Every forest begins with a tree.

Today I'm going to share something super special that happened last Saturday (July 25th). We organized and spent a morning at Soho House talking about art with five people I admire very much and who are developing fantastic work with social impact.

Ana Júlia Reche, who transformed an artistic and documentary journey through Latin America into an investigation and archive of human memory with the project El Camino de Mi Alma. Gabriela Gotoda, researcher and head of art curation at the Museum of Modern Art (MAM), works to bring people closer to art and care for what a society decides to preserve. It's impossible not to fall in love with museums after hearing her speak. We also had the presence of Karen Brandoles, from the Instituto Passarela Alternativa, who gives new meaning to the lives of women in the prison system and in vulnerable situations, through fashion and upcycling, to generate income, education, and holistic transformation. Larissa Meira Dias, my wife, partner, and also author/writer, who transformed a very profound life experience into writing, narrative, and community with the project and community Espremendo o Limão. And Pegge, a visual artist and musician whose work crosses self-portraiture, ancestry, and Afro-Brazilian culture. Today, he is the youngest artist with work in the permanent collection of the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP). And I went to talk about the creative community we've been developing since 2024 in São Paulo, which doesn't have a project name, but a reference: "Pedro and Lari's house," which has been a safe environment for leaders, artists, and creatives to open up during a weekly dinner held in our apartment in downtown São Paulo.

Very different paths. Curating, fashion, writing, music, visual arts, dining, and community.

To guide the conversation, I brought an image that had emerged that morning, for which I even had to redo all the slides of the presentation: the forest .

And as the morning progressed, I realized more and more that the talk wasn't about art. It was about people seeking to build a life with purpose.

What does a forest teach us about identity?

Every forest begins with a tree.

First and foremost, a tree needs to exist as a whole. Firm roots, a proper trunk, a unique shape, sap flowing freely. No tree grows trying to be something else.

In our lives, this individuality has a name: identity .

It's anyone's first job. After understanding who I am, what I've become after everything I've been through. What remained. What changed. What did this experience reveal about me?

On Saturday, no one told a pre-prepared story. Ana Júlia, Gabriela, Karen, Larissa, and Pegge shared accounts of pain, new beginnings, identity crises, and moments when they didn't know what to do in the face of what they were experiencing. That's what formed each identity. Not from what went right, but from what they went through.

When does identity become purpose?

A mature tree bears fruit. And the fruit is the first thing the tree produces that doesn't exist for itself. It exists to nourish others.

That's what I call purpose. The moment when what you've lived and understood begins to serve someone else.

I saw it in every story at that table. Karen transformed her own journey into clothing and an opportunity for other women. Gabriela found in the museum a way to bring people closer to their own history. Larissa transformed personal processes into a supportive community. Ana Júlia and Pegge found in photography, painting, and music a way to give back to the world something of what they received and to find hope.

Pain faced and processed became language. Restlessness became a project. What once seemed like mere confusion became a repertoire.

And I realized something else there: the process matters just as much as the result .

Because it is in the process that the other person recognizes themselves.

No one sees themselves in a finished work. People see themselves in the journey.

And what happens when purposes align?

A single tree bears fruit. But a forest is something else entirely.

A forest comes into being when several trees, each with its own identity and fruit, begin to live together.

They protect each other.

The soil becomes more fertile.

Shade is born, shelter is born, life is born that none of them could generate alone.

This has a name: community .

This is how we divided the conversation on Saturday. Art for me , to talk about identity. Art for you , as a purpose. Art for us , what develops from the community. First, art impacts me, helps me understand who I am.

We shared our first experience with art. Then, what I carry with me begins to serve someone else. And so, what is born within one person creates space for others to belong as well.

What happened when the conversation ended?

The part that struck me the most came later.

Messages started arriving. One person who had lost hope about getting through a difficult time in their life said they had seen a light there. Another was questioning their profession and realized they didn't need to abandon it. They needed to see it differently, as an instrument of transformation. Others simply said: I was feeling alone, I want to be close to you.

And there was one comment that sums it all up. Someone asked us to provide more moments like this. Not because we talk about business success. We don't. But because we talk about how to make a difference in the world starting from who we are.

What is this week's invitation?

Maybe you're not an artist. It doesn't matter.

The logic of the forest applies to your company, your profession, your project, your table, your home.

The question isn't simply "what do I want to build?". There's a prior question: "what exists within me that can become a place for the other?"

Start with her.

Understand your history.

Let it bear fruit.

And then look for other trees.

Because it's possible to go further.

It's possible to leave the world a better place than we found it.

But no one turns over a forest alone.

If this conversation resonated with you, come walk with us. Our community exists precisely for this: people building meaningful content together.