Many, many years ago, I was sitting in my Portuguese class at Stanford. My professor, a wise Brazilian woman, was talking about how she had seen the most beautiful Brazilian art glass vase in San Francisco that past weekend.
"But the problem," she told the class, "is that the vase was so expensive that I couldn't afford it. And, even worse, I bet the artist in Brazil barely earned anything from selling it."
Then it happened. For some reason, she looked directly at me and said, "Someone has to do something about this."
WHAT? I thought. Is she talking to me?
Later that evening, I told my girlfriend about it.
"Hmmm," she said, listening. "My mom might be interested in that."
Her mom was a respected human rights expert working with the United Nations who had helped negotiate the peace accords in El Salvador. I was a no-name student dating her daughter that she had never met before!
That first phone call with my girlfriend's mother, Armenia Nercessian, was so awkward. But she had a way of making everyone feel like a friend.
"If you raise the money to start this," she said, "I'd be interested in joining you."
Unbelievable, I thought. I guess we'd better get serious about creating a better way for artisans around the world to sell their art!
So in 1999, my brother Andy, my Stanford roommate Jose, my childhood best friend Charles, my girlfriend-now-wife Mina, and I started NOVICA alongside my now-mother-in-law Armenia, together with an amazing extended group of friends and family.
What an energetic, mission-driven, scrappy crew we were!!! And that enthusiasm still lives on today, 27 years later.
So, do me a huge favor on this 27th birthday…
Use your birthday codes today to beautify your life and make an artisan smile somewhere around the world 😃😃😃
|
|
|
|
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar