A Reflection on Curiosity

A Curiosity Unfolding

I haven’t always been on this journey, I just remember being a bit restless. But if I had to pinpoint the start, it was standing in the back of a Michelin-starred restaurant, where I had just started working, and the Head Sommelier handed me my first glass of natural wine. I took a sip, and honestly, my mind just exploded. It tasted so bright, so funky, so unlike any wine I had ever had that I genuinely thought the staff was messing with the new guy, serving me some strange cocktail. But it was wine indeed. I dedicated the next few years to diving into the world of natural wine, trying to unpack that single moment of complete confusion. Asking questions, even the embarrassing ones, became a non-negotiable part of who I am.

Over time, I have realized that my path isn’t really about finding neat, little answers. It is about embracing the search itself. I find meaning in the sheer process of exploration, in the slow, messy unfolding of understanding, and in the awareness that true innovation is born from the courage to keep asking. Curiosity isn’t a passing emotion, it is a living force that shapes how we see, create, and connect. It has become my movement, my creation, my purpose.

The Source of My Drive

In the beginning, motivation for me felt like chasing something just out of reach. It was about external validation, I wanted to be seen, recognized, and to prove that what I was building had value in the eyes of others. That desire pushed me for years. It gave me energy, but it also meant I was always checking for applause.

With time, and maybe a little bit of mindfulness, came a real recognition, but it wasn’t from the outside. It was internal. I began to see that the true value of what I create isn’t measured in approval, but in presence. In those small moments when an idea unfolds and I am fully there to witness it.

For me, that feeling hits hardest in two specific ways. First, it is the immediate, shared excitement when my friends and I try a brand-new infusion of kombucha or a cocktail, that genuine, reactive gasp or head tilt that tells you you have landed on something. Second, it is the quiet magic of the production process, especially the filling of purple liquids. Watching the bottle fill with color during bottling, seeing the deep hue slowly climb, that is when it stops being a product and starts being a living metaphor. My motivation now grows in the process, not the result. I have learned that motivation is not a quick spark that vanishes, it is a slow, steady pilot light, the kind that comes from trusting the work, even when the outcome is uncertain.

The Hand-Painted D

At some point, the product felt like it needed a soul, something simple, human, and alive. That is how the hand-painted D came to life with my friend, artist, and painter Billy Ward, who helped me find the stroke.

I remember the start clearly, Billy and I were crammed into my kitchen apartment in Nørrebro, just messing around with brushes and ink. There is something so honest about that mark, it is imperfect, yet entirely intentional. I quickly realized over time that in a batch of around 1,300 bottles, the very first hand-painted D will always look different from the last. And that is the point. It carries its own rhythm and its own small flaw. It is not a logo, it is a mark, a trace of a hand that reminds us that behind every creation there is a pulse.

The bottle it adorns is stripped down to what is essential. But even the minimal elements carry a bit of our process. For example, the back labels are always hand-labeled, which means they are never perfectly straight or even, they are slightly askew, a little rebellion against industrial perfection. And that name on the simple, minimal label, it is more than a name. It is a keyhole. The key is simple, just be curious, and ask.

The Discipline Behind the Drive

Motivation without discipline is chaos, and discipline without curiosity is lifeless.

The balance between the two is where true progress lives. There have been moments when my energy felt limitless, and others when the weight of responsibility threatened to extinguish the spark entirely. In those moments, I learned that motivation is not about constant excitement, it is about sheer consistency through the mundane.

That consistency is heavy sometimes. It means spending twenty hours straight in the brewery because the process stretched out. It means dealing with a machine breaking down mid-bottling, or realizing the friends who committed to help are too hungover to show up. And when it is all done, the floor still has to be washed to absolute perfection. Every detail, every mistake, every repetition is a reminder that mastery is not built on flashes of talent, but on unblinking attention. Motivation becomes sustainable when you accept that effort is not the opposite of ease, it is its solid foundation.

Empower Your Curiosity

Empower Your Curiosity is more than a phrase, it is a philosophy. It means giving your curiosity room to breathe, letting it wander without judgment, trusting it when it whispers a direction no one else understands. It means having the courage to follow it when it leads you right into the chaos.

The moment you give yourself permission to follow it, you access a deeper source of motivation, one that no external goal can replace. Empowering curiosity is about turning wonder into action, it is how I connect imagination and execution. Every bottle, every conversation, every unexpected event we host is an invitation for others to reconnect with that pulse of discovery.

A Lifelong Practice

Motivation for me is not an end state. It is a living practice that evolves with every season of life. It requires humility, because the more you know, the more you realize how little you understand. It requires courage, because the unknown is rarely comfortable. And it requires trust, because the process is always longer than expected.

I no longer chase motivation. I cultivate it. I feed it through curiosity, through people, and through those simple moments that remind me what it means to be truly alive and awake.

Closing Words

Motivation is not found, it is built. It is not given, it is earned. And it does not come from outside, it comes from within, from the place where curiosity meets courage.

To empower your curiosity is to trust that asking is more powerful than knowing, that creating is more rewarding than perfecting, and that exploring is more meaningful than arriving.

Every creation holds a trace of its maker, and every question holds the potential for a new beginning. So let us continue. Let us keep asking. Let us keep creating. And if one day you hold a bottle marked with that hand-painted D, remember, it is not just a drink, it is a doorway. The key is simple, just be curious, and ask.