Letter 3

Dear customers, today I want to talk about “wisdom is a balance” and what that means. I want to tie it to the production of this camper and then I want to say a few things that I hope make your day a little better.

It’s so important to have a dream; It’s said that many of the marriages that survive the hard phases are the ones that still have a mutual dream in mind. That makes me think that just having one instills a type of stubborn perseverance into us that makes the target of the end goal more important than the difficulty of the present moment.

I think wisdom is really interesting. If you really think - there’s a bee trying to make it into my sandal right now and it’s very distracting. If you really think about wisdom and what it is, it seems like one of the most important character traits we can gain in life. It’s the ability to make the best next decision, or to lead in the best next way, or to advise on the best next step. It’s about pausing at the right time and beginning at the right moment.

Wisdom is just context; it’s having been down both roads and knowing that even though road left is not going to be very fun, it’s a whole lot better than road right. Context knows that road right leads to a dead end after 5 miles. Road left involves some bush whacking and some hard obstacles but it’s the only way through to the next beginning. Wisdom knows that road left is going to be really hard, but wisdom sees the end goal, the target. And that’s enough to equip someone with the tenacity to make it through.

Wisdom seems like it’s a connect the dots picture. Each experience of life is like a dot on a piece of paper. Every new experience places another dot. Every adversity is a new dot. Every success and every conversation where we learn something new is a dot. And then there’s a moment, where, like the synapse’ of a brain, the dots are close enough to be connected. They draw a picture and then you see an image that you can never unsee. It’s not dots anymore, it’s not conversations or moments of adversity any more, it’s a picture that’s made up of the whole and you can’t unsee the picture; you can’t unsee wisdom. There are dichotomies between the dots, some have opposing truths. But the wisdom of the whole picture is a constant.

There’s this old saying that wisdom is the ability to hold two conflicting beliefs in your mind at the same time and still being able to function - i’ve always liked that saying. It reminds me that there isn’t single truth, there’s just our version of the best next decision.

Now here’s my try at tying this to a Kimbo. There are thousands of decisions that make up the production of a camper. They’re made in thousands of moments of pause on whether to go road left or go road right. I want to tie it all together by saying that the ethics that build a Kimbo are right here. I’m looking at Kimbo number 13, I’m under the shade of a tree in a camping spot. It’s 80 degrees outside and blue skies; this place looks like Colorado. It’s in the back of a dodge 2500 and I built a wooden platform to make it fit. It’s old, but I’m stinkin’ proud of it. If it breaks I know I can fix it. If it leaks I know I can repair it. It’s got scratches and scuffs and it’s getting older but I am too. I take care of it and it takes care of me.

There are thousands of decisions that have to be made to build a product that someone loves. It all starts by tracing it back from the end goal, this simple moment. But it’s all worth it.

Today I want to share something that I hope speaks right to the heart of who you are - I want to become the best man that I can be in this life and I like to be encouraging. You’re worth it and you’re doing great. I hope that your wisdom is leading you to becoming a better man or woman today and I hope that you’re growing into the unknown, that you feel like you’re becoming a better person for others, one small step at a time. I want to encourage you to challenge yourself to face a fear today like you’re building a connect the dots picture. It won’t serve you until you see the whole; and then it will serve you beyond measure. Thank you for being you. Kick butt today.

-M