Life has given our most treasured assets - Dexter and Brixton, but it has also been traumatic the past few years. Sickness, deaths, stress and betrayal has filled the calendar days. We needed to take time for ourselves and our family. We decided that we needed to make huge change in order to heal from all of the distress in our lives. To take a moment to catch our breath and enjoy life again. The stress of running a business was affecting our health and happiness, so we decided at the beginning of this year that we needed to get back to why we started the whole journey — the two of us working together on cool shit.
We've employed some very talented people over the years, but the industry changed, the economy shifted away from what we were previously known best for. Our skills have evolved, but the team required to do the work is much smaller. As the talent we employed left for other endeavors, we didn't replace them. We never laid anyone off. We have just gradually shrunk until we closed our office in June. We took the time to find a new place to live last Spring that would give us the space and the boundaries needed to work at home.
It has been working well. We started our business doing the what we loved and then we hired other people to do what we loved, but we weren't happy working that way. Now we are back doing the work that we love to do. It's funny how it has come full circle. It hasn't been easy to get to this place. There is nothing more ironic than to work so hard to get what we wanted, only to realize it doesn't make us happy at all. It's a harsh lesson in life.
So now when we go to work in the mornings, there's no commute. We get an extra hour a day to clean and hang out with our kids. We frequently eat lunch with our kids. We see our kids whenever we want during the day. We can do laundry and work in our pajamas. We can take a walk in the afternoon to talk about our business and projects. We can cook meals again which means healthier eating. We are happier with the quality of our work and our lives. This was the choice we made. This is the life we wanted.
