Finding Audacity

I've always had a diverse range of interests. To me, the idea of isolating a single one and turning it into a career was prescriptive and confining. Prior to my travels to the Southern Hemisphere, I struggled to identify what it was that I wanted to do with my life. I think at one point I wanted to be part banker, part clinical psychologist; some sort of Jung-Buffet character, I suppose. But for whatever reason, I found something deeply unsettling about the idea of following a conventional career path. Now, I imagine this feeling to be similar to the act of choosing your best man for your wedding. You've got to pick one friend, which isn't a problem, unless you've got more than one close friend to pick from. In this scenario, how do you go about choosing which one to pick? How do you determine which friend is most worthy of your noble appointment? Well, I'd rather just do away with the best man tradition.

I've lived in a big-city my whole life, primarily Toronto and New York. Come late 2010, I was growing tired of my urban routine. I came to New Zealand looking for a change of pace, for an opportunity to travel independently, for an adventure. Ironically, what I found was a deep passion for entrepreneurship and a confidence in myself to make my dreams a reality. I found my future career.

Early in the first semester at Otago, while eating breakfast in my flat on Leith Street, my flatmate slid a flier across the table that sparked my interest. An entrepreneurship contest was being advertised - “Submit an idea and win $500”

“You should apply,” he told me.

In many ways, reading that Audacious flier marked my discovering entrepreneurship. Here was a discipline that allowed me to pursue my diverse interests, that permitted me to work closely with others, and that challenged me to make a difference in the world. Here was a discipline shouting, “Be different! Be an outlier! (We hate the best man tradition too!)”

I was excited and fairly sure this was what I wanted to do with my life. And so I walked into David Quinn's office, sat down across the table from him, and told him that I wanted to be an entrepreneur. We spoke about some of my ideas, and he said he was interested, that I had gotten him thinking. I asked him, “Well, what next?”.

He responded calmly and simply, “You should do it.” David has this amazing ability to inspire, motivate, and instill belief in yourself.

Over the next three months, I went to class, developing and refining my ideas in my spare time. I attended all the Audacious events and quickly found myself involved in a community. Before long I was having weekly meetings with a group of similarly minded guys. We would meet in coffee shops and pizzerias to discuss our ideas, to update each other on our processes, and to receive feedback. The energy at those meetings was palpable, and I felt both lucky and incredibly excited to be a part of them. If those meetings hadn't turned into something bigger, I would have said that we were a bunch of dreamers, but come the beginning of July we had put together a month-long startup validation programme. We became doers.

For the next month I worked seven days a week in this programme, sleeping in our office space, but not once did it feel like work. I learnt so much in this period that I still find it baffling that it was only a month long. I can honestly say that in that loft on Dowling Street were some of the best times I've had in New Zealand (and, yes, I did do my fair share of travelling), not only because I was doing something that I loved but because we were all doing something that we loved together. We worked independently on our individual projects, yet somehow we were all connected by this communal sense of dedication, determination and commitment to building something spectacular.

While those spectacular things may not exist yet, I know that they will because I've seen them under construction. And when they're finished, one of them at least will owe much of its success to a flier advertising an entrepreneurship contest and the support that came with it.