Guest Post: Define Yourself

I asked my friend Erik Proulx to write a guest post for me. The guy totally inspires me and I dig the way he thinks and creates. He’s the maker of the film Lemonade, a documentary about advertising industry folks that were laid off and then began to truly do their life’s work. He’s now working on Lemonade: Detroit, a documentary about the people in the city that are doing amazing things despite the economic and industrial hardships it faces. In the process of researching stories of people “making lemonade” he’s come across some really interesting characters. He told me this cool story and I think it’s an important lesson about defining yourself and making the decision and commitment to be doing something interesting. Now, go get inspired.

Define Yourself
by Erik Proulx

“Don’t be the person out there looking for a job. Be the person doing something interesting.”
-Lisa Hickey in “Lemonade”

So many of us define who we are by our careers. But that’s exactly backwards. Our careers should be defined by who we are.

Imagine a world based on this concept. Instead of majors we’d have independent studies. Instead of jobs we’d have avocations. Instead of waking up every day looking forward to the weekend, we’d end every weekend looking forward to doing our life’s work.

My friend and founder of LaidOffCamps, Chris Hutchins, recently came back from a world tour where he couch-surfed his way across 18 countries in 8 months for only $8k.

Think about that. He spent less money on meaningful time in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, India, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore than most Americans spend going to Epcot. Plus he used the trip to raise about $2500 for drought victims in Kenya.

He’s 26 years old (25 when he traveled), and has already experienced more than most of us will in a lifetime.

Last year, I attended one of his LaidOffCamps in Phoenix. I saw 250 people figuring out their next move. Strategizing together. Coming to terms with their realities. And leaving with ideas and a fresh resolve to do something new and different.

Hutchins made this exchange possible because he opened up his idea to the world.  He is genuinely generous with what he knows, and gave people a forum to be the same way.

Chris is now working full time at SimpleGeo. And I can almost guarantee that his creation of LaidOffCamp and the Hutchins Tour Across the World made him a shoe-in to his new bosses.

He hasn’t made a dime off of the LaidOffCamp brand. But he sure has created a legacy. And he’s proven that doesn’t take much to make a difference, only passion and the willingness to pursue an idea.

If you’ve got that, you don’t need much more.

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Erik Proulx is a recovering adman and the creator of the movie “Lemonade.” You can become an IMDB-credited producer of his next film for a buck.

On a personal note, the Lemonade Detroit project is very important to me. Take the few bucks you’d spend on a coffee tomorrow and support the project. Pretty please.