When I was in architecture school, a professor told me, “Out of 100 students graduating from architecture, only 10 will actually stay in the architectural profession. And out of that 10, only 1 will start a practice.” The professor did not elaborate beyond this point, as it might have been beyond comprehension. So I became a statistic, one of a few that ventured out to start a practice, with a little naïveté, and heaps of ambition and hope. My goodness, if I only knew what I was getting myself into! Another set of data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that “approximately 20% of new businesses fail during the first two years of being open, 45% during the first five years, and 65% during the first 10 years. Only 25% of new businesses make it to 15 years or more.”

The Bureau has entered its 6th fiscal year and what an adventure it has been thus far. Of course, it is our goal to make it past the 15 year mark and beyond. Starting a business and then keeping it going was something one seldom learned in design or architecture school when I was a student, but it is so important, increasingly in this rapidly changing world for our discipline. During this process of growth and discovery, it is quite easy to lose oneself, to lose sight of what is really important to accomplish. There are certainly many distractions, such as hunting for potential projects, bureaucratic paperworks, chasing collaborators, down to checking off day-to-day tasks of running an office. Through those processes, we have to remember what are our core values, why we ventured into this discipline to begin with. For the Bureau, we believe that creating something new is inherently difficult to be qualified as good, perfect, or complete. Incompleteness is not imperfection, but a constant state of emerging, becoming better with time. We are always in a state between one and zero. When we design, we focus not only on the people and their desires, but the larger context of cultures, histories, and entangled narratives that can engender new designs. We want to do many, diverse things really well, and this takes due time. We believe that we can design beautiful things without slave labor or disenfranchising people and their welfare. We can accomplish great things without burning out. Design is a creative process that squeezes out every drop of energy and imagination, but replenishing this outpour is equally important with inputs that fulfills one whatever that may be, whether it be exercises, museum-hopping, reading, meditation, or plain daydreaming. Off-time is thoroughly an integral part of the creative process.

What becomes imperative, then, is to have a compass within ourselves. Not just a moral compass that guides us through the tempest storms of our lives. Personally, I have come to identify myself with a kind of compass that is used for drafting. It is the kind that allows one to manifest various dividuals in each person. One axis is thoroughly grounded in architecture, but as a scatterbrain interested in diverse subjects and yearning to accomplish many things in life, my other axis or leg is always hopping from one role or field to another. In my case these happen to be, from time to time: teaching, writing, learning histories, daydreaming, gymming, running, and seeing new places, and god knows how many other interests I’ll form in the future… As such, I am disinterested in aligning myself with one school of thought or one style or a lineage of master-pupil relationship. I can be an American, a Japanese or a global citizen when I choose. Likewise, I can be a teacher or a student, a director or a collaborator, a generalist or a specialist, a designer or a critic. And I want the Bureau to also move like a compass, as being rooted in architecture and yet able to do everything from planning to research to designs of all things, eventually. Ultimately, while I am a part of the Bureau, I can also be its ultimate agitator and question its every move. I am not alone in that we are all unique dividuals with multiple facets and qualities; nobody can truly understand the totality of who we are. And that is OK. That is your freedom to be who you are and be happy about it. As long as your compass is there and keeps you grounded.