Creative Intent In The Workplace Can Change The World

As many of you may have learned during the course of your lives, my compulsion to create 4XPEDITION is due in part to a personal desire to utilize my creativity to produce something with deeper meaning. I desired to live more deliberately and to inspire others to do so as well.

Aside from operating this marvelous organization, I also continue to utilize my skills for other projects. What is interesting, though, is the level of thought that I’ve been investing into my work since the launch of 4X. Creating something with such meaning has sharpened my creative focus entirely.

I sit here this evening pondering how such a purposeful use of creative expression, or a sharpened focus on putting true, heart-felt meaning behind the work any of us executes on a daily basis, could potentially produce significant benefit to our world-at-large.

Not long ago, I created a logo for a company that manages real estate short-sale investments. Although I was still able to whip out a quality design, I found that in the process, I had incorporated significantly more meaning into the piece. Symbolic representations, if you will.

The logo utilized two white capital ‘S‘ letters overlaying a red box. One ‘S’ faced correctly and the other I flipped horizontally implying that there are two sides to every story. The reflection of one to the other represented the challenges we face in duality to find balance between opposing sides. Bringing the two ‘S‘ shapes together (one forward and one backward) created a heart shape. Inside the heart I placed a house graphic and sat it at the bottom of the heart, representing that ‘home is where the heart is’. Having the house inside the heart also illustrated that the properties they short-sale are people’s homes– places people cherish and create memories– not just a building with four walls and a roof. In a sense, the design suggested that the home sits at the bottom of the owner’s heart.

The top pitch of the roof met the two ends of the ‘S’ curves illustrating that the heart sprouts from the roof and surrounds it. Following the curves of the ‘S’ downward brings the eye back to the base of the house and right back to the front door, representing a new cycle beginning.

I know, this may seem deep for a real estate investment firm, but as I said, my work has become infused with deeper thought and meaning, and this is an example of the results.

Presenting the design to the client, I found that my words touched them in a deeper way. As I spoke, I shared with them my enlightened philosophy about business these days–that I believe we all have the ability to connect with those we serve at a deeper level. My efforts didn’t go unappreciated. The design concept was warmly embraced.

I had a neighbor family who lost their home in the 2008 real estate crisis. They were a wonderful family with four home-schooled children. They were the kind of people that really brought value to the neighborhood. They had invested over $200,000 of their hard-earned money toward the $500,000 purchase price when they built it four years earlier. Over the years, they clearly had made the house into a home.

As the market took a downturn, they, like many of us, had a hard time making their mortgage payment. To lower their monthly finances, they decided to refinance the property to lower their monthly payment. In a complicated turn of events, they lost their home in a botched refinance caused in part by a less than respectable service provider who they contracted to manage the process. Following the botched refinance, the family was forced to move out of the house and in with relatives. The property sat vacant and unmaintained for more than a year while under the ownership of the bank. At the time, I wondered what this world had come to. How could it be that a good family could be forced from their home only for it to sit empty and neglected for so long? How could it be that their six-figure down payment accounted for nothing? The market had dropped and the house was no longer worth what they bought it for and their $200,000 vanished into thin air. To the bank, it clearly made more sense for the house sitting empty rather than go above and beyond to find a way for the family to stay in their home.

This story, and many like it, is what lies behind the logo I created and presented to my client.

Although designing a logo may not appear on the surface to change the world, have no doubt that it does. The intention behind the design is what will march forward and into the lives of many people like my former neighbors. The symbolic meaning will resonate with those who come in contact with it. The design will likely influence those who run the company. That influence will shape how they interact with clients who find themselves in a difficult situation.

What can you do in your line of work to create positive change in the world? It really doesn’t matter what you do for a living. Maybe you change tires for a living. Just making sure the air pressure is at optimum capacity can save fuel and reduce burden on the environment and on the pocketbook of the driver. This savings, though it may be pennies per mile, can add up to a long-needed weekend trip for the owner’s family. That savings may put food on the table or pay a nagging overdue bill. You just don’t know what effect your efforts will have when you approach your work with deeper intent. The smallest of intentions can make a big difference.

I challenge you just for one day to approach your work with deeper meaning and conduct your business with heart-felt intent. Or, if you are retired, to extend a helping hand once more and this time, even more resolute. At the end of the day, sit back, kick up your heels, and ponder the possibilities of what your commitment to creative focus may have had on the world around you. Ponder that your positivity rippled outward onto the world stage and touched countless people and the planet. I bet you will find a smile on your face and satisfaction that your work is making a difference. Believe it into reality and so it will be.

With true intent,
Scott