07/02/2023
This is so deeply rooted in how we’re different. Do something to help someone, make things better. Just help.
Fourteen years ago, I was sitting in a business class, in Grainger Hall on the University of Wisconsin campus, when the professor shared a video of Guy Kawasaki, one of the original team members of Macintosh.
Bloom at this point was only on paper.
That short excerpt of a video, had a profound effect on me.
He was talking about making meaning.
He shared :: "The first thing I figured out and learned, sometimes the hard way, about entrepreneurship is that the core, the essence of entrepreneurship is about making meaning. Many many people start companies to make money, the quick flip, the dot com phenomena. And I have noticed in both the companies that I've started and funded and been associated with, that those companies that are fundamentally founded to change the world, to make the world a better place, to make meaning, are the companies that make a difference. They are the companies to succeed. My naive and romantic belief is that if you make meaning, you will probably make money. But if you set out to make money, you will probably not make meaning and you won't make money."
"So my first thought is you need to make meaning. That should be the core of why you start a company. "
"There are three ways to make meaning. First is to increase the quality of life. A second way to make meaning is to right a wrong. And the third way to make meaning is to prevent the end of something good."
In that moment, I wrote at the top of every page of my Bloom business plan, “How am I going to make meaning?”
Today, driving back from our beautiful, sun filled location, I was overcome with a deep sense of gratitude. Pulling up to the bakery and walking through our breezeway, I caught sight of our egg farmer's crates waiting to be picked up, empty produce boxes from our farmers stacked neatly. Once inside the smell of fresh bakery made my stomach growl, I could hear the happy chatter of teammates setting up for a day’s work, soon the most lovely customers will be lined up ready for us to package their breakfast and desserts, fill their coffee cup.
I think we did it. I think we are doing it. I think together we are making meaning.
