Today I’m packing up the last of my stuff in Durham, NC and heading back to South Carolina for a couple days. On Sunday, I’ll start my trek across the country to California by car. The trip will probably take 6 days overall, and I’m aiming to arrive in Frisco by next Tuesday/Wednesday. I’m really pumped about being on the road and seeing this beautiful country. Check back here in a couple days for updates on the trip.
Thursday night a co-worker called at 9:30PM and asked if I wanted to drive three hours to Charlotte to see Armin Van Buuren, who was named Number 1 DJ in the world in the 2007 DJ Mag Top 100. This is not the first time I’ve been asked to do something spontaneous. I’ve come to believe that some of the best moments in life occur randomly, and that to best enjoy life, one has to learn to “run with it.”
The specific type opportunities I am talking about in this post are opportunities that require clearing of all (or most) scheduled and routine events in the immediate time period along with a significant short-term monetary and/or energy investment. Over the last couple years, opportunities of this type I’ve pursued included a one-night trip to NYC for the Livestrong.com party, a couple trips to the beach, and a Sigur Ros concert.
I’ve developed a simple decision making process anytime a unique opportunity presents itself. If the return on investment from pursuing the opportunity outweighs the cost of time and money invested along with any extra fallout (responsibilities and commitments to others), then jump.
The first question is whether the event is unique enough to warrant the investment of time, money, and energy. Armin Van Buuren is the number one DJ in the world, and he regularly sells out to crowds of thousands in Europe. He does not frequently come through North Carolina. Additionally, I’ve never seen one of the world’s best DJs live, so this would be a new experience for me.
After deciding that the opportunity warrants investment, the next step is to decide how participating will affect current responsibilities and commitments. These include monetary and time responsibilities (among others) at work, to friends and family, and to oneself. Even if pursuing the opportunity will significantly affect these responsibilities, there are ways to dampen the effect. For instance, when I decided to go to New York for the Livestrong.com launch party, I worked over the weekend and arrived at the office extra early on Monday to make sure my boss knew that the trip would not have too great an effect on my work.
If a given opportunity passes these tests , great — the decision is pretty cut and dry.
But if it doesn’t pass the tests, the process gets a bit sticky. At times, depending on the opportunity, it’s sometimes worth it to just say “fuck it… I’ll work it out” and figure out the details later. This shouldn’t happen too often, because it will piss people off and sometimes things will NOT work out as planned. But, if you have an opportunity available that is too rare to pass up, don’t sweat the details. Take the risk and work it out.
By “too rare to pass up,” I’m not talking about Armin Van Buuren. Rather, I’m talking about opportunities like the chance to hang out with Warren Buffett. Or, the chance to take a private jet, all expenses paid, to some remote resort for a couple days of relaxation — events that are so rare and are so far out of your typical day-to-day life experience that the “fuck it… I’ll work it out” response might be warranted.
I accepted the invitation to see Armin Van Buuren. I slept only 3 hours, woke up 30 minutes late, and rushed to pick up my boss before work that morning — but it was worth it. I worked hard on Friday and made sure I reached all of my deadlines. I even stayed after work a bit to complete some extra tasks. Then I came home and passed out with a very large smile on my face.
Armin Van Buuren - Charlotte NC 8-7-2008 from Brian Chappell on Vimeo.
What a way to celebrate just being alive. Pay attention to how Armin builds tension with the repeating pattern and increasing pitch and melody line, then drops out, and follows with a full range of sound (including heavy bass) right at the end with the intense light.The energy in the room was incredible!
In mid-August I will be moving to the San Francisco Bay Area of California, where I will continue working by day for Ignite Social Media Agency and by night on a new start-up with Jack Sullivan, Pratt ‘08.
Because of the move, I made the decision to resign from my positions as co-chair of Entrepreneurship Week at Duke and board member of Leadership Triangle: College Edition. I was lucky to have the opportunity to help these two organizations start and grow over the past year, and I look forward to seeing continued growth in the future. I encourage those of you that are still in the Triangle to keep your eye on both of these organizations, as they will both be instrumental in creating the types of individuals that are needed to make the Triangle a better place. If you’d like to get involved with either organization, please email me.
I wake up every morning excited about the chance to breathe in the world around me, create new things, challenge myself and others, and learn and grow. I’m thrilled to have the chance to drive across the country and explore the Valley, and will be making photo and text updates to this blog several times a week (subscribe to my blog feed by clicking here).
The “smiling faces and beautiful places” of the south have been very good to me. I will be back in time.
The adventure begins August 15th.
