Build It Like You Mean It

“I just wanted to do business in a way that felt more human.”

There’s a quiet kind of reckoning that happens when you step away from the conventional path. After enough reorgs, burnouts, or wins that feel emptier than you expected, you start asking a different set of questions—not about how to scale faster, but about what you’re actually building, and why.

What kind of systems are we designing?
Who are they built for?
What values are baked in, intentionally or not?

For a lot of folks I talk to (and let’s be honest, for me too), the move away from corporate life wasn’t just a rejection of bureaucracy or burnout. It was a search for alignment. For a way of working that doesn’t leave your values at the door. For projects that don’t treat people like resources or “culture” like a marketing asset.

That search looks different for everyone. Some launch startups. Some freelance. Some retreat to build quietly and reemerge with a plan. But the throughline is the same: a desire to work in a way that feels human.

The pilot concept still matters here, not just as a tactic, but as a philosophy. Try small. Learn fast. Don’t oversell. Build trust, not just roadmaps. Whether you’re launching a product, shifting careers, or reinventing how you show up professionally, it helps to think in terms of living experiments. What are you testing? What are you learning? What are you willing to walk away from?

I think about this often in the context of Creatures Of, which started as a side project and became a framework. Not a company, really, but a philosophy. A way of engaging with people, work, and the world that prioritizes compassion, clarity, and real connection. I didn’t have language for that at the beginning. I just knew what I didn’t want.

Now, whether I’m coaching a founder, building systems with a team, or mentoring a student, I try to carry that same approach into everything I do:
Start small.
Pay attention.
Stay honest.
Leave space for change.

Not because it’s the most efficient way to grow, but because it’s the most honest way to build something that lasts.