In Episode 5 of the Man Vs. Debt Podcast, I get back in the swing of this podcasting thing by talking about “Regrets of the Dying” and the lessons I learned while filming our documentary.

I’ve been away from the podcasting mic for way too long!

I’m back this week with a more transparent and shorter podcasting format (recorded at our temporary house out here in San Francisco).

I knew my past (heavily structured) format was holding me back from getting back in front of the mic and sharing an update – so I took my own advice and just TOOK ACTION in the face of the problem.

In this shorter podcast, I start by talking about an article I found this some time ago via Kelly Oxford, and its original source is from a nurse who worked with terminally ill patients.

Read it here: Nurse revels top 5 regrets of the dying

In this episode I talk about these five regrets – including “I wish I didn’t work so hard,” which really resonated for me right now!

Next, I share the 3 core takeaways I learned while on the road filming “I’m Fine, Thanks,” our documentary project about the danger of complacency and living a scripted life.

Over the last 2-3 months filming this movie I’ve realized:

1. Complacency is an incredibly universal problem. We talked to dozens of people from all ages, races and backgrounds, and everyone had experienced it at some point in their lives. Most people experienced it multiple times.
2. Complacency is challenging to quantify. It’s vague – there are these pop-culture phrases like “keeping up with the Jones” or whatever that dance around the idea, but there aren’t a lot of books and movies that really point to this specific issue. That’s kind of good for us – I mean, we have an opportunity to really tell this story and shine a light on this issue in a new way.
3. Most people who combat complacency have a specific “AHA” moment. Not everyone, but many, many people we talked to – they had a moment, a very specific question or event, that led them to change their thinking and move away from complacency.

Your challenge this week:

One concept I absolutely believe in is the power of writing down what I call your V.N.S. That’s just a fancy way of saying your Very Next Step, the action you have to take next to move forward.

I want you to, first, pick your one big idea – the thing that sits in the back of your mind that you truly wish you could bring into being. And second, I want you to write down your specific, actionable Very Next Step that moves you toward that goal.

Just write it down. My very next step is: ________________________. That alone is hugely powerful, and I believe you’ll be surprised at how the action of writing it brings it about in your life.

You’ll hear my thoughts and tips on how to make this brief exercise even more powerful at the end of the podcast.

How you can help the podcast explode:

As I’ve been traveling, I’ve had the chance to listen to quite a few really great podcasts, and one thing I heard that I wanted to start in this episode was that the hosts sometimes took the time to thank the community members who had reviewed or rated the show in iTunes.

I gave a shoutout to a few special reviews so far, but mostly, I’m just thrilled with ALL the feedback, because it’s really a large part of what motivated me to really commit to my own VNS - to sit down, record my thoughts on these topics, and get this podcast published.

So thank you VERY much for that. And if you’ve listened and enjoyed any of the podcasts so far, would you consider leaving a quick, passionate review in iTunes?

Click here to view and/or subscribe inside of  iTunes!

(The newest episode may take a few hours to show in iTunes, but it WILL download if you subscribe.)

It feels great to be back on the podcast!

Xoxoxo,

-Baker

Note: This is a guest post from Jen Gresham. A Ph.D. scientist turned writer and entrepreneur, Jen inspires people to find the clarity and courage they need to design a fulfilling career at her blog Everyday Bright. She is also the founder of the No Regrets Career Academy and The Bright Entrepreneur’s Club. Read more about Jen here.

I told myself I couldn’t afford to quit.

On the outside, everything looked normal. I was engaged in my work, did it dutifully, and casually chatted with co-workers in the hallways.

But on the inside, things weren’t right at all. My muscles tensed as soon as I walked in the office. I felt drained before I’d even sat down at my desk.

When my request for a transfer to another division was denied, I became depressed. I’d cry into my husband’s chest at night, saying “I can’t keep doing this.”

It took two miscarriages in the space of 12 months before I got serious about calculating the cost of change.

What’s your unhappiness costing you?

My normal coping strategy for stress is to eat.

But when my job stress became a daily shadow, food wasn’t just an escape, it was my lifeline. It not only got me out of the office, but the pleasure that came with a cup of tea or a toasted bagel smeared with cream cheese was a boost I felt I needed and deserved.

But it’s amazing how quickly these “pick-me-ups” can add up. Take a look at my eating expenses:

• Bagel and tea at local cafe: $4
• Mid-morning snack: $1
• Lunch (out): $10
• Mid-afternoon snack: $1

That doesn’t seem like a lot of money, does it?

But when you multiply it by the number of days worked (roughly 250 days a year), you get $4,000. Of course, you need to subtract the amount you’d pay for eating breakfast at home and packing lunches and snacks. Assuming you can do that for roughly $5/day, the cost of my stress was $2,750 a year.

That’s a fair chunk of change.

But it’s just the tip of the cupcake.

When I took a closer look at where my money was going, it became clear that a lot of my expenses were pick-me-ups in disguise. Most of them were small: clothes, a box of pretty notecards, a nice dinner out, some apps for my phone, new songs, another dinner out.

You see where I’m going with this? I spent about $2,000 a month on these kinds of expenses, hoping they could fill a hole inside me. (Spoiler alert: They can’t.)

What holds many back is the fear that doing what they love will involve a pay cut, and emotionally, they just can’t deal with it.

Notice I said “emotionally.” The inability to take a pay cut often isn’t logical or based on facts.

I’m not saying you should live in complete austerity. But when you add up all the “necessities” that come with an uncomfortable career, it’s easy to get a wacky sense of your salary requirements without even realizing it.

Simply by pursuing work that didn’t require all those pick-me-ups, I discovered I could easily save more than $20K a year. Your number may be more or less than that amount, but most of the clients I work with find they can save much more than they originally suspected.

Exercise 1: Study your bank and credit card statements over several months. Ask yourself, “Did I buy this because I needed it or because I felt I deserved it in exchange for the trials of my job?” Compute your annual unhappiness cost.

What’s your happiness worth?

It cracks me up.

The diamond industry has convinced people that unless you spend the equivalent of one month’s salary on your beloved’s engagement ring, you’re somehow selling the relationship short. And because the ring represents status as much as it does bliss, people go to great lengths to spend as much as possible on that small piece of jewelry.

Don’t even get me started on the cost of the wedding itself.

Assuming someone spends 45 hours a week working and commuting, that means 40% or more of their waking hours are spent at work. Apart from their education, most never invest another dime in creating a career they love.

It’s not that they’re not willing.

Imagine yourself in a unique auction, one that offered the winner work that energized you instead of draining you, that inspired you to fully express your potential. You’d be proud to tell others what you did. You’d feel like you were making a positive impact in a way that mattered to you.

And imagine this work came with a 100% happiness guarantee for one year.

How much would you be willing to pay?

This isn’t a theoretical exercise. See in your mind’s eye the bidding, the flurry of hands, the rising tension in the room. Are you going to let this opportunity slip away?

Exercise 2: Jot down a figure you’d be willing to pay if you knew, for certain, you could buy a job that was deeply fulfilling for at least one year.

Budgeting for (and believing in) a better life

Believe it or not, the easy part is the budgeting.

First, combine the estimated yearly cost of your despair (your answer from Exercise 1) with the amount you’d be willing to pay for one year’s worth of a fulfilling career (your answer from Exercise 2). Subtract that sum from your current income.

This number now represents your minimum annual salary.

A couple of things to keep in mind:

1. Until you know what career or job would actually provide that sense of fulfillment, this number is generally meaningless, other than to reassure you that you need to earn less than you think. Many of us can, in fact, afford a pay cut.
2. Remember, you don’t have to keep your minimum annual salary forever. Presumably you’ll progress faster and make more doing something you’re fully engaged in and passionate about.

You may not be able to afford this minimum salary today. You may have student loans, credit card debts, or an underwater mortgage that require your immediate financial attention.

But don’t use your finances as an excuse for staying in a soul-crushing career forever.

The biggest hurdle between you and your dream job isn’t your bank account.

It’s that you’ve stopped believing in yourself.

When you give the cynic inside you the microphone, everything’s impossible. You gloss over your successes and focus on your failures. You tell yourself they call it work for a reason, then convince yourself your dreams are out of reach.

The voice in your head convinces you that you deserve a donut or a new pair of shoes, but not meaningful work. That’s for someone else. Someone better.

The Dalai Lama said:

It is very wrong for people to feel deeply sad when they lose some money, yet when they waste the precious moments of their lives, they do not have the slightest feeling of repentance.

That’s not a call to be reckless. Absolutely take the time to make your budget. Design a plan to get you there.

But whatever you do, don’t tell yourself it’s OK to waste one more minute of your precious life.

*****

You deserve more than just a paycheck. You deserve a better life.

Now go get it.

Three and a half years ago, I registered the domain SlowSimpleWealth.com.

That domain cost me $12 to register. (It’s actually available again now.)

For the two months that followed, I hee-hawed around thinking about learning how to install a blog and start sharing my personal finance journey with the world.

At the time, Courtney and I were already aggressively tearing through our debt, selling waves of our excess crap, and preparing to try and meet our goal of backpacking Australia with a newborn Milligan.

We had set this goal for ourselves. Not for an online community, not for a business, not for a blog. In fact, I didn’t even really know about those things.

It was only after we set our personal goal – and started researching websites to help us achieve it – that I was turned on to the power of the blogging community.

After benefiting from several months of following hundreds of personal finance blogs (I was kind of obsessive – go figure), I desperately wanted to join the community that had helped me so much.

“You know what, I could share my own journey, based on my own experience, and it would likely really help hold us accountable…”

That’s the thought process I had when I registered the domain.

But I put it off starting things for months, because I was scared.

I thought it would be too hard. I thought it would cost too much. I thought nobody would care.

So nothing happened.

But a few months later, Courtney and I received a $150 windfall. I forget the source, but I remember it was *exactly* $150 dollars.

We were so uptight, frugal, and aggressive with our money during this period of our “war” on debt – that we decided to reward ourselves by splitting this money and buying whatever we wanted with our parts.

I had $75 that I could spend on anything I wanted in the world.

So I pledged to use that money to start my little personal finance blog.

I wasn’t happy with SlowSimpleWealth.com – it just didn’t shout “THIS IS IT!” to me. It was a little too passive, it didn’t represent how we viewed our journey at that time.

Then, it hit me.

Nah, it’s probably taken. Nah, there is a show called Man Vs. Wild – they will sue me for everything (at the time that was the only Google result for Man Vs. brands or shows).

Oh well, let’s just see if it’s available…

ManVsDebt.com was born a few minutes later.

$24 into my business, I had only $51 left for expenses. I turned to a friend at the time who was pretty handy at Photoshop and graphic design (he had taken a course or two in college). I offered Dustin $50 to design me a banner to go at the top of my blog.

It was a hideous brown-and-white-based design and logo, but it worked. My blog was live and ready for the world to see. (Bonus points for anyone reading this that remembers the brown and white design!)

My hosting came free with the domain name.

I didn’t know about email providers, hiring employees, fancy stat trackers, customer service platforms, merchant fees, or anything else yet… but I just remember being shocked at how cheap it was to get started.

I honestly didn’t know personal finance blogs could make money.

I certainly didn’t know they could make ridiculous amounts of life-changing money (they can and do all the time).

All I knew was I wanted to quickly become part of the community that has inspired Courtney and me so much in our journey. And I wanted to be held accountable.

I wrote down a couple notes about how I would approach the blog:

• I’ll share everything out in the open.
• I’ll write more passionately than anyone else.
• I’ll act like I belong here.

That was my launch strategy. Share everything, be passionate, be confident.

And, frankly, it worked really well.

I was just hoping to recoup my $74 investment at some point.

*****

You all know how much this site has changed my life in the past three and a half years.

But it all started on just $74 and countless hours of learning, sharing, and growing in front of the warm glow of a computer screen.

We’ve done hundreds of thousands in revenue since then – and invested hundreds of thousands back into expenses, training, team members, and new projects.

But it all started on $74. That’s it.

You see, life-changing ideas no longer cost tens of thousands of dollars to get off the ground. They used to, but they don’t anymore.

You can start a profitable business that fundamentally helps people for a few dollars. It may not be for everyone, but it’s insanely doable – on a level we’ve never seen before.

There are lots of limiting factors that can and will hold you back when you try to start a business.

But I just don’t believe lack of funds has to be an excuse anymore.

You may *decide* it’s not worth it to start a business venture if you don’t have enough funds, but the far majority of ventures don’t *require* those funds to be successful.

If you’re hungry, passionate, and willing to bleed and sweat – you can launch something amazing for less than price of a fancy dinner.

The birth of Only72.com…

Flash forward a year and a half or so, and I stumbled upon another potential business idea.

A great friend of mine from the online world had run a sale where he packaged together several dozen of the best “minimalist” books online and sold them together for a super cheap price for a short time.

I put my first book, “Unautomate Your Finances,” in the package and it was a wonderful experience. I got a lot of new exposure, readers emailed me to thank me, and I even made a little money from the sale. Nice!

So I approached Karol to ask him about doing something similar in another area I was passionate about… genuine online business training. I bought many of these resources anyway, so I thought it would be amazing if we could bring together several of the people and courses we knew for a community sale.

We had about three weeks to put together the idea – and it would cost a bit more than MvD did:

• $10 for a domain name (we called it Only72.com).
• $15 for hosting.
• $100 for a spiffy logo and several affiliate graphics.
• $5 for e-junkie to sell the package.

$130 total to get everything up and running.

The website was super simple, the package of courses was amazing, and we decided to give 10% of every order to our favorite cause at the time, Charity: Water.

We sold $1,000 worth of courses for $97 for a three-day period in late November, 2010.

Almost 1,900 people bought and downloaded the training in three days. That’s just shy of $200,000 in revenue in 72 hours.

We sent tens of thousands of dollars to contributors and affiliates. We raised $30,000 for charity. We collected hundreds of thank-you emails. And, yes, we each profited $30,000 or so from the sale (I’ve shared the specifics several times here).

It showed the power of an idea, when money wasn’t used as an excuse NOT to do it.

We could have easily delayed the project to design a website worth several thousand dollars. We could have easily delayed the project until we had the right sales cart, affiliate program, or email list. There were lots of “better times” to start this.

But we didn’t wait.

We invested $130 ($65 each) and dedicated three weeks of our time to making it happen.

*****

Look, I’m not telling you that you should start trying to sell online business training. That was a passion of Karol’s and mine.

I’m not telling you to invest $75 into starting a blog. That was a passion of mine.

What I’m encouraging is to not let “lack of funds” be an excuse for you anymore.

If you want it – I firmly believe there is a way to make it happen for cheap. The timing for launching your business has never ever been better (even if just on the side).

It doesn’t cost nearly as much as you think.

*****

The Next Only72.com Sale Showed Our Commitment to That Idea…

Karol and I have run a few more sales since the first one, large and small. We run one or two a year max.

We’re incredibly fortunate to now have over 5,000 happy customers, over $50,000 raised for different charities, and to have worked with dozens and dozens of brilliant contributors and courses.

We just finished our most recent Only72 sale.

We teamed up with Chris Guillebeau to coordinate what we called “The $100 Startup” package.

The $100 Startup is Chris’ new amazing book, which we shipped anywhere in the world (at no additional charge!) with every package this time (the first time we’ve had a physical product as part of our sales).

In the book, Chris makes an even more brilliant case, including dozens of examples, of why your world-changing idea doesn’t need thousands of dollars to get started.

Though this Only72 sale is over, we would still love to see you check out Chris’s book here.

If you’re in the market for training to help you start or ramp up your business or income from creative sources, I firmly believe this is a great book. (And I also believe you should stay in the loop about our future Only72 packages!

If you aren’t starting or running a business… Or don’t have interest in leveraging your creative talents to produce side income… then don’t be silly and buy either the book or our future Only72 sales.

At the end of the day, if you never actually apply the training? You help no one.

*****

That’s it for now.

Remember, you don’t need thousands of dollars to start a business that can literally change the world. People are starting these micro-businesses every single day.

What’s holding you back?

Note: This is a post from Joan Otto, Man Vs. Debt community manager. Read more about Joan here.

Since we started homeschooling our 12-year-old daughter, Sarah, in late February, it’s really been on my mind what a crucial age this is for her in terms of financial awareness.

I see so many of her peers in middle school with $200-a-month cell-phone plans, with outfits that cost more than my weekly grocery budget… but even more scary, I see them having no idea where the money for these things comes from. “I don’t know, my mom buys all that stuff,” is the common answer.

And, by the same token, I see so many kids’ parents working at jobs they hate, coming home and telling their children how much they hate the work they do, that they’re just doing it to pay the bills, and I worry that Sarah will grow up thinking, “Work is somewhere you go to be unhappy.”

I know I’ve certainly been guilty of that in the past, even when doing “work” I mostly enjoyed… talking about it with Sarah as something I have to do instead of describing the way I’m making a difference in the world. If that sounds familiar, well, Baker talked about that concept before in the context of a conversation with his daughter Milli, and that post was the start of a change on my part in how I talked about life and work with my own daughter.

So much about parenting for us can be summed up in two words: Be intentional.

We’re intentional about discussing our own financial situation, and we’re intentional about having Sarah make financial decisions herself.

The picture above is a good example… that’s Sarah with her brand-new Nintendo 3DS, which she spent all her birthday money and a little of her savings on, in addition to “selling some crap” of her own to help fund it. She did the work, figured out how much money she’d need, and made it happen. And we didn’t question her decision (though I was the dorky  mom who said, “OK, but you need to make sure you buy screen protectors!”)

The thing is, I know Sarah puts thought into her life and her money. So instead of wondering what her attitudes about money, work and happiness are, I decided to sit down and ask her.

About work

Me: So what kind of work do you want to do when you get older?

Sarah: Be a pet groomer.

Me: Do you want to work somewhere like Petsmart that does grooming?

Sarah: I want to own my own business. … Well, I guess I would start out working at Petsmart, to save money, because opening your own business costs a lot of money and you have to hire people and give them money as their paychecks. So I guess Petsmart would be my first bet.

About our family’s money decisions

Me: What are some things you think Dad and I think about money? Like, what do we do with our money?

Sarah: That you keep everything in a certain amount of budget. … You’re careful, about what you buy. You don’t, um, buy things that we don’t need. You don’t buy things that you guys want because you don’t need wants, you need needs.

Me: But I bought a Coach purse.

Sarah: Well… that was your Valentine’s present from Daddy.

Me: So do you think that’s OK?

Sarah: Yeah. Now if that wasn’t your present, then you wouldn’t really NEED it, you would want it. And you’d have to save up for it and make sure you have all your needs first.

About living like a grown-up

Me: How much money do you want to make when you get older?

Sarah: I want to try to make a billion dollars.

Me: In your whole life? In a year?

Sarah: In my lifetime.

Me: So what kinds of things do you want to do with your money?

Sarah: I want to give some of it to charity, to raise money for homeless and animals that need it. I want a Mini Cooper, I would use some of it to buy a Mini Cooper. Some of it to buy a Smart car. A pool. A spa. A pool table that can go in your pool. A 52″ flat-screen TV. And a castle. I would buy the castle first.

Me: (Drily) It would be hard to imagine you having all that stuff in an apartment. But what about food and clothes and things like that?

Sarah: I would still buy that stuff. If I need socks, then I will buy socks. If I need shirts, then I will buy shirts. But if I want a cool-looking shirt that has Angry Birds on it, yeah, I like Angry Birds, but that doesn’t mean I will buy it.

Me: So you need a pool table that can go in your pool?

Sarah: It would jazz up my pool. But I don’t really need it. I want it. To put in my pool, because then when I have a pool party, me and my friends can play pool in the pool.

About happiness

Me: So what would make you happy?

Sarah: In what sense?

Me: OK, well, what makes us happy, you, me and Daddy as a family now?

Sarah: A lot of things. Each other… Pets… Being together as a family.

Me: So is that the same stuff that will make you happy in your castle when you’re older?

Sarah: Being with family, hanging out, having pets and a fat robin on our deck (she was looking out the window.)

Me: So are you going to have a big family?

Sarah: I’m going to have Coby (our dog), our cats, a hamster, a guinea pig (well, I don’t know about a guinea pig, that’s a question mark). 4 Hermit crabs. A German shepherd.

Me: What about people?

Sarah: Oh, don’t worry, there are people in my house. Me. I guess my husband.

Me: So what will your husband do, in all of this?

Sarah: Well, his job will be “the animal sitter.”

Me: So is he going to go off to a job somewhere, or stay at the house?

Sarah: The house. I mean, I’ll help some, but… I don’t know if I’m really going to have that many pets. That’s just an idea.

Me: Are you going to have kids?

Sarah: I don’t know. That’s ahead of the time.

Me: OK. You have to get the husband first?

Sarah: Eventually. Not right now.

(That’s Sarah with one of our cats, Mitts. While I have my doubts that this cat in particular will make it to the time when Sarah lives on her own, I’m positive she’s not kidding – she’ll be the lady with every kind of pet under the sun!)

About finding your business niche

Me: Well that’s good. So do you think a pet groomer makes enough money for all this?

Sarah: Well… yeah. Because my own dog will be there with me every day. I would groom him before the store opens, and because of that, I would let him go greet the people, let them feel his coat, because I’d be using the Furminator, using the smooth brushes, bathing him probably… I’ll need some more people to do that too, maybe. And then they’ll get to see how good of a job I’ll do on their dogs, so they don’t think, “I wonder what she’ll do on my dog and what it’ll look like. It won’t look ugly.” And I’ll be like, “Don’t worry, your dog won’t look ugly, I’ll make it look exactly like you want and I’ll try my best.”

Me: So that’s kind of your business, like, your business’s gimmick? Having your own dog there?

Sarah: Yeah.

Me: So what would your commercial be?

Sarah: If you want your dog to look better than the old-fashioned way, then come to Sarah’s pet grooming. I’ll get the job done and make your dog look new-fashioned.

Me: And smell better too?

Sarah: Of course!

About “good money advice”

Me: So if you could give the people reading Baker’s blog any piece of money advice, do you have any ideas for them?

Sarah: Yeah, I have a good idea! Don’t buy what you want, buy what you need and save your money!

Me: So when is it OK to buy the stuff you want?

Sarah: Well, never. No, sometimes. For your birthday.

Me: Well, we don’t just buy stuff we need only. We have some wants too, right? When do you get the stuff you want?

Sarah: As long as you keep a limit of how much you want to buy. If you just keep buying and buying stuff that you want, and then you run out of money for stuff that you need, then you’re stuffed in a doom trap!

About credit cards

Me: And if the man at college says, “Hey Sarah, do you want to open a credit card?”

Sarah: No, because that would be something that I might want to do, but that I don’t need to do.

Me: Because do you know how credit cards work? (I admit, I was interested in this – Sarah doesn’t remember a time when we’ve made purchases on credit cards as a family, so I wasn’t sure what she’d say.)

Sarah: You swipe them and it takes money out of your account.

Me: Well, that’s our bank card, it works like that.

Sarah: Grocery cards give you extra bonus points.

Me: Yes, those are good too. But real credit cards, you don’t have to have money in an account somewhere. It’s like when we went to Target when you saved up the money to buy your 3DS. You spent $300, right? But what if you only had $5? The people at Target would say, “Do you want to open our credit card?” Then they would basically loan you the money, let you buy something that cost $300 now, then send you a bill.

Sarah: And then you pay it?

Me: Well, you can. Or you can pay a part of it, then they will charge you interest on what’s left and next month you will still owe what you owe, plus the interest.

Sarah: That kind of makes sense, but I don’t know if I’d want to do that.

My mom, chiming in: GOOD. Because then you end up paying twice as much as it costs.

Sarah: Yeah, then I don’t want to do that.

About entrepreneurship

Me: Anything else you can think of about what you think about money and being happy and working and stuff?

Sarah: Being happy motivates you to have a good attitude, and to focus on what you’re doing. And if you get unhappy, change your mood around to happy. Because when you get unhappy, not all people, but a lot of people want to go out and buy things because they think that would make them happy. … And use your money wisely.

Me: I think that sounds like pretty good advice. You’re pretty smart.

Sarah: Thank you, thank you very much. (In her best Elvis voice.)

Me: Thank you very much for doing an interview with me for Baker’s blog!

Sarah: Thanks! Do I get a dollar?

Me: Um, wait, what? Why do you want a dollar?

Sarah: Well, because I sat here and helped you, and I could’ve said, “No, I don’t want to help you with your blog post.” I did do all this work with you. Please? I said the magic word?

Guess what? I gave her the dollar.

All in all, I was pretty pleasantly surprised. Maybe it was the birth of Baker and Courtney’s second daughter, Charlie, this weekend, but it’s been on my mind a lot this week to think about the financial legacy I’m leaving behind – not just in terms of money, but with regard to ideas.

If I had to pick my top five things to impart on my daughter about money and life, they would probably go something like this:

1. Do work that you love and that helps others.
2. Treat yourself sometimes, but don’t buy everything you want just because you want it.
3. Make sure your family’s basic needs are taken care of first.
4. Don’t spend money you don’t have.
5. Experiences and people are more important than things.

Sounds like she’s pretty close, huh?

I know there’s a lot more life ahead of her, and I know she’ll make her own decisions about all these things as her life changes. But I’d like to think we’re off to a better start than we might be!

So how do you deal with this idea of your “financial legacy” with your kids, especially as they get older? What sorts of ideas about money, “work” and happiness do you hope they’ll take into the future with them?

Would love to hear your thoughts!

We’ve had an amazing week this week (testing out a daily post schedule) and we wanted to take time out on Friday to share some amazing videos that inspired a fun week!

As it turns out, many of these videos fall into the “Do What You Love” category of things.

If you enjoy inspiring round-ups like this, let us know, and we’ll do them more often!

The Happy Secret to Better Work…

Likely my favorite TED talk ever I watched just this week from Shawn Achor. Even cooler is the fact that this was a TEDx talk in Bloomington, IN (close to my hometown).

It’s fast-paced, short, *hilarious*, and hits home hard. Everything I love in an inspiration speech. If you only watch one thing this weekend – make it this!

Exercising Around the World…

My good friend and fitness nerd extraordinare, Steve Kamb, has spent the last 18 months of his life traveling around the world (a feat made possible by his unwavering commitment to helping thousands get in shape).

While traveling Steve maintained his fitness with bodyweight exercises in some of the most popular landmarks in the places he visited. 18 months later, we’re left with the inspiring combination of all those workouts.

A Man Who Clearly *Loves* His Work…

I first saw this on Reddit, but fell in love with it immediately. It’s a simple scene featuring an man who worked for years with artifacts from the Titanic.

You can certainly tell he’s a scientific man, someone who appears extremely intelligent, but as he speaks you can feel the passion for his work just oozing out of him. Wouldn’t it be great for all of us to have this level of passion for our work (no matter what it is)? I love it!

Cello Wars Lightsaber Duel…

Joan’s inspiration for the week came from a Youtube Star Wars parody. It’s not a new video, but one her family has viewed countless times for inspiration.

The video was put together over 6 months, mostly at night after families went to bed, by just a few dedicated musicians and videographers. It now has almost 6 million views. Joan has begun following the small crew’s journey to quit their jobs and make music (and videos) full time.

*****

What article or video inspired you this week?

Which of the above videos was your favorite?

As you likely know, I spent most of February and March producing and filming a documentary on why we, as a culture, default into a life of complacency, instead of chasing our dreams.

I wrote an update from the road on our progress, what we had seen, and what I was feeling about the importance of the project.

Check out part one of “The Making Of” series if you missed it to get caught up!

I left that story with us in middle-of-nowhere Texas at 3 a.m. filming the untouched, starry night skies.

After catching only a few hours of sleep each that night, we continued to plow our way toward Phoenix, Arizona.

For anyone that’s driven across the entire state of Texas – you know firsthand how disheartening that can be. It takes a crazy number of man-hours to traverse that ridiculously large piece of land. And frankly, New Mexico isn’t much of a reward for succeeding.

Nevertheless, we pulled into Phoenix in the evening to my friend Pam Slim‘s beautiful house. (Pam, her husband, her kids, and her dogs graciously hosted a smelly, worn-out group of 5 guys for several days… can’t thank her enough!)

Not only was Pam’s family open and accepting of us for days, she also took time out to drop wisdom bomb after wisdom bomb into the camera in our interview for the documentary.

Afterward, we packed the set up and headed off to MMA class with Pam.

That’s right. I said we went to an MMA training class with Pam Slim. It was as fun to be a part of as it sounds. (Thanks to East West MMA for allowing us to film and being such great hosts!)

After watching Pam get slammed, tackled, knifed, strangled, and kicked – we decided to call it a night.

The next day brought insightful interviews with Joshua Becker (minimalist family man) and MJ DeMarco (against-the-grain financial advice for entrepreneurs), before we set off for the wonderful city of San Diego.

In San Diego we spent most of our time with the ever-so-lovable Pat Flynn and his family.

Pat broke down the painful details of how he got fired from his job after pouring every ounce of himself into the career for years and doing everything “by the book.” But even more importantly, he shared his remarkable journey to build himself back up to a transparent income of over $50,000/month now.

Pat’s realization that geting fired may have been one of the best things to ever happen to him and his family was amazing to listen to and capture on film.

We then spent time filming Pat playing with his (incredibly smart for his age) young son – and following him and his wife on one of their “Thursday Date Nights” in downtown San Diego.

After much fun with the Flynn family, we continue our trek about an hour north to a small music studio between San Diego and Los Angeles.

There we met Craig Zarkos and Kevin Page. Two musicians with different life paths (and professional music paths), but who are now partners in bringing to life a shared dream.

After squeezing what we could out of Craig and Kevin, we got to stay around to film a band come in, setup, rehearse, and then record live in their studio. Pretty cool experience (especially for Dustin, Bryan, and John – who are all huge fans of all kinds of music).

The road wasn’t waiting for us, though, and after a long day we still had to finish the drive to Los Angeles.

Let me take a brief moment here to be honest with you: I hate Los Angeles. In fact, of all the cities in the world we’ve visited (not too many, but a decent chunk)… I hate Los Angeles the most.

There’s just something about it that doesn’t vibe with me. I can’t stand the traffic, the layout, most of the buildings, much of the culture. It’s the only city where the majority of people I know that live there – don’t want to.

Okay, okay. I’ll lay off L.A. for a while. But I figured you’re reading this for my opinion and experience on the road – so I might as well be honest!

Our director of photography, Bryan, calls L.A. home (and likes it, strangely enough) so we had a blast filming from some of the best locations in the city – and everyone got a little rest as we had an extra day or so in the city.

One of the special personalities we got to talk to in L.A. was Josh Orem. Josh and I grew up together in a small town in Indiana and have known each other since we were just a few years old.

Josh has spent his last few years after college volunteering, despite the cultural pressure to “get a real job” and “settle down.” Josh spent a year in Africa (which he detailed in depth during our interview), before volunteering with People Assisting The Homeless (or P.A.T.H.) in Los Angeles. After a year volunteering, he now works in a more full-time role for the organization.

Josh had great experience on the cultural differences of Africa and the U.S. and on society’s view of what we “should” do and what is “safe” vs. “dangerous.”

Our next stop took us to a track outside of Los Angeles where Lewis Howes was working out with a gold medal decathlete. Lewis is currently recording a video series where he challenges the world’s best athletes at different events – and while we were there we got to snap Lewis and Brian training for the long jump event.

They can both jump about 10 times farther than I can (that’s not much of an exaggeration - it’s remarkable to watch)!

And finally, we wrapped up L.A. by paying a visit to Eric Handler who runs Positively Positive community (over a million strong on Facebook). Eric spoke about the power of positive thinking, affirmations (which I was skeptical of before we spoke), and of removing negative influences from your life.

And don’t let me forget my friends Neal Frankle (a wicked smart CFP) and Amy Clover (who shared her emotional story of finding her passion after hitting rock bottom). Simply put, there were too many amazing people to chronicle!

And, no, we aren’t even close to done.

Next came San Francisco for a few days, where our most memorable time was spent on… boats!

First a houseboat with Vanda Marlow, whose story is essentially the British version of “Eat Pray Love” before it was a book or movie! Vanda left behind a high-powered job and scripted lifestyle decades ago to find herself around the world.

She ended up in a houseboat in Marin Bay outside of San Francisco (a houseboat she still keeps for a creative writing space). Did I mention she volunteered for 8 years at the San Francisco Zen Center with the dying?

Vanda was one of my favorite interviews due to her wisdom, cultural reflection, and life experiences. We could’ve talked to her for hours.

Next, we jumped ship (literally) down to a sailboat owned by Jeff Mendelsohn. Jeff’s a Sustainable Entrepreneur. Actually, I’m not sure that’s a term he’d use – probably he wouldn’t. But he’s an entrepreneur who focuses on green businesses and sustainability. So I coined that term for him (maybe).

Jeff spoke about never having really fallen into the “traditional life script” – a circumstance he fully credits to how his parents raised him and his siblings. Jeff now lives on a sailboat where he kayaks over an hour to work on many days. (How cool is that?)

As a side note, our interview with Jeff was interrupted by cannon fire from a pirate ship. True story.

After dodging the pirate ship, the crew would return to dry land and start the long haul to Portland, Oregon.

Portland was a blur, mostly due to the fact that so many brilliant people call it home.

Among them, we spoke to Chris Guillebeau, J.D. Roth, Charlie Gilkey, Tammy Strobel (and her Tiny House), Jonathan Mead, Mark Silver, and Shane Ketterman. Each contributed a very different life story, world view, and perspective into the issue of dreams vs. complacency. It was a brilliant two days!

Our trip then became international (at least for 24 hours or so), as we crossed the border to visit Danielle LaPorte in Vancouver.

On the way into Canada, we were selected as one of the vehicles to have to pull over and walk inside of Customs. I can’t possibly see why. A huge van, full of $30,000 in customized equipment, five random Americans, three with brand new passports, only visiting for a few hours, with wires and random machines thrown all over the place… what’s suspicious about that?

After a few normal, everyday conversations (“Says here you’ve been charged with a felony before…” “Yeah, that was *charged* not *convicted*”…), and maybe 20 minutes of waiting – we were free to explore mighty Canada.

Vancouver seemed cool enough for the hour or two we were in it – but most importantly, Danielle herself did not disappoint one single bit. Danielle has an uncanny ability to speak in what I call “tweetables” or “quotables” or “knowledge bombs.” I think we got enough sound bites in an hour to make a separate short film!

Sleep?

There wasn’t a whole lot of it at this point. After our eventful border crossing, and long setup and interview, we had an all-nighter of driving to get us to Boise, Idaho, by the morning.

It was rough, but we made it in one piece.

We were in Boise to visit “Family on Bikes” – better known as Nancy Sathre-Vogel and her husband (John) and two sons.

Talk about opting out of the traditional life; Nancy and John quit two teaching jobs to bike from Alaska to Argentina with their two sons! Yikes!

Technically, they biked much longer (and on several different trips), but the most impressive of those was down the entire west coast of the Americas. Nancy and John shared the story of how they decided to undertake the ride, how they feel education has changed, and how they view their lives differently now.

Of course, we couldn’t leave without getting some great footage of the family riding down to a local park. Hanging out the back of the bus, in a slight drizzling rain at times, we got some really fun footage!

Exhausted, but seeing the homestretch, we continued on to Jackson, Wyoming – a beautiful town nestled in the mountains.

We spent the morning with a local friend (who ended up being a guide to the best spots) shooting the relentlessly beautiful landscape.

But we weren’t just there for pretty scenic pictures (as tempting as they were). We had caught news of a family of 8 (that’s 6 kids for those counting) that lived for 18 months in a converted bus.

As it turned out, the story was even more remarkable then that.

We met Joe and Yvette and their six vibrant, energetic kids at a small patch of land in a rural part of Wyoming. Years earlier, Joe was working a six-figure job that had him traveling the far majority of the working week. Away from home for long stretches from his 6 kids, Joe and Yvette finally decided that no job was worth that commitment.

They hatched the idea to quit the high-paying and prestigious job, convert a bus to fit all 8 of them, and move out to a ranch in Wyoming where they would live and eat in exchange for working the land and helping with the animals.

They still have the bus, but have now moved into a small rural home where they keep their own chickens, chop their own firewood, and are stockpiling resources (since they are now debt-free) for their next big adventure. After working minimum wage, basic labor jobs at first, Joe has now found another great-paying job where he routinely turns DOWN promotion that would require too much of his time away from his family.

We packed up the bus (with all the warm bodies) and headed down the road to a river campground where all the kids could run crazy and play. It was an inspiring sight to see a family choose this path – and the kids were amazing sports at being filmed (movie stars in the making)!

It was nearly midnight before we let the family get to bed and said farewell – and once again we found ourselves driving the majority of the night toward Madison, Wisconsin (it’s a long, long way across this country).

In Madison, we spent quality time with another great family, Kim & Jason Kotecki.

Kim and Jason teach the world to fight against “Adultitis,” which they describe as a disease that infects the far majority of our current adult population. They are wonderful examples of how to keep the spirit of a child around in your everyday life.

After diving deep into a multitude of topics, we spent the evening having a dance party and baking chocolate-chip cookies with their two kids. (You know, the typical “official duty” tasks that someone has to do.)

Saying goodbye to the Kotecki family was hard, but by now we were experts at saying goodbye to amazing people!

Next up was Chicago, where we met with another remarkable woman named Karen Putz.

Karen is a sponsored barefoot water skier, mother, writer, speaker, and positive ball of energy. She’s also deaf.

Karen’s family has a gene that makes them all hard of hearing. However as a young girl and teenager, Karen was able to hear with the assistance of a hearing aid. That was, until she tripped and smacked the water as a young adult while barefoot water skiing (her favorite passion).

The accident left her deaf. And for the next two decades she gave up her favorite passion.

A few years ago, after decades off, she finally got the will to take back up the mostly male-dominated sport. She now skies, speaks, writes, and encourages everyone she meets to chase their passions now – while they still have the chance.

Listening to Karen talk about how rediscovering her passion has changed her marriage, how she parents, her health, and her happiness was a wonderful experience. And to think she lip-read me for the entire hour-long interview (incredible)!

The next morning, the crew would spend time barefoot skiing with Karen, her friends, and even trying it themselves (I was sent some funny iPhone picture of some epic crashes).

Notice, that I said “I was sent pictures.”

Well, this was because the night after finishing Karen’s interview, the boys drove me to the airport, where I caught a flight down to Asheville.

The entire trip we were playing it close – with Courtney being just a few weeks away from her due date. Toward the end of the trip, Courtney was having a hard time sleeping through the night, was incredibly sore, and having to handle Milligan, the house, and all our other life responsibilities herself.

After talking with the team, we knew the right decision was for me to fly home – and for them to finish the last day and a half without me.

Courtney’s doing great – and happily – we still have no early news of the baby yet (but expect her any day now).

The guys finished the last shoot and successfully made the 6-hour drive back to Wilmington, Ohio – where the adventure started 6 weeks earlier.

We made a complete loop around the United States, some 12,000 miles, on an average of maybe 5-6 hours of sleep per night.

We met so many incredible, life-changing people – and had to pass up meeting many times the number we did simply because of timing issues.

I’ve said this before, but I know at the end of the day none of our lives will be the same.

And now we have the wonderful excitement of condensing this amazing journey – and the thousands of hours of knowledge into an experience we can share with you this summer.

That specific job looks like it’ll take us to San Francisco.

It’s about 95% confirmed, but Courtney, Milli, Charlie (new baby girl), and I will likely spend May and June in San Francisco finalizing the film with an amazing studio there.

The other day, after coming home, I saw a note I had forgotten about hanging in my office.

It read “Freedom 2.0″.

It was written on a sticky note, back in August, as a reminder to consider the idea of making a documentary (that was our codename for it). It sat in the way for months and months as a reminder before we took any action.

But when we took action… we REALLY took action.

I’m proud we finished what we set out to do (record this puppy) and excited for the even bigger challenge of producing a story from it in the coming months.

Last August, I put that sticky note up on my wall.

By this August, you’ll have a chance to see the movie yourself.

If you’re still reading at this moment, do me a favor…

Take a Sharpie and a sticky note and write a big, hairy, audacious goal. Stick it on your wall, your mirror, or your ceiling above your bed.

And between now and this time next year… Make. It. Happen.

I can’t wait to share the first clips of the movie with you in the coming months!

Xoxoxo,

-Baker

I love Danielle LaPorte.

In a sea of experts talking about careers, entrepreneurship, passion, and life… she’s different.

She taught me to be genuine, unique, and passionate – no matter how difficult the process would be. And I owe her big time for that.

Once upon a time, Danielle charged hundreds of dollars (and then thousands of dollars) for one-on-one, in-your-face, no-holds-barred consulting conversations that rocked the worlds of people who had no idea what they had signed up for.

I had one of those conversations with Danielle once – and I walked away with a totally different view of my life and business.

Good news, though. She’s now boiled down all the wisdom from her website, speeches, poems, and one-on-one sessions into a single book.

The Fire Starter Sessions by Danielle LaPorte is now available for preorder.

I rarely suggest you buy a book. But this is the exception. You will love this one.

It’s different, unique, and in a style that both entertains and shocks the system with dozens of a-ha moments. (I think I averaged one a-ha moment per page of the book!)

If you took a highlighter to this book – the entire thing would be yellow!

One of my favorite things about The Fire Starter Sessions is what Danielle calls the “Burning Questions” in Chapter 4 (around page 80).

As I read the questions in the book, I remembered Danielle’s voice asking me them on the phone. Even now, it’s fun to see how my answers and perspective have changed over the years.

Question #1:  When someone at a party asks you “What Do You Do,” what do you say?  And how do you feel when you say it?

Wowzers, did this one hit me hard at different points in my life. I’ve always hated the “What Do You Do” question – even if I fall back on it myself in awkward situations at times.

I never had a good answer, because I always lacked confidence. And when I say “good” answer, I mean good to me. I never had an answer my own self was proud of.

When I admitted how I really felt when I answered – and how I always talked in circles explaining what I did – it clicked that something was wrong. I started not only changing how I answered, but what I actually did.

Question #2:  When do you feel powerful, passionate, free, incredibly useful, excited, inspired?

This was another tough, tough question for me to answer honestly at first. But the more I ask myself, the better I get at honing in on those times.

This is now the first piece of advice I give to anyone who comes to me and is “dead inside” from years and years of work that suffocates and traps them. Many have been out of tune with their positive, powerful, or free feelings for so long they can’t even remember them!

However, if you can be honest and up-front when you feel at your utmost best in life – you’ll have a big, blinking light guiding you toward your passion.

Question #3:  What’s chronic, repetitive, or inflamed in your inner or outer life?

Yikes, now we are getting deep.

Every major hurdle I’ve had in my business or life has been directly related to honestly identifying an inflamed or chronic habit, person, or ideal that has plagued my progress. Seriously, every instance I can remember.

I don’t like dwelling on the negative, but this question is about more than just complaining on the symptoms. This bites down to the problem itself.

When I’m honest about what’s really out-of-whack (specifically, not generally) and take action to break away from it – well, it’s painful up front – but oh so freeing after that.

Question #4:  What’s always in the back of your mind?

The back of my mind is a scary, scary place.

Like really scary.

But it’s also where my true passions, dreams, and ability to impact to others nestles most of the time.

As a society, we are taught to conform. To push our outside-the-box, scary, and uncomfortable ideas and values to the back of our minds.

Danielle helped give me permission to examine what’s been back there (sometimes for years). And I owe her big time for that!

*****

These are just 4 of almost a dozen burning questions in just one chapter of The Fire Starter Sessions.

It’s slammed with life-changing tidbits. It’s well worth the small investment and well worth your time reading it.

Oh, and for a final shot of inspiration, here’s Danielle’s “Credo for Making it Happen” video (brilliant):

This thing will make you want to kick ass and take names – in whatever project you want to tackle next.

Pick one of the questions in this post and answer it in the comments:

• When someone at a party asks you “What Do You Do,” what do you say?
• When do you feel powerful, passionate, free, incredibly useful, excited, inspired?
• What’s chronic, repetitive, or inflamed in your inner or outer life?
• What’s always in the back of your mind?
  

Go ahead, pick one. Let me know your answer!

What, two Man Vs. Debt posts in one DAY? What’s that?

Well, this one ISN’T by Baker. It’s me, Joan, aided and abetted by the awesome Dustin, popping in with a surprise “virtual birthday party” for the head honcho. We’re all about three states apart right now, but Dustin and I just couldn’t let the day pass without a special birthday shout-out to a guy who’s not only an incredible inspiration … he’s also an incredible friend.

Happy birthday, Baker!

Thanks for all you do for your family, your friends, and the Man Vs. Debt community. We’re honored to be along for the ride. I’m feeling a little LESS honored by my dollar-store hat up there, but, you know, we can’t all find Silly String like Dustin did.

I know Baker got some birthday wishes after his post this afternoon, but I’m hoping we can get a few more folks to join our virtual party in Baker’s honor.

Just leave him a birthday shout-out below, and then go do something you love this weekend in his honor.

Best gift you could give him!

Today I turn 28 years old.

Many times on my birthday, I reflect about my life, my meaning, and my goals for the next few years.

I’ve done a little of that today, but not as much as I have in the past. (For example, you can read these 26 life lessons I wrote exactly 2 years ago.)

I have thought about a few simple things – a few goals, if you will – by the time I hit 30:

• I want to only work on projects I deeply love and care about – that combine to positively impact millions of people’s lives.
• I want to have a million in positive monetary worth (and no debt). That’s right, nothing wrong with saying that. It’s the *why* you want it that matters. I want it for flexibility and the opportunity to work on amazing projects when I see them enter my family’s life.
• I want to spend the majority of my post-afternoon-ish day with Courtney, Milli, Charlie, and any future additions to the family.
• I want to remain healthy and active (for me: under 15% body fat, 95% whole foods diet, under 200 pounds).

You know, the same things we all think about on our birthdays.

And speaking of working on projects I deeply love… I’ve loved Man Vs. Debt for 4 years now. Sure, sometimes it’s been a love-hate relationship, but I’ve deeply enjoyed building this community. It’s changed and continues to change my life.

In fact, sometimes I feel I’m too in love with it. 

I’ve wrapped so much of my identity up into this site, that every single word I write – and every single post that gets published – reflects intensely on me.

That’s a double-edged sword.

On the positive side, it means I only publish content that I think is the best of the best of what’s on my mind. This makes me feel good. It’s a bit more impressive. I know the far majority of posts will help at least some people.

But on the downside, it means that my ability to help people is based purely on my motivation to write. And the pressure to write – and write every post so it’s amazingly complete and epic – is intense.

So in turn, I don’t write very much. And when I do, I only write what’s on my mind in that particular moment in time (instead of what I believe will truly help people).

And thus, I severely limit the impact this community can have on the world.

I limit the potential of how I can help people through this medium I’ve devoted nearly half a decade to.

And I limit the potential of how I can help people through new mediums, projects, and arenas.

At my very core, I want this site to help a whole crap-ton of people overcome debt, ditch the clutter, and do more work they love. It’s really not that complex of a vision.

But the current system I use to write, publish, and help people is a bit broken. It’s completely reliant on my in-the-moment motivation, my current place in life, and my immediately-in-front-of-my-face experiences.

*****

Jonathan Fields once told me his journey was to build a “body of work” he could be proud of.

That phrase really sank home.

Life is a journey to build a “body of work” you are proud of.

So what if you’ve been an accountant for the last 30 years. That’s just part of your body of work. What’s next?

So what if you’ve been a stay-at-home mom for the last 10 years. That’s just part of your body of work (an important part… but a part nonetheless).

So what if you’ve been a ______________ for the last _____ years…

Man Vs. Debt has been – and continues to be – a life-changing part of my body of work.

However, I’ve realized that if I continue to let every word that posts to the blog define me as a person, I’m going to continue to limit the potential impact this community can really have.

That’s why, for my birthday, I’m giving myself a present.

I’m going to allow myself to let go – as an experiment.

For the next two weeks, we’re going to switch things up. We’re going to post much more frequently on a wide variety of smaller topics.

Anywhere from 3 times a week to 5 times a week. Myself, Joan, and maybe even Courtney will be chipping in.

We’ve brainstormed dozens and dozens of topics – and the whole team is excited to try out the experiment.

I’ll write a couple times, Joan will write a couple (she’s great), and we’ll share more stories, links, and news from the community itself. (Want to share your story on the blog – or post about something specific? Now’s a good time to reach out!)

I’m going to allow myself to let go of my perfectionism, my intense control, and letting the blog define me as a person – for at least the next two weeks.

Don’t worry, while the posts may not be 4,000 words – they will continue to have the same vision, values, spunk, and attitude that you enjoy.

I’m excited to hear your feedback after the next couple of weeks. Don’t hesitate to voice your opinion! You matter to us.

*****

My question for you is… what does your “body of work” look like?

Are you letting any one aspect of your work – no matter how amazing it is – define you as a person?

I’m truly interested to hear your thoughts on this one.

Xoxoxo,

-Baker

Most of us are taught to view risk through the lens of losing something.

What could I lose if I make this decision?

If we could lose much, it’s risky.

If we could lose very little, it’s not that risky.

Sounds pretty simple. But here’s a secret:

By nature, whenever humans estimate potential loss – we grossly exaggerate it.

Not only that, but we want to hold on to what we have now far more than we want more of something new.

These two tendencies keep us trapped.

Trapped in fear of an exaggerated loss. Trapped in fear of an inflated risk.

Instead, I’ve carved out a new definition of risk for my major decisions in life.

Will I deeply regret not having the courage to make this decision?

One of my friends wants to travel to every country in the world. That’s amazing! But personally I don’t feel like I’d look back and regret not accomplishing that in my life, so passing on that decision or goal isn’t very risky for me.

On the other hand, I had a moment where I decided that if I didn’t take the leap to create a documentary from scratch… I would have regretted letting the opportunity pass.

There’s a million reasons NOT to do the documentary. There’s a hundred different reasons people would say it’s “risky.”

But if I would’ve skipped taking the shot, I would have looked back later and said, “Damn, I wish I would have had the courage to take that shot when I had it.”

To me, that’s risky.

Risk is not the chance you’ll act and lose something important.

Risk is the chance you’ll look back and regret not having the courage to act on something meaningful.

*****

*****