“I remember my father cutting wood. If you sculpt in vein, it’s beautiful. If you go against the grain, it breaks. Same is with business. If you go with the flow, it grows naturally. But if you grow your company in an unnatural way, it breaks. I did not do a company to make money. I made shoes and it became a company.” — Christian Louboutin, shoe designer/fashion entrepreneur.  

I came across this quote from Christian Louboutin over the summer, when reading Dana Thomas’ Deluxe. The context of his comment was why he chooses to do a certain way — which are in conflict with more mercantile and mercenary approaches of say LVMH — and why he refuses to sell his company to the richest bidder. His comment resonated with me mostly because, like him I didn’t start out with Gigaom to either make money or even become a company. Instead, I started it to scratch my own itch, and a deep desire to write every day about technology. It became a company.

Louboutin’s story was a good reminder — we all need to scratch our own itch, and who knows what might follow.