Every Ripple Starts Somewhere — what it means to me

There are phrases that sound good on a T-shirt, and then there are phrases that actually mean something to you.

Every Ripple Starts Somewhere is the second kind.

For me, it’s about the small things.

The message you nearly didn’t send.

The walk you almost talked yourself out of.

The person who checks in without making a big deal of it.

The coffee with someone who probably needed the company more than they said.

The decision to try something, even when you’ve no idea where it might lead.

Most of the things that have mattered most in my life haven’t arrived with a big announcement. They’ve usually been ordinary things that probably didn’t seem particularly important at the time, but looking back, they were.

That’s the bit I kept coming back to when RippleNorth was taking shape.

You don’t always get to see where your own impact ends.

You might say something that stays with someone for years and never know.

You might invite someone out on the one day they really needed not to be on their own.

You might create something, share something, support something or simply show up — and that becomes the beginning of something else.

That’s what I mean when I talk about ripples. One thing leading to another, often without you ever knowing where it ended up.

I think we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to make big changes or somehow know what we're doing. Real life doesn't usually work like that.

Sometimes all you've got in you is one small thing. Sending a message. Getting out for an hour. Finally doing the job you've been putting off. And sometimes that's enough for that day.

That's really what I want RippleNorth to hold onto. Obviously I want to make clothes and products that people genuinely like — otherwise this is going to be a fairly rubbish business — but I also want there to be something real behind it.

That's why the phrase isn't Every Ripple Changes Everything. That would be a bit much, wouldn't it?

It's just Every Ripple Starts Somewhere.

And that's pretty much how RippleNorth itself has started too.