What does “stay vigilant” mean? Let’s be lazy for a moment and look up the definition of vigilant: “being keenly alert, watchful, and attentive to spot potential danger, trouble, or opportunities”.

We can’t tell you what you should be vigilant about in your own life, that’s for you to figure out. For us it means keeping a watchful eye on what’s important to us. Making great art and design. Maintaining strong ties to friends and family. Staying in shape and working on our grip strength so we’re able stop ourselves from falling over and breaking our hip when we get old.

To be vigilant is to step up and become the wolf in your life. To be the pursuer of goals, not the idle sheep chewing grass in a field. To be clear, vigilance is not action, but a vigilant wolf is not a wolf that kicks back in the woods and watches squirrels play. If I told you I saw a vigilant wolf in the woods behind your house, would you think to yourself, “All good, he’s just keeping an eye on me, nothing to worry about.”?

A vigilant wolf — when they’re not sleeping — is always hunting.^[1]. I know there’s an implicit threat of danger in our name, and our logo is a glaring wolf eye, but at Stay Vigilant we’re not living in constant fear like a doomsday prepper in their bunker. We’re sharing ideas, reading old & new books, watching old & new films, visiting galleries and museums — in short, experiencing culture in all its forms and formats. When we’re not doing this we’re creating things to express ourselves and tell our stories. We do these things successfully and unsuccessfully, and then keep iterating. Artists don’t need validation, we just keep making.

—Mike Mulvey, Founder

1. It worth pointing out without a proper amount of sleep, one cannot be properly vigilant. There are no free lunches in life. I don’t care how much cocaine you snort, you can’t be vigilant all day, every day. ↑