Of course, we were hoping Ebb would work. That it would attract, and mean something. That data, research, and insight would make it real. That if we learned from experience and listened to those who inspire, we would make it.

But when all that’s said and done – you still have to take the leap.
And hope you land.

Leaps are scary. Like running downhill as a kid, legs moving faster than you can control.

Freeing, sure – but never fearless. I wouldn’t call myself bold though. I couldn’t even look at blood until I turned thirty. And to this day I still avoid blood tests if I can. I’ve always been the kind of person who prefers to go where someone else has already boldly gone.

Like a band I had in my twenties. It was awful. They never sounded like what I heard in my head, even though I explained, showed them and told them exactly what to do. Creative, right? Get four creative people in a room – and shut them down.

And the worst part? What I was writing wasn’t even that original in the first place.

That’s what ego does. It clings to what’s already known. It chooses the path most travelled – not because it’s right, but because it reinforces some version of ourselves that we wish we were.

When ego leads, we don’t create. We perform.
We decorate ourselves with decisions.
And we mistake that for making.

So the band-thing was awful, because I was awful. Not as a person, come on I was like 19. But I was awful at being creative, with others. I went into that room thinking it was about me. It’s not. When we launched Ebb, we tried defining our culture on posters. One of Ebbs posters says ”Abandon all ego, ye who enter here”.

Guess who made that one.

When ego steps out – something else can step in. Sometimes, that thing is hope. And sometimes that shift you from making something merely beautiful, into making something meaningful.

You transform.
From an artist, into a tool.

Design needs hope. Not the type of hope where you tell yourself over and over that ”things will get better”. But the kind where you feel the world is waiting for something new. When you can almost taste it. And that is what drives you to give it form. On a piece of paper, in Figma or by just grabbing a whiteboard pen. Because talking to someone just made you see it clearer. And if you don’t jot it down in a seconds, it might disappear back into where ever it came from.

If you have hope, the idea will reveal itself to you.
You might be the one holding the pen,

But it doesn’t have anything to do with you.
You just wrote it down.

Thats hope.
Some warped belief that what hasn’t been, can be.

Moving forward into year two with Ebb, I’m hoping to help more people see that. For years our industry has been talking about purpose, and purpose-driven organisations. I know, I helped to define several. It started with a real fire. But somewhere along the way it turned into checklists. Pull out the Agenda 2030 and pick a number, like you’re ordering lunch.

”We will have the number 9 please”

It was supposed to be more meaningful than that.
It was supposed to spark action, not compliance.

So yeah, define a purpose, and ask why.
But remember to ask why not?

Figure out the how.
But ask how come?

Define the what.
But never forget: what if?

Have the audacity to have hope.
In the face of all the reasons not to.

Ebb. Year one. Has it been everything I hoped for?

No.
It’s been more.
My imagination wasn’t enough.

Another poster of ours says something I felt to be true:
“To wow people, you need wow people.”

Now, I know it to be true.
For that, I’m thankful.

I’m not sure what I wanna say with all of this.
So here’s hoping you do.
Let’s jam and see what happens.
One, two, three, four.