself from the
luxury of being bored with something as
trite as technology and in doing so we
miss out on the opportunities of what
else could be what you could become and
so maybe maybe the wisdom that I can
give you today is not mine but that of
my son’s third grade Montessori teacher
when she in so many words commissioned
us as parents and his kids as I will to
you today if you want to experience
transformation in your life if you want
to experience change if you want to
gamble what a new future could look like
if you want to play with a different
destiny if you want to wake up to a
potential new reality maybe the best
thing you can do is to allow yourself to
be bored
you
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