Beyond Enlightenment

http://dailygumboot.ca/2010/11/a-community-beyond-pink/

Beyond P!nk 2010 was my first weekend-long conference. Myself and about 200-250 other young women (average age: 22) attended what I found to be the most educational/inspiring weekend I've had in the last 3.5 years of my post-secondary career.

Run by the incredible efforts of Young Women in Business (YWiB), the organizers creatively put together a series of keynote speakers, workshops and mentor discussions that were unforgettable. All of the keynote speakers were incredible women who have done incredible things that no ordinary woman could accomplish. And I don’t want to sound harsh, here, you would have to hear the stories yourself to understand just what I mean.

The theme of BP2010 was “Make your brand…leave your mark.” On the surface, this phrase sounds like just another superficial, corporatized catch phrase. Yet the word “brand” was used metaphorically—for one’s brand really represented one’s personality; requiring all of us to consider our selves. In order to make our brand, then, we learned the basic ways to start living who we are.

Who I am is what I stand for, it is how I live my life, and it is who I spend time with. It is about deciding what my “non-negotiables" are: what I will not tolerate in any kind of relationship. It is about making rules that I live by that serve me, and changing them only when they do not serve me any longer.

It is about what I do—how I behave, how I achieve my goals, and how I decide when to change my life if it is not the life that I want. The speakers all had very different careers, but all of them went through similar phases. They all had their ideal “dream job” early in life, and later discovered that what they thought would be their dream job was really their living nightmare. Unhappiness came from even the most glamorous of jobs: ones with enormous salaries, impressive titles and in prestigious corporations. Each also went through a personal crisis that led to a clarifying moment in self-reflection.

It was not until each of them decided what was important to them personally that they could achieve their successes professionally. And not one got to where they are today without 100% determination requiring years of 40-60 hour work weeks, countless failures and mistakes, and endless effort. The difference that really struck me was that these women were striving to do work they loved—they all have jobs they are truly passionate about.

Usually, we think that if we get a raise or a promotion at our job we can either have more money to do the things we want to do, or more time to do them. But this isn’t what success is about. Every woman I met openly admitted that the “balance” between “work” and “life” is completely mythological. They spend most of their lives working, and talking about work, and thinking about work. The truth is that most of us will too, whether we want to or not. So we should want to.

We all should do work we enjoy that is contingent with our core values. Business is usually conceptualized against involving emotion, and yet these women exemplify the opposite. Their passion is their work, and their work is their passion. And that is precisely why these women hold positions such as Chief, CEO, VP, Founder/Co-Founder and President. If you love your job, you’ll naturally want to progress because you’ll care about what the company is doing and will want to have a say in decision-making at the top administrative level.

What is success? Success is finding happiness. Envisioning your life path is impossible if you don’t know your values and your non-negotiables.

If you live your values, you will be happy.

And it is as simple as that. It is not an easy solution to the equation—not by a long shot. But, the formula is there for all of us to use.

i-Deas

Sometimes I am on the verge of having a really fantastic idea...that feeling of being just below the verge of a huge realization I still haven't come to takes over my mind and then...I am stuck. A lot of small things happen in peoples lives and then it leads to something...huge. After watching The Social Network, I sit here contemplating how outrageously random life can be. There are those people who spend over half their life investing in their future; be it in years and years of education or working up the corporate ladder from an assistant position to a CEO. On the other side, there exists another group of those people like Mark Zuckerberg, who created a billion-dollar empire in one night, while intoxicated.

I get the feeling that those people who live by the fabrication that is a normative path of life--myself being one of them--are the people who may one day become rich and successful, and may very well believe in themselves and more importantly in their capabilities. I believe I am capable, and I have been taught how to be smart. But how do we define "smart"? The word is usually defined through a series of abstract concepts that between the lines read: be careful. This underlying notion that it is smart to use caution in every decision we make, that it is smart to look both ways, smart to wait, smart not to take risks...this is why the two groups are so unbalanced. There are many more people who accept this definition and related concept of "smart" than those who don't.

It would almost seem as though from day one of public education, we are taught to reach our goals--but those goals must be set early, with parameters, deadlines, and with predictable outcomes. But how are we ever supposed to change the world if we are implicitly told to plan our life through a series of setting systematic, standardized goals? How can you plan to be innovative? To believe that you can create what is inside your head in the outside world? In other words, how can we plan our own ideas?

But there are other people who are not "those people" (who for better or worse are the majority of us), because they do not have fear. More to the point, they do not fear their own ideas.

Now, a lack of fear doesn't always turn them all into self-made millionaires. There are a good many fearless individuals who end up in jail because they are not afraid to kill, steal, lie, or even die themselves. There are fearless people who are drug dealers that rake in thousands of dollars a week and call it their "business". You could call them high-risk entrepreneurs, or you could call them a menace to society. It all depends on where you yourself are situated. When the majority of "those people" judge this group of the Fearless, the difference for them is that they don't care. And as soon as this message is relayed, they can do whatever they want.

Here is an outrageous yet perfect example: George Bush was elected (lets just say to avoid confusion he was fairly elected--both times) without doing or saying so much as one intelligent thing. Then, he took his country against the wishes of the entire world and invaded Afghanistan, followed by waging war in Iraq. Despite absolutely no conclusive evidence of "weapons of mass destruction", he confidently declared that there was, and was re-elected. He somehow managed to get out of taking any real blame for the worse economic crisis since the Great Depression, gracefully finishes his term as President and hands the burden over to President Barack Obama to fix. He is a Democratic President from the first group, the "those people" group. The hard-working, well-educated author uses both logical reasoning and refreshing ethical grounds in his party platform and political agenda. Yet he has struggled probably more than any other President to keep the public's support. Of course with elections coming up, he must be afraid. And yet, it is fear that will lose the support he so desperately needs to uphold.

This example should demonstrate how irrational and borderline insane the world is. And this irrationality works at all levels: court systems, federal and provincial government, driving restrictions--everything. Where law and order have the most difficulty holding firm control is the realm of cyber-space. The Internet is a public sphere and despite massive commercial interest, and disturbing surveillance capacities, I have faith that my generation--and those subsequent--will find a way to keep the Internet just like a rebellious, fearless entity. An embodiment of those people who get things done without fear of being stopped. If an undergraduate student can create what is now Facebook out of sheer spontaneity, than certainly there is a chance that we can all create things, too. We just have to stop being afraid of what happens after we create them.

YOU'VE GOT MAIL: I'VE GOT FALSE HOPE

After re-watching 1998’s You’ve Got Mail starring the ever-charming Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, I pondered the consequences this movie has had on the hopes of North American singles everywhere, and how they may have been artificially filled with regard to the potential of finding love over the internet.

Chatrooms are basically extinct in the nucleus of contemporary online dating avenues, but dating websites use the same functions. I did a little research and was surprised to discover that Canadians spend more time on online dating sites than any other country—even more than the U.S. By 2005, over $500 million dollars were poured into the online dating industry, making it the second-largest industry behind pornography for “paid content” on the web. According to a study by JupiterResearch, the online dating market is expected to grow to $932 million by 2011.

What puzzles me about the immense popularity of online dating is the failure rate. 33% of online dating site users form a relationship—33% do not, and 33% give up. On top of that, 10% are scammers, 10% are sex offenders, and still only 10% leave within the first three months.

As I watched You’ve Got Mail, I became nostalgic for the (probably non-existent) days when chatrooms and emails were a spaceless place for exchanging ideas, advice and opinions from the mundane to the philosophical. Meg and Tom’s characters pour their most intimate (yet non-sexual) thoughts anonymously—with no profile, no webcam, no emoticons, nothing but screen names: Shopgirl and NY152. Virtual soul mates. The two are both in long-term relationships when they start emailing each other, and the movie promotes the idea that the things you can’t say to your spouse, you can say freely to an anonymous virtual friend and thus bear your unsatisfying real relationships. And when both characters eventually break up with their partners, it is not because of their cyber-infidelity, but because their discussions had opened up their eyes to the reality that they were not, in fact, in love with whom they were with.

The internet is idealized in that it allows strangers to connect and share with the possibility that time and space need not hinder relationships from forming. We can defy fate and take destiny into our own hands by seeking out our future-spouses online.

This has recently occurred to me as just one more way we are again messing with Mother Nature. Cupid needs to work mysteriously for us; we are not supposed to grab a bow and arrow and shoot each other and feel confident that we can aim the right shot ourselves. And what is even more ludicrous is paying corporations to “match” us up with strangers and thereby removing even the small amount of instinct and personal judgement chatrooms provided. Love can easily be half-constructed in the mind, so couples matched together by a professional site may meet and truly believe that the site worked. Yet with all the compatibility tests, shared interests and hobbies in common—how hard could it be to get along with somebody exactly like you? And when the relationship does not last in the long term, well, it wasn’t the online dating service or match making website’s fault. It simply did not work out with that particular compatible match. So, back to the site they go.

Isn’t it clear by now that anytime you have to pay for something, you have to keep paying for it? These sites make millions of dollars off of the most profound state of being that is now successfully commodified: love.

Why Gregor Rules.

Gregor Robertson is not your average politician. In fact, he is one of the most charismatic, uncharacteristic Canadian politicians in the game. And just look at those cheekbones.

Mr. Robertson is of NDP descent, and began his political career as an MLA for the Vancouver and Fairview region. Robertson also became a farmer and entrepreneur as the founder of Happy Planet juice. This background gave Vision Vancouver a rare advantage: a business-savvy NDP leader with goals, and planned agendas to achieve them.

Since Gregor Robertson and his Vision team took office in 2008, they have already transformed the city dubbed the best in the world. Vision Vancouver's target areas are:




1) Making Vancouver the "greenest" city on Earth;
2) Business facilitation; and
3) Ending homelessness

So, starting with number 1, for which Robertson has faced much critique (mainly because the term "greenest" was never specifically defined):

Evidence of environmental enhancement and protection can be seen in improved public transit (hybrid buses, added skytrains, added skytrain routes), added bicycle lanes on the roads (apparently more bike lanes are in Vancouver than in any other Canadian city), and tolling the Sea-to-Sky highway. During the Olympics, bike valets were introduced at all the major pavilions and will continue to be used for large-scale events downtown. Robertson's green agenda also includes promoting greener communities, jobs, and human health.



Business facilitation has been at the root of Vancouver's real estate boom. As more and more international corporations open offices in Vancouver, more businesses become attracted to the area, and the value of real estate increases. What is great about Vancouver is that even the small, one-of-a-kind shops can still thrive in areas like Commercial drive, Gastown, Granville Island, and West 4th Ave.


By 2015, Robertson promises to end homelessness in the Downtown eastside. Despite public concern, protest and fears, Vision's project HEAT (Homeless Emergency Action Team) has established five shelters in Vancouver, all of which have reached max capacity. Critics can bash his overreaching goals all they want, because putting an end to homelessness is not--nor should it be--a job for one man alone. Homelessness is a regional, national and international problem that is heavily rooted in the flaws of the North American societal structures. The goals Robertson sets may be unachievable and unrealistic, but at least he's seeing results and making progress.


Over the past two years, Vancouver was ranked the best city int he world. And Robertson has been Mayor for--that's right--the past two years. Coincidence? Perhaps. But obviously Gregor's charisma, ambitious attitude, motivation and fearlessness make him a truly unique figure in contemporary Canadian politics. He is a perfect blend of a pro-business Liberal, pro-environment Green, and a pro-equality NDP politician.

Gregor, if you read this, I will happily work on your provincial election campaign (pro bono!)

I practice Vancouveriteism.

What I've come to realize about being a true Vancouverite is that it can happen to you without you even being conscious of it.

This summer I moved away from Metropolitan bliss to my home town, where everyone I know is predictably found everywhere I go, and "downtown" consists of a single, run-down (some call it colorful I call it depressing) main street.

While enjoying the summer festivities of August long weekend, I stayed with my girls and we naturally did the following:

Had appys and drinks at Granville Island
Watched the finale of the fireworks at Granville Island
Started the next day off with yoga in the park (approx. 7:30am) and yes wearing LuLu Lemon (friend hand-me down, mind you)
Took the bus downtown
Got Starbucks
Watched the Gay Pride Parade
...Got Starbucks
Found our vegan friend who was volunteering for Oxfam (for the parade)
Went to a trendy Asian restaurant
Bought Keds off Robson st.

Sadly, before I could do a hike at Deep Cove or go for a jog around the Seawall, the last trainbus was about to depart and so my day in Vancouver had to end with that. Once home, the magic had faded and there I was: back in the town I so desperately want to move away from. Yet a true Vancouverite is always staying positive and productive, and so I'm consciously making an effort to enjoy home-life and make the most out of it. My first real art purchase was a beautiful landscape photograph of Vancouver at twilight, with the city lights glowing in the transforming evening sky. This will stay on my wall in my bedroom until it becomes my view. I will live in you, one day, Vancouver. One day.