The Red Paperclip
Reprinted with the kind permission of the folks at Just Plain Folks, Brian Austin Whitney and John Braheny
"I am who I choose to be. I always have been what I chose...though not always what I pleased." — Lois McMaster Bujold "I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." — Albert Einstein
"Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality." — Jules de Gaultier
"To get what you want in life, spend your time looking at the possibilities rather than the limitations in everything you already have." — Brian Austin Whitney
"With enough creativity and imagination you can turn practically nothing into something then into exactly what you want." — Brian Austin Whitney
My Take:
Why is it we often obsess over all the problems and limitations we have instead of putting that same energy into the possibilities to get what we want out of life? What if I told you that you could get almost anything you really want with whatever it is you already have? Don't believe me? Then you haven't heard about the "Red Paper Clip" guy. That's okay.. until he crossed paths with one of our JPF members in Arizona, I hadn't heard of him either.
For our members not in Canada, you may not have heard of Kyle MacDonald. He's just a guy from Montreal with an idea. Actually.. a brilliant idea. He decided he wanted a house. But he didn't have the money to go and buy one. Rather than letting that discourage him, he took what he did have, a red paper clip, and decided he would use that to get his home.
Was he going to fashion it to pick a lock? Nope. Was he going to slip it into his next fast food cheeseburger and sue to get the money? Nope. He was going to do something perfectly legal and above board to get his house via that little red paperclip. He was going to trade up. Over and over and over. What started in July of 2005 as a really funny idea with potential has turned into a very real shot at actually getting him that house. And who knows, perhaps after he gets the house, he'll trade up again. Along the way, that little red paperclip has also turned into a record deal for JPF member Jody Gnant.
To date, the trade's have gone like this: Red Paper Clip for Fish Pen for Carved Nob for Coleman Stove for Generator for Beer Keg and Budweiser Light for Snowmobile for Trip to Yahk, BC for Cube Van for Record Deal for... drum roll please.. 1 year free rent at the Arizona house belonging to JPF Member Jody Gnant. Yes, I am serious. One red paperclip has literally landed Jody a record deal. And all this time you were sitting around complaining that the "man" was keeping you down. Instead, you should have been trading up what you already had and perhaps you'd be well on your way to wherever you want to go.
If any of this sounds too hard to believe, our US members can tune into Good Morning America tomorrow morning (Sunday, April 16th) to see Kyle and hopefully it will even include Jody (I know they contacted her for the story). So now Kyle has a year in Phoenix to trade, moving ever closer to the house he wanted. Rarely has anything so fun and so positive and so silly and so effective come across my radar screen. It's probably the best story I have heard in years because everything about it is positive. The lesson for me in all this is: To get what you want in life, spend your time looking at the possibilities rather than the limitations in everything you already have.
If Kyle can pull this off, just imagine what you can do with far more to start with in your life. Maybe instead of simply working harder down the same beaten path, you should be willing to veer off into the unknown, limited only by your creativity, passion and sense of humor. This story really has stopped me dead in my tracks and in some ways has taken a load of pressure off my head. I really have a lot more resources than I've ever really thought about. And so do you. With enough creativity and imagination you can turn practically nothing into something then into exactly what you want.
So I challenge all of you to decide what you want and to look at what you already have and figure out ways to use it to get where you want to go. In the meantime, you can follow the entire story, to what I expect will be a very positive conclusion, by visiting Kyle's link (he's hilarious.. read his blog), Jody's link (she's ultra cool herself) and the discussion on the JPF Website where we'd LOVE to hear your thoughts and ideas of how you might also do something unexpected and get what you want with what you have. Me? I am going out to buy a box of red paper clips!
And thanks to Jody Whitesides for filling me in on all this! |
