Ran across a gem of an article on my flight back from Portland last week. It’s from the Dec/Jan issue of Fast Company and it’s about the Italian designer, Brunello Cucinelli and the good he’s doing both locally and globally.
For example, Cucinelli employs the majority of his small Italian village of around 500 people, keeps local button manufacturers and leather and cashmere providers in business, and he gives 20% of his profits to humanitarian efforts. He’s also restored a medieval castle, built a community theater, and he’s renovating a children’s park on New York’s Bleecker Street.
And I love the reason why. Check out Cucinelli’s quote from the article:
“I want to embellish the world around me, and this way, my employees feel part of a project that won’t last just three or five years, but 500 or 1,000 years,” Cucinelli says. “I don’t feel like the owner of Solomeo; I am just the custodian.”
What a powerful statement:
“I don’t feel like the owner of Solomeo; I am just the custodian.”
I. am. just. the. custodian.
Isn’t that our calling? Isn’t that the job God tasked humanity with in the very beginning? It was only when we saw ourselves as owners that we got in trouble. There’s a reason for that.
May we embrace our calling as custodians of everything. Our money. Our jobs. Our businesses. Our art. Our words. Our families. Our neighborhoods. Our cities. Our planet.
