Jean Max - the brigadier.

Today I present to you Jean-Max, our first portrait, activist entrepreneur.

His activism operates on a limitless field, love.

His business serves his activism, unless it is the other way around.

The eternal story of the chicken and the egg. Which of the two fathered the other first?

His business was born on this limitless field and his label is called La Brigade de l'Amour.

The label organizes events and distributes Sweatshirts under the emblem of this Brigade.

We could be competitors, Mister k. also distributes sweatshirts carrying messages. However, we are not competitive competitors, we rather see ourselves as “coopetitors”, a mix between cooperation and fertile emulation, at the service of our communities, which undoubtedly share identical tastes and colors. And then it's also a meeting, that of a friendship too I believe, of 2 experienced in benevolence, a little crazy no doubt, a friendly crush in short, which took place over numerous nudges and frank moments of complicity, because entrepreneurship is that too, mutual help, meetings, and a lot of laughter too.

It was Jean Max who introduced me to the famous José in Portugal, our beloved textile manufacturer, whom I recently introduced to you, today common.

Here is Jean-Max's story in more detail.

His field of love, his song of love too, was at first a field of ruins.

Jean-Max led a linear, professionally promising life, an employee of an advertising agency working for large international groups . In love with M., their engagement would inevitably materialize into marriage “for better or for worse”.

And then one day in December 2013 imagine that you are sitting in the shade of a large tree, in the middle of a field under a uniformly blue sky.

Without the slightest warning, without the slightest weak signal (unless the routine is a weak signal?).... Badaboum! A clap of thunder in this blue sky. Everyone knows that under a tree is the last place to take refuge during a storm. Lightning primarily strikes the top of the tree and chars it down to the roots, electrocuting every living being in the process.

M. has just told Jean Max that she is leaving to never come back. No words, no explanation, Jean-Max is electrocuted. The heart and brain connections are fried.

Death beckons to him, it's so tempting. Courage or cowardice? eternal dilemma. Neither actually. Just the animal instinct of survival, for others, thanks to others, family, friends, life against all odds.

If death is not an option, the complex process of resilience takes place.

Let's not forget that this is first and foremost a purely mechanical phenomenon. It is the degree of elasticity of a metal to withstand a shock before returning to its original shape.

Psychological resilience is the same. The shock having not fatally perforated Jean-Max's carcass, it must prove its elasticity and regain its shape.

The first remedies are classic. Intoxications of all kinds. Compulsive purchases. Speed ​​dating. Mechanized dating sites, without a future.

These measures are an illusion which does not prevent depression from setting in, insidiously, to the point of affecting all professional motivation and career plans. A conventional termination is concluded with a fair and understanding employer (there are more of them than they say on TV, fortunately).

On this field of ruins, “what to do?” » as Lenin said in 17 (1917...not last year!)

Jean-Max needs to regain the confidence to please, to feel "re-narcissized", to rediscover this subtle alchemy made of self-esteem and pheromone in sufficient quantity to capture the admiration of others, including girls, among whom THE girl who will definitely patch up his shredded heart.

But Jean Max was not designed in the 20th century, he was designed in the Middle Ages, at the time of “courtly love”. A crazy thing for the majority of today's self-confident and dominant males. Something that believes in the panache and slowness of the merry-go-round of mutual seduction, in exclusive and definitive unions, without the slightest obligation of performance, based on reciprocal loyalty, fusional but sufficiently fluid to accept any modulation in time and space .

The complete opposite of the speed dating society of frenetic, meaningless consumption (according to him).

So combine business with pleasure

• Act 1:

March 2014: creation of the Brigade de l'Amour , organize events, run a blog, dare to be non-conformist, design sweatshirts , assume the oxymoron Brigade de l'Amour (juxtaposition of 2 terms that are completely opposite to better underline their useful effect - e.g. “deafening silence” or “military music”).

• Act 2:

materialize the concept by distributing Sweatshirts carrying mantras, asking kindly “people” to wear them and optimizing the chances of donating half of the profits from each “aperitif of love” to charitable causes.

• Act 3:

structure this label to legitimize and widely disseminate the project, without losing its original spirit. However, on this point there is room for improvement, Jean Max does all this alone from floor to ceiling. I went through this stage myself, the joy of seeing your project take off is intense but we no longer have the right to break down under the pressure. The adrenaline that transports us, yes; the stress of anxiety that petrifies us, no! you have to know how to surround yourself, it’s vital.

And then... the planets align again as if it were obvious.

On July 27, 2014 Louise enters Jean-Max's life, or the opposite, it's the same. Fusion of opposites, social and cultural origins, but left to keep the tempo, grow and beautify together. Happiness never comes alone, a little brigadier was born on May 9, 2017 . It always takes a lot of chaos to create a twinkling star.

Jean Max is a great encounter. The pathways to resilience and happiness after a tsunami are complex. But there is no hierarchy in pain. Devastated hearts, dismissals, illness, violent accidents or attacks (...), all affected by life, united in the same pain and the immense reconstruction project.

Love, that is to say this unrequited gift of oneself, is a very stimulating path with lots of ramifications, trust, sense of the other, connection, trace, responsibility, long term... it's good!

Find Jean Max and his Brigade which is growing everywhere, first on his site , on Facebook and on Instagram of course! This is a first portrait that resonates well for this other "story of resilience".... Long live love and long live Jean Max, together stronger as I always say and of course let's pray that #lovewillruletheworld what else!