“OK,” was all I said back.

Not oh, fuck!, or holy shit, or what does that mean!? But just, OK.

The leadership role of response I would usually embody in that instant evaded me and I sat there wide eyed like a new recruit on my first day too paralyzed to ask questions, so just waiting for an adult to give me instructions.

START-UP MODE: It’s exciting, it’s exhausting, it’s a hustle, its frustration, it exhilarating, its scary….So when do we graduate out of start-up phase?

Here. Now.

“Still lost trying to figure out what your purpose is? When we move beyond the small self that is focused on ‘proving our worth and trying to become someone’ side of accomplishment then we connect to our true purpose. We align with the type of success that feeds our souls rather than what looks good on the outside to others.”

- Maryam Hasnaa

…the more you know, the more responsibility you have to take.

There can often be an overwhelm, that we are not as far along as we think we should be, or more anxiously - as we compare how far others are along. Its the compare and dispair and its severely anxiety inducing.

The power (and release!) of getting the words and ideas out of your head and onto paper.

Ten years ago, Eva Mendes wore a Samantha Wills ring to the Giffoni Film Festival in Italy. That ring went on to become a signature item for us globally, and was our best selling style for an entire decade.

We had many celebrities wear our products, we couldn’t have predicted the impact this placement had on our brand. In parallel, the placements we predicted would see a huge impact did not even register as a blip on our brand radar…..

It can be a very isolating experience when it feels like everyone else seems to be living their passion, while you are still desperately searching for yours.

We have have to decide how we want want to show up in the world, do we want to be someone that talks about what they want to do, or do we want to be someone who does something about it?

Over the past fifteen years when things haven’t gone the way I thoughtthey would – professionally or personally - I have often thought ‘Oh God, how did I end up in this situation, how did I end up so far down the wrong path?’

To me, the legacy of the SAMANTHA WILLS jewellery brand was best honoured by closing. We were a brand that took a stand for things we believed in, and I wanted to honour that…. I felt the brand had said all it had to say alongside a product, continuing with it would have seen it as a business with a product, not a brand with a voice.