Trailblazing

This is one of my long-term goals

This is an email I sent to Maren Kate of Escaping the 9 to 5 this morning. After I sent it I sat back and thought how cool it would be to receive an email like this. Imagine the smile it would put on your face. This is my goal. To inspire and help someone so much that they are inclined to send me an email like this:

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Hey Maren,

I just woke up to the best phone call and I literally can’t stop smiling. It was from my brother who was calling during his 9 to 5. After shooting the shit for a bit, our conversation drifted to Escaping the 9 to 5.

I came across your blog only a few weeks ago after Googling “top Gen Y blogs” and have been following your work since. It’s opened up my eyes and has completely inspired me. I’ve been actively pursuing the freedom and independence that an entrepreneurial life can bring for about 8 months. I’ve made a lot of progress and have had some great work opportunities that I’m really passionate about. For example, I’m collaborating on a Career Chaos book project which has my friend and I interviewing all sorts of people to get their thoughts and opinions around the topic of work/career/life. Our goal with this project is to help people answer the question “What should I do with my life?”. Another thing I’m really excited about is several new-world-of-work-type courses that I created and will be teaching to youth at my local YMCA. I have a lot of learning to do with regards to becoming independent and free but I’m getting closer and more excited with each passing day.

Anyways, back to this great morning conversation with my brother. Unbeknownst to me he has been following your blog since I told him about it last week. I was surprised ’cause it’s not like him. He’s never followed a blog in his life nor has he ever showed any interest in doing so. However, he has hated his job for some time and is quite passionate about escaping. Maybe the name of your blog caught his attention enough for him to jump onto the blogging bandwagon? I dunno…

Well last night he read your post “I’m Unemployable… Are You?”

His answer: almost.

In my eyes he’s been unemployable for some time. But he hasn’t had the fortitude to jump ship. Well, Maren, I think your blog might just be the tipping point. He woke this morning at 5 am because he had so many ideas flying through his brain. He got up, excitedly, to write them all down. That in and of itself is impressive because this is a guy who hasn’t woke up excited during a week day for ages! So not only to wake excitedly, but also to be productive in the process.

Unfortunately he was interrupted from this state of flow by the nagging reminder that he had to go to a job he hates. But that’s when he called me. And that’s when he told me he’s going home after work to work on his ideas, to cancel his cable subscription so he can focus on escaping his job, and to look into places to rent in Vancouver so me and him, brother and brother, can join forces and escape the working world together. Was our conversation realistic? Not at all! It was pure, giddy, big dreaming hype. But that was the beauty of it. For the first time this guy was be unreasonable and thinking risky. And I loved it. I feel like he’s seen the light and he’s finally going to be able to live up to his potential.

So I just wanted to say… thanks. Thanks for helping to push my bro to achieve whatever his definition of success is.

Cheers,

Collin Vine