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How a “plázida” brand idea is born.

Entrepreneur with a heart, passionate solution seeker, dreamer, idealist. The driving force behind the transformation the world needs. You who think big about your impact on people and the world. About what you have come to improve in other people’s lives, rather than just your bottom line. I’ve been thinking a lot about you. What do you need to be at your best? What environment and conditions are ideal? What has to happen for the stars to conspire and the great idea to be born?

1. Space

The first thing you need is space. Mental space. To stop being obsessed with productivity, with filling all the gaps in your agenda. To remove the prestige of being extremely busy and the American cultural idea that time is money. How come we no longer have space in our lives for human relationships, for talking and being with the people we care about?, how come we can’t stop to observe what’s going on in the world or to be enchanted by the beauty of the small things that life always brings us? And on another note, how come there is no space in our lives for reflection? If we want powerful ideas to emerge, ideas that we can fall in love with, ideas that we can commit to making real, the first thing we need to do is to make space for them.

2. Nothingness

The attention economy has stolen our silence. It has filled all the gaps in our lives with images, videos, audios, chats. Noise and overstimulation.  And yet doing nothing, simply waiting, is a crucial part of creative work.  When we stop doing, doing, doing, we may come face to face with something we dread: emptiness, nothingness, inner silence. And yet, life is full of events that are unpredictable, that escape any measure or control and that are born out of nothingness. And on the other hand, there are plenty of good and bad things that will not happen to us.  In “The three Nothings of Life” Martin A. Ciesielski, creator of The School of Nothing makes us see how Chinese Taoism already highlighted how emptiness or absence is sometimes what gives meaning. Like the bowl that illustrates this post. Many times what never came to pass had a great emotional impact on us: that expected and never obtained recognition, those words of love never pronounced by the loved one or that brilliant idea that we never put into action. The power of nothing.

3. Time. 

And to stop for a while is exactly what we ask of you, entrepreneur who wants to launch a new brand on the market.  Lose the fear of the abyss of finding yourself face to face with nothingness. And it’s not about creating more slowly, it’s about taking the time that really important things require. It’s about deliberating, what you do and why do you do it? what do you believe in? who do you do it with? who do you do it for? do they care about it? how is the world-changing and why? how is your proposal different? what have you come to say that no one else is saying? what is there in it that is truly authentic and lasting? We need time to investigate, to analyse, and to dare to look into your deepest motivations, into what holds you back and what drives you.

4. Legacy

Another obsession of our culture is short-termism, which translates into launching before you’re ready. The day before yesterday. The Lean Start Up method, the leading one among entrepreneurs, has filled the world with quick mistakes and most probably with rubbish that remains floating in our cloud for eternity. Plázida’s recommendation is the opposite. Think long term, think about the consequences of your activity, think about what your granddaughter’s granddaughter would say. Think about your responsibility for the world.  Think about the health of people and the health of the planet. If you are going to launch a low-cost product, think about the continents of rubbish that are killing our oceans. Think about your carbon footprint. Think about the fact that every year we exceed the planetary limits. And read two essential books: “World Wide Waste” by Gerry Mc Govern and “The Good Ancestor” by Roman Krznaric.

5. Clarity

Creating a brand idea is the opposite of what the philosopher Mario Bunge called “schizophagy”: expressing yourself in a very obscure way so that people don’t understand you and think it’s something very deep.  Quite the opposite. The beauty of the chosen words and the clarity of the ideas seduce. Clarity has to go hand in hand with truth and emotional connection, first with ourselves and only then with the people we are addressing. This is because if it doesn’t resonate deeply with you, you will never create a concept that you can commit to. And also for the purposes of differentiation. A legitimate and authentic idea that stands out from the rest and that you can maintain over time. A clear and distinct idea, as Descartes said. 

6. Fertile soil

Ideas need fertile soil to grow healthy and take good roots. They need light and care. Self-confidence and mentors, people who believe in you, guide you and congratulate you on your achievements. At Plázida we want to be those people who make you grow on your strengths.  We have a vocation to be your “prozac”, as a client once called us. Because we all have our low days (so do we) and in Spain there is a traditional lack of recognition. It takes superhuman strength to believe in your idea without words of encouragement and positive feedback.

7. Calm

Calm, ” plazidity”. Nothing new is born if we spend our lives running from one place to another and putting out countless fires. Neuroscience experts teach us how the brain needs to stop in order to be more creative. Put it to rest. Go into flight mode. Meditate on good solutions.  According to legend, Einstein saw the solution to the theory of relativity while walking to work with an engineer friend. Famous is also the story of how Newton discovered the law of gravity. In short, we need calm, tranquillity, rest, pause, serenity, relaxation, and above all balance that leads to enjoyment, gratitude, and awareness.