It all fell apart!

 

Greetings from Sheffield, United Kingdom.

I’m back at the heart of Ancient Wisdom.

Coco returned to China on Tuesday. She had a little mishap… 12 hours delayed in Istanbul. But she wasn’t stressed at all; she took it philosophically… and even worked from the waiting lounge.
As for me, yesterday I took an EasyJet flight from Malaga: from sapphire-blue skies and sun to the misty skies of Manchester. I wasn’t stressed either — it is what it is. My Uber driver then drove across the Pennines to Sheffield through thick fog. What a contrast. Nevertheless, it feels good to be home. There’s something deeply rooted in Sheffield, where it all began.

From this…

…to this…

The AW Artisan Warehouses
A lot is happening at AW right now.

Before leaving Spain, I spent time with Toni, who is still deep in the midst of relocating the Spanish warehouse. And when I say “in the midst of relocating,” I mean the kind of situation where everything seems to go wrong at the same time.

One drama after another… The other day, we were in the new offices when we heard a huge crash from the warehouse. The shelving company we had hired to move the existing shelves to our main site had tried to relocate entire sections using two forklifts (to avoid dismantling and reassembling the structures). It went terribly wrong: one shelving section collapsed and was destroyed. Thankfully, no one was injured, but it could have been very serious. The shelving company was therefore let go… we now need to find more professional contractors.

I’m NOT stressed!

If you’ve ever relocated a business or tried to grow a company while still serving your clients, you know that feeling. That moment when everything is total chaos… and you just have to keep moving forward. The problem is that Toni (and his team) have a very tight deadline: basically, they have two weeks to get everything back in order. Because… well, I’ll explain next week… there are still many twists to come.

I’ll stop here for today… because the story isn’t over yet. (And yes, I hope it ends well.)

So TODAY! Here in Sheffield, I’m catching up with the teams, clients, projects, and the year ahead. Containers are arriving at a crazy pace: one container per day for the next seven business days… New products are coming in, and behind the scenes, we’re laying the groundwork for changes that may not be immediately visible but will make a big difference next year. And on top of that, we’re entering the Season of Love, starting with the big Valentine’s Day celebration, just around the corner.

As always, thank you for working with us, growing with us, and staying by our side, even when things get a little chaotic. Especially in those moments.

More news very soon.

Warm regards (despite the cold),

David
Founder of Ancient Wisdom