What is your craft?

I was inspired to make sourdough bread from scratch after watching an incredible video from Apollonia Poilane - the owner of Poilane Bakery. Her grandfather started the bakery in the 1930s and they have been making sourdough using the same start since that date. She is a true craftswoman - in a line of craftsman - her grandfather and father.

The goal was for my loaf to look like this. I carefully read the instructions; started the start from scratch; and stayed up late baking. Although my loaf did not look anything like this - it turned out perfect. Perfect for holding down a tent in gale force winds; perfect for second base; perfect for about anything but human consumption.

I was able to salvage some pride as I did not hear one of our chickens complain as they vigorously pecked out the inside, while preserving their beaks by avoiding the crust.

The Poilane Bakery story is just one of many stories that I geek out about describing someone's craft and the people who strive to perfect that craft. Here are a few that I go back to again and again for inspiration.

• Browniesx3 - https://thenewutah.com/tag/browniesbrowniesbrownies/
• Basecamp - https://basecamp.com/about
• Rivian - https://stories.rivian.com/f5e0cb9d741306ebec49f26dc3030694
• Millscale - https://millscale.co/pages/our-story
• Huckberry - https://huckberry.com/journal/posts/the-huckberry-story
• And, of course, Poilane Bakery - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EizXs89kb8o&ab_channel=CBSMornings

In trying to unpack the fascination with this topic it seems to come down to a few similarities in all of the stories. Each of them took a chance to build something they believed in. They made lots of mistakes. They learned things not taught in a book or YouTube video. Many people told them it wouldn't work, but a core group of people supported them. They have scars. They pushed through and now have something that is beautiful, functional, and benefits their piece of the world. That sounds like a life pretty well lived to me.

Inevitably after consuming these stories, it makes me question, what is my craft? Unlike the stories above, I can't bake, weld, build trucks, or create experiences through adventure gear. But maybe, just maybe, my partners and I can create a different kind of HR software. Software that is beautiful, functional, and creates an experience that relies on our experience working in HR for a couple of decades. There are many who suggest it can't be done, that it's been done before, that we are under sourced, too late, too early, not prepared, or the myriad of other voices without and within my head. But, I plug my ears and am inspired when I watch my partners in action and see their resolve to change the world - at least our part of it. So, perhaps, whether we end up with 5,000 customers or not, the effort of trying is worth it because we can say we tried and left nothing on the table on our quest to find our purpose.

What is your craft? What piece of the world can you influence for good? It's in you. And, we need it.

Your friends at BestDayHR