You Are the Ocean in a Drop.

The title of this piece was adapted from a line in Rumi's poem, "You are not a drop in the ocean, you are the entire ocean in a drop."

All of us, human beings and nations, hold multiple identities within us. Yet too often, we’re reduced to a single identity. Colombia’s breathtaking physical beauty, exquisite diversity of culture and abundance of natural resources also contain within them fifty years of civil war. Wearied by too many people who associated his beloved nation with drugs and violence, Carlos Velasco wanted to be part of a new narrative. He joined the coffee industry after university—coffee represented a source of pride for Colombia given its superior quality and international reputation. 

His job led him to represent the coffee industry in Japan where he would integrate parts of a new country into himself. In Tokyo, he met Mayumi Ogata, a Japanese woman who had spent four years searching for the world’s best cacao. Through Mayumi’s stories, Carlos discovered a new ambition: to transform Colombia’s cacao industry. Coffee was a treasure for which Colombia was known. Why not chocolate as well?

“Entrepreneurs enjoy a challenge where our skills and our knowledge are able to help overcome. That’s what makes entrepreneurs happy. So, chocolate was the perfect opportunity for me.” Chocolate also gave Carlos the opportunity of combining a relentless focus on quality with an equal commitment to strengthening the farmers’ voices and power.

Colombia produces some of the finest cacao beans on earth. Mayumi had discovered a rare white cacao in the Sierra Nevada, a protected mountain inhabited by the Arhuaco, an indigenous group who see themselves as protectors of the Earth and live by a philosophy based fully on sustainability. Five hundred years ago, Spanish colonizers chased the Arhuaco into the mountains and they ultimately abandoned cultivation of their sacred white cacao.

When Carlos and Mayumi first met the Arhuaco, they walked with them, sometimes for hours, listening with humility, and sharing their knowledge about the potential of white cacao. The two co-founders connected to the Arhuaco in part, based on a shared sense of spirituality. Mayumi’s practice of Shintoism which sees the sacred in all living things was another means of connection. Still, it took four years to go from the first meeting to signing a commercial contract that would feel more like a covenant between the Arhuaco and Cacao de Colombia, Carlos and Mayumi’s company. Covenant because at its heart, this is a relationship of trust. Building trust takes time – and the skill of using identity as a tool to connect, not to divide.

As part of the process of building trust, the Arhuaco did their own due diligence.

“I know Acumen does really hard due diligence, but their due diligence was even tougher,” Carlos smiled. “They don't go online and Google you, right? Or look at your bank account. No, by talking to you they understand whether you're trustworthy or not. And that's how we got it started, and today they're really close, good friends and I really love visiting them and spending time with them.”

In 2016, I visited the Arhuaco in the Sierra Nevada. I remember sitting with one of the group’s leaders, Mamo Camilo, who, with great confidence and grace, met me as an equal, letting me know in no uncertain terms that the Arhuaco would leave the contract if this partnership threw their community out of balance. Earned trust is a precious asset – one of the rarest commodities we have.

Building Cacao de Colombia has required that Carlos develop partnerships with multiple stakeholders. This is critical for all new economy leaders that put our humanity at the center of systems. You will not build a financially sustainable company that is essentially creating new markets in places of little income, low trust and poor infrastructure without investors who are patient and values-aligned. My grandmother used to tell me, “Show me who you walk with and I’ll tell you who you are.” Identity matters based most on the values we share.

To build a more developed company – and chocolate industry – requires a community of trust. Cacao de Colombia partners with chocolate buyers and retailers who are committed to their values of sustainability, companies like Uncommon Cacao that pays a stable, higher price for quality cacao; and Dandelion, a high-end San Francisco-based chocolate producer and retailer. Such partnerships enable Cacao de Colombia to “commit to a longer-term price with the growers”, thus removing income volatility.

Carlos believes trust across multiple identities requires “making it clear that you are in the relationship for the long-term. That you are in the relationship for mutual assistance. That you will live up to your promises and show up, and then actually do that.”

An equally hard question for entrepreneurs seeking purpose is who your investors are. Finding investors who understand that you are a company that put people at the center is fundamental to a long-term relationship. 

“Your investors will shape your identity,” Carlos explained. “If you don't have investors – who have so much power – who share your values, your identity will shift.”

The business of war thrived for fifty years. As Carlos explained, “War is business for people that makes weapons. War is business for people that make Glyphosate (an insecticide) to spray coca. War is business for the guerrilla groups who are controlling the drug business.” Creating an alternative economy for peace does not happen overnight, especially if peace is defined not as the absence of war but the presence of human flourishing. And that is the task at hand.

It has taken nearly a decade for Cacao de Colombia to build a profitable business with the potential to heal broken relationships. The company has proven that they can pay farmers a sustainable price and that cacao cultivation can be done in harmony with nature. In 2018, the Arhuaco’s chocolate was awarded the world’s best small batch chocolate and Hernan, an Arhuaco, flew to Tokyo to accept the award. For the Arhuaco, this partnership is a way to export their philosophy that puts the sustainability of the earth at the center of life. “I think the sensei (Japanese for teachers) are the Arhuaco,” Carlos offered. “Their approach is in line with what I want to continue doing in my life.”

When we dare to share our many identities more fully and discover what connects us, we open ourselves to be transformed by one another at the level of our shared humanity.

This is part four in Jacqueline Novogratz's monthly series on Moral Leadership, featuring a new generation of leaders for a new economy. The photos in this piece were created by Juanita Escobar, a grantee of the Magnum Foundation, as part of a partnership to invite readers into the stories that are shaping our shared future. The video in this publication was captured in 2018 by Documist Productions.

About Acumen 

Acumen is changing the way the world tackles poverty by investing in companies, leaders and ideas. We invest patient capital in businesses whose products and services are enabling the poor to transform their lives. 

About Magnum Foundation

The Magnum Foundation is a nonprofit organization that expands creativity and diversity in documentary photography, activating new ideas through the innovative use of images. Through grant making and fellowships, the Magnum Foundation supports a global network of social justice and human rights-focused photographers, and experiments with new models for storytelling.