Becoming Idealists: Finding Meaning In The Workplace

Traveling to Peru is likely to shake you up and inspire you. It's a place of rich culture. Layers of ancient civilizations and history live embedded in Peru's vibrant and chaotic modern society. Yet it's not necessarily a safe place, and not a wealthy one. Extreme poverty lurks down most streets, with hungry children on many doorsteps. It's this kind of poverty that changes your perspective. It's this constant realization that inspires many of us at INDIGENOUS to look for our worth beyond our paychecks. Instead, we have come to measure our worth by how much work we can give to an artisan group. By whether we can spread that work year round, making their jobs and lives easier and their income dependable. We measure our worth by our ability to reinvest in the communities we work with, and the ways we are able to connect individual artisans with micro financing and skills training.

It all began when I first traveled to Peru as a younger man. Alongside poverty as I had never seen it before, I also encountered a rich culture of textile design. Textile traditions that date back longer than anywhere else in the world, thrived throughout the Peruvian communities I visited. That was just the beginning of my journey. At the time I was one of the few pioneers in the organic and fair trade fashion industry. Today, ethically minded companies, in fashion and beyond, flourish, fueled by consumers who want to make a difference--people who can no longer turn a blind eye to how the rest of the world lives.

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