The Visionaries: Michael Williams

The founder and editor of A Continuous Lean describes his desire to preserve craftsmanship.

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Michael Williams has an obsession with "people who make things." His own grandfather was one such person—Williams describes him as a man who could "make anything"—and that combination of craftsman and "handy" man has stayed with him since his childhood in Ohio. "I always say that I want to live in a country that knows how to make things," he says. "That sort of ingenuity and those skills, we've struggled to keep those things in our society." This desire for preservation is what compelled Williams to launch his blog, A Continuous Lean, six years ago.
 
The mission statement for A Continuous Lean (or "ACL") describes it as "a discovery agent for those with an appreciation of quality, style and provenance." But on a more fundamental level, Williams says he hopes for it to be a vehicle for all those who do, in fact, make things; "to empower those people, and to empower those brands."
 
As for Williams' own tastes, they skew towards the classical—things "rooted in the past." Yet he strives to "go outside of that a little bit, to change and grow." It's this desire for self-improvement that makes him so empathetic towards smaller brands. "I respond to a lot of these really small companies, because I started a company in 2007 and I know how hard it is... And I know what goes into running a clothing line, and it's really difficult."
 
In the end, Williams wants his readers to view his site as "your trusted friend. ...I want ACL to be a just a discovery agent for good things." 
 
So far, so good.

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