Life Pivots, What Keeps Me Up At Night, and A Quest For Joy

Throwback to a good ol' fashion, ansty ramble

For those who I haven't talked with for a while, I will be transitioning away from GiveLoop, a start-up a friend and I have been working on since the summer. We are currently in the process of selling the company and I am excited about the idea of a blank slate for the next step in my career/life.

(btw, on the subject of life transitions, I highly recommend this TED talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/raghava_kk_five_lives_of_an_artist.html)

To be completely honest, I'm kind of sick of the idea of another web/technology start-up. Out of habit, I consume about 100 articles a day regarding online start-ups. The sound of another "pivot", "a-b test", or "value proposition" makes me cringe (yes, I realize I used the word "pivot" in the title). Not to say that I am "quitting" the Web game (I'm kind of binded to it at the moment), but I've been really thinking about another angle or direction I can go in.

If you haven't watched the above TED talk, please do. In it, artist Raghava KK talks about his five lives (or "avatars") as an artist. I like the idea of seeing your life in phases or stages of metamorphosis. There's something freeing about having the possibility to wake up one morning and totally re-define how you identify yourself.

For most of my professional life (~6 years), if someone asked me what I do, I'd say, "I'm a web designer/developer" or "I'm working on an online start-up". I guess you can say that's my current identity and first real "avatar". And now that I've finished a quarter-century of my life, I kind of want to explore another avatar.

For a while, I've been thinking a lot about this concept of "Joy".

In 2004, a high school friend and a then-recent college friend stumbled upon the concept of "Joy" in the school dining hall. We were trying to figure out the best possible message we can tag anywhere and everywhere. "You are my joy" was blurted out and a chord was struck. Throughout the next couple years, we spread the message on walls, doors, sidewalks, chairs, trains, and whatever surface we could spray/stick/write without getting caught. I thought it was a fun project, but for a while I never thought too much into it.

But as time on, the philosophy of "Joy" slowly developed with the help of some close friends. The physical message of "You are my joy" became less important than the actual experience of writing it or reading it. And then the act of writing and reading "You are my joy" became less important than those you were thinking about when you wrote it or read it. It is like a very simple art that only really requires active engagement with another person- a medium that anyone has access to. It can manifest itself in something as simple as a shared moment with someone, where saying "You are my joy" simply acknowledges that this moment is in this other realm of "art" or "Joy".

Joy has become an ongoing idea and thought-process that is very important to me. Although I wanted to give more time for the concept to mature, I think a learn-as-you-go approach makes more sense right now. So hopefully in the next year or two, if someone asks me what I do, I would naturally say, "I'm an artist" or "I'm a Joy evangelist". If I don't, please punch me in the gut and yell "Avatar!".