Fresh From The Dojo

As curated by Mike Lynch

Founder, Artist, Craftsman, Underground Poet

It’s been a lot of life lately.

So much life, in fact, that when I stop moving, I feel like I am doing something illegal or wrong! In the last 6 months, we moved out of the Factory, moved out of Liberty Station, re-built the supply chain, re-designed the companies internal operating procedures, designed the future goods, created proper supply and demand forecasting, had one-too-many Mike Hess Pints (shoutout new hood, LFG OB), built the new Imperf Dojo, opened the new retail store, built a secret pub, built a new shaping bay, listened to a lot of Return of the Mac, made a shitload of water-glass, collected one new Johnnie Blue, made a lot of one-of-a-kind Mr. Lynch Pieces, shipped a gigantic Nordstrom order (almost killed us), had too many Hungry Lu’s Sandwiches (shoutout new hood, LFG OB, again), went to France, went to Ireland, made it into a 4-page article in Blue Mag (best Surf Mag in the world, from Japan), brought home 3 new Bonsai trees, gave the Ol’ Chief a real Garage to live in, skated a few times and surfed once, all in the name of Imperf. I could keep going, but you get the point, right? We are absolutely smoked, cashed, out of breath, exhausted, toast. The only thing wrong with that list, btw, is that I haven’t surfed in ages and I am losing my effing mind about it. But there are wave-ulescent days ahead (yes, that is a word…in my dictionary) and for now, there is a shitload of Imperfection to be built.

Here’s where I’m at this Little Friday. It’s Volume 189 and I’m in a blender of exhaustion, clarity, creativity and excitement. Every time I realize how tired I am, there’s another fire to fight, another mountain to climb, another battle to win and I usually think to myself, “How am I going to do this?” Someway, somehow, the energy becomes renewed—maybe it's my epic team of Imperf People, maybe it’s the epic love from the Imperf Community, maybe it’s the true unconditional love I have for my art; Either way, there’s a fookin’ WILL and we always find OUR OWN WAY. Imperfects has never been more poised for beautiful, long-term growth and I am absolutely over the moon about it. I am not only talking about real dollar growth, I am talking about a little something called Bonsai Growthhhhhh. (Think Lloyd Christmas saying “ASSSSPPEEENNNNN” when you read that last line. Go ahead read it again.) You see, Bonsai Growth is something I have sensei-d myself on for many years now. It's a strategy I consider to be my only way for avoiding complete burn-out and/or worse—losing it (like the kind of “losing it” where you stand on the corner in your whitey-tighties shouting about how “THEY” are coming). If you’ve ever had a bonsai tree, you know that they die immediately if you come to them with the wrong energy. Art is no different and life is one and the same. It is and always will be all about energy. Not many people know this, but Imperfects is a major sacrifice for me (and a lot of those loved ones around me as well) in both a financial sense and personal energy sense; I don’t get paid often or well from Imperfects. In fact, Imperfects forces me to go out and crush other jobs so that I can pay for it, and then find ways to put everything we earn right back into it. I grind and hustle to find ways to keep it true, to build a future for the committed folks involved and to make the whole bigger picture continually make sense. But it ain’t easy—most of the time, it feels impossible! Have you ever tried justifying why you need to buy that special THING because it makes you feel that “certain way,” even though you probably shouldn’t, from your wallet’s perspective? Yea, it’s a lot like that but magnified by a million. That said, when you know it's what you're supposed to do, that feeling of knowing is all you have. Enter Bonsai Growth: that reminder to invest in and pay the “premium” that is a better version of yourself—a commodity, even, maybe. We have a group of Friends and Family invested in Imperfects and we are about to go on an equity fundraising journey that will be fun and miraculous in its own right but ultimately, this thing is just truly art, a journey into the human experience for self-expression reasons. That is and always will be the whole effing point. For me, The Bonsai represents authentic longevity, and that is what I have worked to sacrifice for across all of these years. Authentic growth. It’s the hardest kind of growth, but the best kind too. I don’t have all the answers and these Little Friday Emails are not a depiction of having answers or trying to preach; Just, in fact, the opposite. These messages are a statement of what I am learning from the journey I am on and an out-loud sharing session on proof of application. In other words, learning from your fallen branches and strengthening the system of roots because of. It was all a dream and still is. Here’s to following those dreams in a bonsai sort of way.