The idea for KOE first came to me in 2021. And for four years I kept it in a drawer. Not because I didn’t know what I wanted, but because fear was louder. Hundreds of questions, doubts and beliefs that held me back. That voice never disappeared though. Year after year it grew clearer, and in 2025 I finally decided to listen to it.
Since KOE was born, I write a lot about what I learn along the way. About fear, impatience, persistence and finding your way back to yourself when you get lost in obligations. Here I’ve gathered what feels most important from those letters. Maybe some of it is what you need too.
1. Fear doesn’t disappear, but it stops leading
I thought I would start once I stopped being afraid. That never happened. What happened is that, over time, the desire became bigger than the fear. And that’s when I realized I didn’t have to wait for the fear to disappear. It just had to stop making decisions for me.
If you’ve also been keeping something in a drawer for a long time, maybe you don’t need courage for the whole journey. Taking the first small step is enough.
2. Impatience costs us the moment we’re in
Honestly, I’m very impatient. I’d love to absorb all the knowledge at once, apply everything at once and see results right away. The first time a collection was late, I thought it was the end of the world. Today I laugh about it, because in the end everything fell into place, just not at the pace I wanted.
The hardest thing for me is accepting that some things simply have their own rhythm. I can’t skip the line to knowledge, results or experience. And maybe that “in between” is exactly what builds me the most.
So I invite you to pull the handbrake for a moment. Turn around and compare yourself to who you were a few years ago, not to who you think you should already be today. Acknowledge how much of what you live today was once nothing more than an idea.
3. Persistence is 10 minutes, not a perfect plan
You don’t need to wait for Monday, a new month or a day when you’re well rested to start working out. I kept showing up for myself, even if only for 10 minutes. One short workout in the morning, a little earlier than usual. And believe me, it all adds up and it all counts.
If you have a goal, don’t set yourself huge, distant numbers. Go step by step and celebrate every bit of progress. Give yourself three weeks of consistency. Not perfection, consistency. You don’t do it for a number, you do it to have more energy and feel better in your own skin.
4. Come back to yourself before “temporary” becomes everyday
I also have that side of me that lets obligations swallow me completely. The one that says “I just need to push a little harder now” and puts on pause exactly the things that make me feel good: meditation, training, going to bed early. It doesn’t happen all at once, but little by little. You skip something once, the second time you say “never mind”, and a month goes by.
I don’t believe we need to live perfectly or feel bad every time we fall out of a routine. But over the years I’ve learned that I want to quickly return to the things that make me feel good. You don’t have to change ten things tomorrow. Maybe it’s enough to recognize one you want to return to.
5. Nobody does it alone
When you’re in the middle of everything, it’s easy to feel alone. And then you stop and realize how many people were there all along: friends who listened to all my ideas and dilemmas, my family, people who wrote to me “well done, keep going” and those who opened doors for a pop-up or a new collaboration. It feels as if a whole stadium is cheering for KOE.
So I ask just one thing of you: be someone’s support today. A message, a call, a recommendation or sharing someone’s work on Instagram. It can mean much more to someone than you think.
6. Follow your KOE doesn’t always mean go
Recently a business opportunity opened up that seemed big and exciting at first. The more I looked into it, the worse I felt. And then I realized I was trying to convince myself that I had to do something, even though something inside was telling me I didn’t want to. Not because the opportunity was bad, but because it wasn’t right for me right now.
It’s easy to listen to your inner voice when it tells you to do something big and brave. But maybe we need to hear it even more when it quietly tells us to let something go. We don’t have to go just because we can.
That’s what I’ve wanted to say with Follow your KOE all along. It doesn’t always mean go. Sometimes it means let go. And trust yourself enough to know the difference.
If you’d like letters like this to land straight in your inbox, join the KOE list. And read the whole story of how KOE began on our About us page.
Follow your KOE. 🤍
Slađana, founder of KOE
