A few weeks ago, I attended the World Domination Summit in Portland, OR. Any time I‘ve mentioned this conference to my friends, their eyes get wide and they all want to know more about it. Essentially, WDS is a worldwide gathering of creative, unconventional people who want to live a remarkable life in a conventional world.
This was my second time attending WDS and I was inspired, enlightened, invigorated and awed by the speakers like Jonathan Fields, Nancy Duarte, Tess Vigeland, Chase Jarvis and many others. There was one speaker Jia Jiang that really resonated with me. He talked about his 100-day “rejection therapy” project. You can watch Jia’s talk online. He must have struck a chord with a lot of other people as well, because he brought the house down.
I’m certainly not a stranger to knowing what rejection feels like. The last two years of my life I have been rejected more times than I have probably in my entire life. It’s not that I’ve been seeking ways to get rejected. It’s because I’ve pushed myself into new and foreign territories – I mean that both literally and figuratively. For example, I challenged myself in my career by producing a big film project that literally took me around the world. But when I think about the “journey” part and the production of that film, it pales compared to the hard work, time, blood, sweat and plenty of tears on getting the film seen. I got scads of rejection letters and emails from film festivals, distributors and agents but most outsiders see only my successes.
When I heard Jia talk about his rejections that led to his “rejection therapy”, I understood exactly how he felt. In a way, I’ve lived my life like Jia’s rejection therapy. But, it wasn’t because I set out to heal myself from some missteps and misses that didn’t work out for me. As I look back at some of the things that I’ve done in my life, I realize now that I was simply naively bold enough to do them.
I can’t really say that I have ever gotten used to rejection. It continues to hit me hard at times. But when that happens, I stop and I think about all the wonderful and crazy things that I’ve done in my life that never would have happened if I had let my past rejections stop me. I suppose I’m like one of those blow up punching bags that keeps popping back up.
Yesterday was one of those days that I had a hundred things to do and only a few hours to do them. I had to give final approval of an ePub I was wrapping up, package and send out exhibition Blurays and posters to film festivals that I have been invited to and finish a video job I was editing, all before heading into NYC to moderate a panel discussion on video for the NYC chapter of ASMP. My mom used to say, “If you want something done – ask a busy person”. I never did understand that when I was younger but I know now, that the busier I am – the better I am with utilizing my time.
I was also fine-tuning the presentation that I was going to be giving to the students at Brooks Institute next week. As an alumna of Brooks,
I was honored when I was asked to speak. I was also taking this responsibility seriously and I was getting a bit stressed over it, which is uncharacteristic for me. I’m usually very comfortable with public speaking. I knew I wanted to talk about the value of “community” and how being part of the ASMP has played into that, but I didn’t want to sound “canned”. I knew that I needed to personalize that message and really boil it down to what that has meant to me. But I also knew I needed to come off as someone who is still relevant and not be perceived by the students as just someone whose their mother’s age. I needed to show my spirit inside that hasn’t aged at all since graduating from Brooks all those years ago. I knew I needed to put myself in their shoes and see through their eyes in order to really connect with them. I started thinking in terms of what I know now and what I wished I had known back when I was a student at Brooks.
So, as I headed into NYC, I had a lot going through my mind. The ASMP event was great. It was a packed room with an engaged audience and terrific panelists. But the best part of the evening was the networking after the event. That’s where the real sharing of information happens and a sense of community is felt. It’s easy to get disconnected these days from the human connection because we all spend so much (too much) time online. That human connection will never be replaced by technology. That was one thing I wanted to point out to the students when I talked to them next week – to physically get “out there”.
I got home late and woke up early and needed a good jolt of coffee while I checked my emails. One email jumped out at me. It was a newsletter from Jonathan Fields who I started subscribing to after hearing Jonathan speak at the World Domination Summit this summer. The newsletter had a link to a video of Jonathan interviewing, Chris Guillebeau the founder of the World Domination Summit. Chris writes a blog that I follow, called the Art of Non-Conformity. As I listened to the interview, it became clearer as far as what I wanted to say to the students in my presentation next week. Chris said one thing that was right on target. He was talking about pursuing an idea and he said that by putting your idea out to the world – by telling someone about it – you were in fact “forcing accountability”.
I thought back to when I first had the crazy notion of traveling around the world with the purpose of creating a feature documentary about individuals on six continents who were making a positive difference in our world. The idea had been tossing around in my head for months before I told anyone. Then one evening as I was walking back from dinner with fellow ASMP board member, Blake Discher, I decided to put the idea “out there”. It was something I did on impulse, but as I look back on it now, Blake was probably the right one to “test run” this crazy idea on. He responded with an affirming, “thumbs up”, but not overly exuberant, which was exactly what I needed. Blake is a very grounded person, so for someone like him to not look at me and tell me that I was out of my mind, was the nudge I needed. So, it was that short, impulsive, casual conversation that forced me to be accountable with my idea.
I went on to make the movie that I set out to make and even better, I got to share the experience with my daughter Erin. It has changed both of our lives for the better. That’s not to say that everything has worked out in ways that I may have wanted or thought I wanted. But it has been a journey that I was meant to take. I have met people that I never would have met in the process and that in turn has led to so many more incredible experiences and adventures that I couldn’t have possibly imagined.
I started thinking about my life’s journey and all the things I have learned since my days as a student at Brooks. And then I thought, “what if I knew then what I know now? “ The thing is, if I had already known all those things back when I was a student, I never would have had the journey that I’ve had. Everything happens in its own time and when it is meant to happen. And that’s what life’s all about – the journey along the way and that only happens when we leave room for the unexpected.
It seems like I’m meeting a lot of celebrities these days, but the truth is I’m meeting a lot of just regular folks too because I’m putting myself “out there”. It’s just that celebrities stand out because – they’re celebrities. Ever since Tom posted this photo
Michael Moore and Gail Mooney at the Traverse City Film Festival
To be honest, I was one of many that Michael had a 5-minute chat with that night at the opening party of the festival. I won’t tell you exactly what we will talked about, other than to say that I asked him how I could get 15 minutes of his time. That probably wasn’t the best question to ask him at a large party that he was escorting Susan Sarandon to, but I figured I would do what Michael Moore would have done.
Moore is a polarizing kind of guy – strong in his convictions and people either love him or hate him. I’m somewhere in the middle, but after reading his book “Here Comes Trouble”; I’ve probably swung more to the “love” end of the spectrum. His book is about his life – with each chapter telling a story about a particular time and experience. I didn’t really know a lot about Moore and all that he has done, but he is like the Forest Gump of his time. In his book he tells the most amazing stories about himself and the serendipitous situations he has encountered in his lifetime. It’s extraordinarily funny and I would highly recommend it, regardless of what you think about Moore.
Michael has done a lot for the people of Traverse City, Michigan. He was co-founder of the Traverse City Film Festival and if you’ve never been – GO. It’s a festival like no other and it’s in one of the most beautiful spots in the country, in northern Michigan. Michael was instrumental in restoring the State Theatre that had been vacant for over 40 years. We were able to rent that state of the art theater last year to show a sneak preview of our film, Opening Our Eyes for only $250.00! Michael loves films and filmmakers. He also started a funding campaign to raise money for new seats for a local elementary school’s auditorium. He had only one condition – that the school would honor Martin Luther King by recognizing his birthday as a national holiday and closing on that day. That was only last year, a time when most schools in our nation had recognized this holiday long ago.
I was a bit surprised to see Michael at the “open” outdoor party that night. He’s literally a “target” and has had many threats on his life. At one point in his life, he was guarded by a team of ex Navy Seals because of these threats and the copious amounts of “hate mail” he was getting. I’m sure that has taken a toll on him personally, yet he stays true to his convictions and continues to speak out.
It’s not easy to stay true to your convictions, especially when it’s counter to the status quo. I admire people, who are consistent in this way, regardless if I agree with their point of view or not. After all, we live in a democratic country, and democracy is built on the voice of the people – and that means ALL people. My biggest fear is losing that right to speak out. Ironically, when the “status quo” feels threatened, “fear” is used to control the voice of the people and only a few are brave enough to speak out, facing the wrath and conjecture of popular opinion. Moore is one of these people and whether you agree with him or not – take a moment if you live in America to think about this. It’s because of people like Moore that we are still “free” to speak out.
Sadly we couldn’t stay for the entire festival, but we did get to see the film, “Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey” – an incredible story of the band Journey and how they found their new lead singer in a most unusual place – The Philippines. I just found out that this film got the “best audience award”. Seems fitting for this movie to receive that award – it’s got everything that someone like Michael would love – a great story with a message that anything is possible and to never stop believing.
What started out as a mileage run to the West Coast on Friday, turned out to be a day of interesting connections. My plan was to fly out to San Francisco on Friday morning and return the next morning. I needed one more flight – the cost of a cheap ticket – to reach the next level of my airline elite status. I have a pretty full travel schedule next year and the upgrade in status will be beneficial.
Since I had the time, I decided reconnect with an old college friend whom I hadn’t seen in over 25 years. He picked me up at the airport and from the moment I got into the car until we parted company later that afternoon, it was like we hadn’t missed a beat. Both older, yet fundamentally the same people we were back in college. There was a comfortable feeling being with each other even though so many years had gone by.
Later that evening I had drinks with a colleague whom I had met a few years back at SATW’s (Society of American Travel Writers) conference in England. During the evening I mentioned a personal project I was embarking on “People Making a Difference” and queried him about story ideas and people he may know. That conversation led us to talking about the travels we’ve each had over the years. We quickly discovered that we had made similar backpacking odysseys back in the early 70’s. We began to retrace the paths we had each taken – I spoke of traveling from Cairo to Beirut, then on to Damascus and through Iraq to Kuwait. He followed with a nearly identical itinerary and picked up the journey from Kuwait by boat to Abadon, Iran and overland to Afghanistan. We soon realized that we had been to the same places during the same period of time.
We both commented on the fact that we never come across people in our lives that have had that kind of parallel experience. He then told me a funny story. He had traveled back to India with his grown son when a young traveler came up to him asking for money so he could get something to eat. My friend told the traveler about his own journeys when he was his age. The young traveler responded by saying “Whoa – you’re one of the Ancient Ones”. My friend relayed this story to me and pointed out that traveler’s comment had been spoken in a manner of respect, the same manner of respect with which native indigenous peoples refer to their elders or “ancient ones”.
It was an unusual day where I set out to take a trip for the sake of miles and ended up reconnecting with my past on a couple of different levels. I tend to look forward in my life rather than at the past but sometimes reconnecting with your past connects circles and reminds of us who we really are. I kind of like being an Ancient One.
Journeys of a Hybrid 