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ESSAY | Solomeo: home for a Life's Work
Episode · The Comma Project · What if we built worlds instead of just offices? I went to Solomeo, the hamlet re-built by Brunello Cucinelli, where a true home has been built for his Life's Work. I left inspired. I think you will be, too.
I’m coming to you sitting in the hamlet that is Solomeo. In the square in the middle of the town that Brunello Cucinelli (re-)built.
Perhaps even the chair he himself sat in, one night after dinner, over an espresso and a hand of cards.
It is a real place of beauty.
An old caste, an old chapel. A small town of winding cobblestone streets spilling down from the top of the hill.
Hamlet really is the word to describe it.
A home for a Life’s Work
A place really does impart its energy to you.
It’s interesting to me that more organizations don’t really have a true home.
By that I mean a world - one that exists beyond a glass-and-steel office building and a car park.
Actually, it’s not that surprising for the vast majority of organizations.
But, for some - a minority, probably - those that are the vessel of a Life’s Work, it is surprising.
Why?
A Life’s Work is an integrated pursuit.
It’s an authentic extension of a person’s values and mission. An extension of their soul - the spark at their core that transcends logic, that pulls them forward towards their life’s passions and callings, the source of their life force.
A Life’s Work is more than a job or a career.
It’s a mission and a purpose.
These things live beyond a nine-to-five, just like the human that serves them. Their work is dynamic, just like they are.
So, hence the surprise.
A world is a home for a Life’s Work.
A world is dynamic, beyond a nine-to-five. It’s beyond an office, though it may have a space in which to work.
It also has space to gather, to explore ideas, to eat and drink, to connect with natural beauty, to move the body.
A world is a collection of spaces for all parts of life.
And it’s not just for the “employees.” (As an aside, I hate that word. “Team” feels much more fitting.) It’s for others, for the community to engage with, also. As well as others beyond the local community - those who care about what the organization cares about, and believe what they believe.
In this way, Solomeo and Londolozi are alike.
They’re both spaces of beauty, connected to the natural world, for humans on both sides - those who are a part of the team, as well as those who visit.
Both owners invest - financially, physically, spiritually - in restoring the place, and in the local community of people who live there. In this way, they are more stewards than owners. They steward not only the mission of the organization, but even more powerfully, they steward a place, its physical beauty, its soul and spirit, its people, its culture. They aspire to thrive in concert with the place.
This is not to say that people who work there must sacrifice their whole lives.
No.
It’s simply to say that building a world for all parts of life - not just the nine-to-five behind a desk - feeds the souls of those in it, and even draws in those who seek such a way.
In service
Now, it must also be said that there is in fact a focus - a direction, an aim - in all of this.
Brunello Cucinelli is in fact a fashion business. Quite a good one, at that. Six billion euros good. They make fine cashmere knitwear and other ready-to-wear items.
There is a vital business at the heart of this idyllic world. There is a commitment to a craft, and a production and sale of products to generate revenue and profit.
Just like Londolozi facilitates safari experiences and retreats in the wild South African bush.
Just like Disney offers timeless stories and immersive cruise and amusement park experiences.
This part is critical.
These are no charities.
Nor are they communities, or cults.
There is a “what” at the core - but it’s in service of their “why.” They serve their reason for being - the beliefs they hold, and the vision of a world they seek to move us towards.
It’s not just a product or technology for product or technology’s sake.
They’ve, well…built a world.
One that integrates their product or service with the things that matter to them about the human experience.
It’s dynamic.
Just like being human.
And that’s magic.
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What if we built worlds instead of just offices? I went to Solomeo, the hamlet re-built by Brunello Cucinelli, where a true home has been built for his Life's Work. I left inspired. I think you will be, too. https://paragraph.xyz/@comma/solomeo