Post by Tenisha Ramsay

Florence gave me all the beauty I expected this summer—gelato, sunset light on stone, crowded piazzas. But it was a single block of “bad” marble that stopped me in my tracks. At the Accademia, I learned that Michelangelo’s David was carved from a piece of Carrara marble other sculptors had rejected as flawed and unusable. He was 26 when he took it on—working in solitude for years, guarding his process, and somehow seeing a masterpiece where others saw a mistake. My guide’s stories stayed with me: The “Prisoners” still half-trapped in stone, straining to emerge. The official who demanded Michelangelo change David’s nose—and the quiet confidence of a sculptor who dropped marble dust to simulate a change he refused to make. It all added up to one question I can’t shake: What might be possible if we treated our own “flawed marble”—our constraints, imperfect contexts, and messy realities—as material for mastery instead of reasons to play small? I wrote about that Florence moment, and what David now means to me, in a new piece. If you’ve ever tried to build something meaningful out of less-than-perfect conditions, this one is for you. #FlorenceFieldNotes #ExperienceDesign #LeadershipInRealLife