Someone once asked me: "What's your ultimate goal?"
I said: "To become the way I want to be."
He pressed: "But what does that mean? Some people say the thing we all secretly want but are too embarrassed to admit is just — to be rich."
I deleted him immediately. Not from anger. From clarity.
Why That Framing Is Wrong
The problem isn't wanting money. Money is useful. I love money. The problem is treating wealth as the destination — as though accumulating enough of it would resolve the question of what you actually want from your life.
When I was a teenager, I set a rule for myself: I would end my life at thirty. Because the world seemed dull, predictable — a loop of acceptance and obedience. If life was just going to be someone else's version of "good," I didn't see the point.
So I decided to prove, through my own choices, whether the world was actually interesting. And as I made every decision on my own terms — stubbornly, sometimes badly — I somehow stayed alive. That whole story is here. The short version: when thirty came, I still had things unfinished. Things I wanted to find out.
If the goal had just been "get rich," I would have run out of reason to continue long before thirty.
Things Worth Spending Money On
Money as Costume
Here's what I actually believe: money is a costume of freedom, not freedom itself.
The version of wealth I genuinely want is specific: enough to sit anywhere without worry. Enough to afford a quiet night in a decent hotel when I need to think. Enough to make choices without calculating whether I can afford to make them.
That's not a massive number. It's not a yacht. It's the particular kind of lightness that comes from not having money be the reason you can't do something.
My favorite thing someone ever said about money: "If you're going to throw money out the window, at least do it with passion — don't look so fake." The point being that the people most comfortable throwing money away are usually also the most comfortable admitting they like making it. The embarrassment is the problem, not the desire.
What This Has to Do With Jewelry
When I started Fairies Whisper, I made a deliberate decision to sell things that cost less than they look like they cost.
Not because I want to undersell quality. Because I think the relationship most people have with "nice things" is distorted by the belief that nice things have to be expensive. I discovered this in Yiwu — standing in a market where the same design logic that produces €800 earrings in Paris produced beautiful, well-made pieces for €8. The clasp was solid. The finish was even. The difference was distribution, not quality.
Money is a resource. Spending it well means understanding what you're actually buying — and what you're not.
The wanderer lifestyle I want doesn't require expensive jewelry. It requires good jewelry. Those are different things, and the gap between them is where Fairies Whisper lives.
Ren — founder of Fairies Whisper. Still figuring out how to be the way I want to be. Getting closer.
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