Creativity Archives - Yanik Silver

Shoot for the Stars

July 27, 2021 by Amy Basingstoke

When you get a last-minute invite to join Richard Branson for his first space flight, you re-arrange your schedule to make it happen. So it was back to New Mexico again for Sophia and I after previously being there for our Maverick Summer Solstice Summit.

Getting to Spaceport is in the appropriately named town of Truth or Consequences and one of the truths is it’s definitely not the easiest.

However, when you can witness a little bit of history in the making – you do what you can.

This has been a long time coming and quite a journey

As you might know, I’ve been a Virgin Galactic ticket holder for many years, fourteen to be more exact.

Fact is, I’ve followed the program since it began with the very first X-prize created by Peter Diamandis. (We actually had Peter at a Maverick event and he shared the story of how the prize was born out of his own frustration and deep desire to go into space. It’s a great example of pursuing your deepest passion without a clear roadmap of how it can happen. My friend Nick Nanton created a documentary celebrating Peter called “Visioneer” that’s worth checking out.)

To set the stage; The X-prize was awarded to a vehicle that goes to space twice in two weeks, with that company receiving ten million dollars as the prize. The prize was won by Scaled Composites and then Richard Branson and the Virgin team quickly licensed the tech to become Virgin Galactic.

Once tickets were going to be on sale, I registered my interest on the Virgin Galactic website. However I was one of 40,000 people who did the same thing and their team had no idea who was really a prospect and who wasn’t. Somehow I never got contacted.

The Magic Zero-G flight

Now fast forward two or three years later and I’m taking a group from my Mastermind to play in Zero-G with me. This is where a specially outfitted 737 flies parabolas and imitates different lunar, Martian and zero gravity environments. It’s only for about 30 seconds each time – but the smile on your face goes from ear to ear as you bounce around in zero-gravity just like space.

Our plane had some mechanical problems and the crew would have logged too many hours so we had to wait to swap out for another team. We finally get onboard again and I start talking to my new seatmate about Zero-g and then to the topic of space. Within a few minutes, I shared that Virgin Galactic never responded to me and she told me adamantly, “Oh don’t worry, I’ll make sure they take your money.”

Haha! And who was sitting next to me?

None other than Loretta Hildalgo Whitesides who is very active in the space community herself plus her husband, George Whitesides, ended up being the CEO of Virgin Galactic itself before switching roles recently for their next phase. The odds of me meeting Loretta like this seem pretty astronomical and the synchronicity of this moment is never lost on me.

So I put in a good chunk of cash and was officially in. (Funny side note: I promised my wife, Missy, I wouldn’t touch our savings and I didn’t because I ended up selling a workshop to pay for my spot. I was just sharing this with a high-level group of copywriters about how you can write yourself pretty much whatever you want with this skill. I haven’t taught copywriting in quite some time but I’m considering doing a Cosmic Creativity exploration. If you want to know more make sure you sign up for the Cosmic Tuesday emails here.)

Okay back to our story.

At this point, I’d never met Richard and was thrilled to get this letter kinda from him:

Nobody thought it would be this long but throughout the years Galactic has continued to send all sorts of gear and interesting gifts. The very first item you get is an epic 2-foot tall book detailing spaceflight history plus incredible high-resolution pictures of that X-prize winning flight. I’ve never seen a book this size or this impressive. (In the bottom picture is an oversized publication so you can get a little bit of a relative feel for how big this book is.)

And we got a cool model of the ship that Zack promptly started to fly around the house.

That might have been a collector’s item but little kids and fragile models don’t really mix well. 😉

Magic and Tragedy

The program hit more milestones and more magic unfolded including the unveiling of Spaceship Two literally on my 40th birthday, exactly September 25, 2013! But then a tragedy struck nearly one year later on October 31, 2014. Spaceship Two VSS Enterprise test flight disintegrated midair because of an error activating the feather mechanism too early.

I remember hearing about that accident while eating lunch with futurist Barbara Marx Hubbard, literally discussing how she’d want to meditate in space to send back an evolutionary activation to everyone on Earth. I started tearing up and crying as I got the news from Missy via text.

It wasn’t because, “Boo hoo, it’ll take longer for Yanik to reach space,” but because of what I believe space means for humanity. And I’m not alone. Inside each person’s spacesuit is a quote from famed cosmologist and physicist Stephen Hawking, which reads:

“Taking more and more passengers out into space will enable them and us to look both outwards and back, but with a fresh perspective in both directions.”

The good news from the disastrous crash is there is a better fail-safe mechanism now installed for the VSS Unity and Richard himself always wanted to prove the safety of the spaceship by flying himself on one of the earliest flights.

And on July 11, 2021 that’s exactly what happened.

All of us had quite an early wake-up call with buses leaving from the hotel at 3:15AM. Yep – brutal but I was pretty excited and ready to go!

Several other Mavericks were also invited including John Ratliff and Ben Richter who have been with us to Necker multiple times. (Note: Necker is on again and can’t wait to host another gathering there for Mavericks and visionary leaders. This will be our 11th or 12th year there. If you’d like to apply and get more details please go here.)

The amazing part was getting to see everything from the “inside.”

There was a bigger part of the Spaceport set up for media (200+) plus special invited guests and future astronauts. You were still pretty lucky to get inside there, but we were even more fortunate to be invited to witness Richard’s flight right alongside his family, close friends and key partners in another section of Spaceport.

In a surreal way it seems like a regular Sunday morning for Richard. He was just eating breakfast as we walked in to give him a good luck hug. And Richard being Richard actually thanked us several times for being there!

There was a lot of energy swirling around.

Getting to to talk to Richard’s daughter, Holly, the next day she said she was vividly reliving many of the emotions she felt when she was just a kid and her dad took on so many adventures and even had his near-death misses. You could see this mixture of excitement and nervousness from a lot of us as Richard and the rest of the flight team walked out to their Land Rovers taking them to the ship. (Pretty good sponsorship opp for Land Rover!)

3…2…1…Release…release

I brought my big binoculars (which took up like 1/3 of my carry-on luggage) so I could see the flight directly instead of just watching the livecast playing there. I got goosebumps watching VSS Unity disengage from the mother ship and fire up its rocket engine going straight up.

Once it was out of my sight I went back inside to monitor the flight status and transmission feed. I loved the fact that as the ship reaches space, Richard relays this message:

“To all you kids down there. I was once a child with a dream looking up to the stars. Now I’m an adult in a spaceship with lots of other wonderful adults looking down to our beautiful, beautiful Earth. To the next generation of dreamers, if we can do this… just imagine what you can do.”

And then he unclips to go play in Zero-gravity followed by a few exclamations of “Incredible” and “Oh my!”

Then we welcomed him back to Earth with fist bumps and huge grins.

Next it was off to the main stage for the beautiful astronaut wings celebration and a few remarks. I’d say it’s definitely pretty fun to be so close you get some of the celebratory champagne sprayed on you!

Everyone at Spaceport was so excited and happy as we hugged each other and high-fived watching this historic flight – but then I started seeing some other takes that had a completely different energy.

The question is: why shouldn’t billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson use their resources to solve problems on Earth instead of “wasting” money on space or catering to a bunch of “rich space tourists.”

As the Stephen Hawking quote said, there’s something bigger here than simply boasting about being an astronaut at the next cocktail party. There’s something called the Overview Effect that previous astronauts have talked of that happens when you see the Earth without borders and floating against the inky blackness of space. You start seeing how precious and beautiful our home really is and many are moved to do more to steward it.

After the first space missions, an American writer, Steward Brand, pressured NASA to release an image of the Earth taken from outer space so others could marvel at this blue marble. This became the inspiration for the “whole earth,” essentially the bible for all things green and eco-friendly.

There’s no doubt there is much work to be done on Earth, however we need to look at the entire planet as a whole and these kinds of moments lead to a more holistic expanse. I believe this new space focus will create a greater evolutionary pull towards greater cosmic consciousness. That’s obviously where I get excited.

Maverick Space Flight?

There’s also some talk of having a Maverick spaceship charter. I know there are 2 or 3 members seriously talking about it. Or if you don’t want to spring for the ticket yet, you can enter to win 2 spots via www.Omaze.com/space

As all of this unfolded I imagined myself going up. I’m ticket holder #144 so if they do one flight per month, the timing might work out to be flying on or around my 50th birthday.

You’re all invited and champagne’s on me!

Sic Itur Ad Astra

The “Silly” Cosmic Checkbox Experiment

September 19, 2019 by Yanik Silver

I want to share with you something so small…so easy…and so silly that you won’t believe it’ll work.

It’s a way to be fully in flow with what you love to do most and have that open up in the most wonderful ways you couldn’t even imagine. (At least that’s been my story so far.)

What started as an interesting experiment turned into something so much bigger….

Here’s what happened….

Originally I saw a challenge online for 100 days of art. It seemed interesting, but I dismissed it because I didn’t really think I could do it with all my travel and other things going on. In fact, I distinctly remember writing in my journal about my uncertainty but then working through to a realization that I’d just do it and see what happened.

However, instead of just 100, I wanted to make it more meaningful and committed to 108.

Why 108?

In yogic traditions, 108 is a sacred number connected to the earth, sun, and moon.

The very first thing I did was to create 108 empty boxes to check off as I went along.

Here’s my actual page in the front of the journal. I started this on April 3, 2018, and each night I’d check the box as I created an illustrated picture and journal entry.

It felt incredible to check that box after I was done.

So many nights I really didn’t want to sit down and work on a new entry. Sometimes it meant a few 4 a.m. nights, but I had made that commitment. I remember one night I literally fell asleep as I was drawing a quote and my pen slipped, but the entry ended up being so much more powerful with that “on-purpose mistake.”

Sometimes I couldn’t believe “I” had written it. It just flowed through me. Normally, I’d meditate and then just see what wanted to come through me. Pretty personal and sometimes a bit out there, these were direct downloads from the Universe.

I created this Cosmic Journal just for myself and had no idea where it would lead. The only thing I focused on was checking off the “Cosmic Checkbox” each day.

Draw. Write. Check.

And this creativity spilled over into all my other everyday responsibilities in my companies and at home.

Try This Experiment

You can give it a try too with your own “Cosmic Checkbox of Joy and Play.”

Is there something you would really enjoy that you could see progress on each day?

Something that is fun, playful, and joyful?

Something that’s challenging but makes you better?

It doesn’t have to be 108 days either, but just having that silly little Cosmic Checkbox will move you along further and faster than you can imagine. You just have to create the checkbox and then mark it off day by day.

As another incentive, I noticed the more prolific I was, the better the insights and drawings became. For example, on Day #78 or so, this page came out:

Originally it was just going to be the first few words of “You don’t need to see the full path…just the next step…”

And that would be it. But I trusted my intuition and kept going. The message started blending with exactly where I was in the twists and turns of the labyrinth too. It was magical. Totally in-flow and one of my favorite checkboxes earned that night.

Now, I didn’t intend to publish my personal Cosmic Journal, but as I slowly shared a few entries with friends, they gushed about it and loved it.

Then, very hesitantly, I put a couple out on Instagram and got a great response. And then I showed them to former Camp Maverick counselor Eric Lochtefeld at breakfast one day. He looked at them and could tell this lit me up. That’s all he cares about – investing in bliss.

He said he would fund a limited-run published version, thereby ensuring I actually paid attention and made it a real book. I have to give a huge thank you to Eric for nudging this into creation.

I’ve never had a project like this or edited any type of book like this. I had no specific order to the pages when I wrote them for myself; it was just whatever showed up that night.

I sent the original journal to get scanned and got back these little 2”x 2” squares for each page. My entire kitchen island was covered in these thumbnails as I figured out where they went.

And I knew I was on the right track because I finished them at exactly 1:11 a.m. and same thing for the left-hand prompt pages – 1:11 a.m. Wow! Serious magic!

We published 888 copies of this special limited edition Cosmic Journal, available here until they’re gone: www.CosmicJournal.com.

Not all 108 entries made it in here, but you’ve got 101 in here, so if your Cosmic Checkbox is doing one journal page entry, you have time to get your copy. 😉

The Cosmic Journal can be read from beginning to end all the way through, or an even more powerful way is to use it like an oracle. Simply hold your question or intention in mind then flip to a page at “random” to see the perfect message awaiting you there from the Universe.

It’s almost uncanny how the signs, symbols, and synchronicities line up.

Even if you have tried journaling but stopped or have never done it, you’ll love the Cosmic Journal. It’s totally different because it’s like getting a direct download from the Universe.

I’ve started calling it “The galactic instruction manual you were missing when you were born to RE-remember your destiny.”

And this still isn’t the end of the story….

My friend Jeff Walker introduced me to the president of Hay House Publishing (the same people that publish Wayne Dyer), and after a quick breakfast meeting, he said he’s never seen anything quite like this. So I immediately got a book deal for the Cosmic Journal and an oracle deck. They’ve fast-tracked it for November of this year…and if you know much about traditional publishing, that’s super fast!

The revised Hay House version will be out soon, and you can already pre-order it on Amazon, BN.com, or any other bookseller online. (Save your receipt because we’ll be doing special bonuses for pre-orders.) Also, I’d really love your voices/help getting this out more.

We’ve had a lot of people buy multiple copies of the Cosmic Journal as gifts for their audience or their team. You can buy them in package sets on the site. Or if you are interested in more than 100, let us know as we can do something special or custom for you.

Give the “Cosmic Checkbox of Joy and Play” a try, and see how it goes. I’d love to hear what happens as a result of your experiment.

Why Drinking Could be Derailing Your Destiny of Greatness

August 28, 2018 by Yanik Silver

I feel like I’m going to get some grief for this, but it’s worth it.

First off, I’m not going to make an “always” or “never” statement here, but if this strikes a nerve or triggers an emotional response, there’s something here for you to examine.

So here goes….

Most highly talented entrepreneurs I know are drinking way too much to cover up for NOT doing their most important work here.

By drinking and partying, we don’t have to examine what our REAL purpose is or what our greatest expression of who we could become.

This really struck me when I took 33 days off from drinking a few summers ago.

I was drinking too much (at least for me) because I realized I hadn’t strung together more than two days concurrently without having a glass of wine, bourbon, beer, etc. It was never a lot, but it was enough that I couldn’t recall a long period of time spent not drinking.

No doubt, I had already cut back a bit on my hard-drinking days, but I wasn’t totally beyond it. And I noticed that at some events I attended or was a part of, the vibe was actually too much of a party. I used to love drunk conversations with smart friends, but I realized I was just fooling myself.

I was using alcohol to help me “loosen up.”

To help me socialize more. To assist me with getting my ideas flowing.

Or whatever excuse you want to use.

Frankly, drinking is just woven into so many social situations.

I get it. I play men’s league ice hockey, and after each game, we have beers in the locker room or parking lot. I meet up for drinks with friends. I have wine with dinner. I want something when I head to a restaurant, etc. The list goes on and on. But that’s not even the deeper issue. What I’ve seen is that some of the smartest and most talented individuals I know get hammered!

Why?

Perhaps it’s because we want to forget our “responsibilities” for a little while.

I’m not talking about responsibilities like putting the sheets in the dryer or taking out the recycling but more like our Destiny of Greatness and true Dharma. Yep, the BIG stuff!

I knew I had to change something because I was drinking so regularly. I didn’t have a problem necessarily, but I hated the feeling that something could influence me more than I could influence it.

So I did a little experiment…

I like 33 days for the length of time to experiment with because it’s a specific number, it forces you beyond just one month, and 33 has become quite symbolic for me in the last few years. (It actually shows up in some really synchronistic ways that are hard to explain as simply being coincidences. More on that another time.)

The 33-Day No-Drinking Experiment

About 3 weeks in, I had “amnesia” about what date I said I’d stop. I knew the date, of course, but was considering if I had somehow miscalculated. Finally, at midnight on the final night, I was so excited to drink again that I grabbed a semi-cold hard cider and sat on my front steps.

Hmm…moving into an observer role here and realized I hadn’t really changed too much, but I was still proud for completing this experiment.

The next summer I tried again. This time after the 33 days, I did cut back on my drinking a bit. It eventually took one more 33-day period to really get this to stick and for me to develop a new practice. I’ve realized I can be much more mindful, intentional, and conscious about it. Previously, it was just habitual. Of course you have a glass of bourbon at 5 p.m. after back-to-back meetings because that’s what you do.

It’s fascinating watching your friends react in social situations. The big question is always “WHY?” I play ice hockey, so the boys never got it, but I stood my ground.

Now I’ve become more aware and exacting about when and what I’ll drink.

If I’m having a great meal, I might (or might not) want to pair up a good wine with it. Or if there’s a big celebration, like the BVI Art Reef sinking, I’ll have some champagne. On a recent trip to Necker, Richard wanted to do our signature shot. I had never actually done shots with him over the many years we’ve been together, so I figured this was a moment I wanted to share. (We have a special shot called the “BBG” on Necker that’s become a Maverick tradition.)

Or enjoying Patron with John Paul DeJoria, the co-founder of Patron, at his family’s ranch with other Mavericks a few years back? To me, that’s a good moment to enjoy this spirit.

It’s interesting that the word “spirit” references both the alcohol and our inner essence.

I’ve realized when I am aligned with my greatest purpose, I really, really want to be at my optimal so that I don’t miss any moments or subtle insights. Full awareness. Pay attention. For me, I definitely feel less intuitive for about 2 days after drinking. It’s subtle, but these subtle energies are where the greatest “downloads from the universe” come from like my Cosmic Journal.

Perhaps this is an experiment you want to take on? (Let me know if you do.)

What will you say “YES” to?

April 16, 2018 by Yanik Silver

For me, I decided to take this 100-day project challenge (The100dayproject.org) of one creative art piece per day. I’m 10 days into it now – and I picked journal illustrations as my project.

It’s funny, I wasn’t totally sure if I wanted to actually commit 100 days. Wasn’t sure if I could come up with enough of my own ideas for full pages, putting in the time each day while traveling, etc. But I decided at the end of the 100 days (actually I’m doing 108 days because it’s more meaningful to me) I’d have something really interesting regardless. It would be worth it.

Maybe I’ll publish the illustrations maybe I won’t. Not totally sure.

But I can tell I’m really enjoying this process of having a focused block of creative time each day to draw and write. I’ve already seen it carry over into other areas of my life. I feel like it’s opened even more creative capacity in my businesses and what I’m doing.

I’m including a few illustrations here if you want to check them out. Would love your comments and more importantly try the “YES” Experiment:

Write the word “YES” in a journal or calendar on a random page or date ahead.

Be open to saying “YES” that day.
Share what happens. #yesexperiment

Even bigger idea is what are you hesitating to saying, “yes” to in your own life?

Update: I’m sharing quite a few via my Instagram account – follow me: www.instagram.com/yaniksilver

Update #2: I finished all 108 days of this challenge and it’s been the most in-flow project I’ve ever created. You can see some more here about how it happened and the end result is the Cosmic Journal! Available here or anywhere you prefer to buy books.

The Power of Play

July 2, 2017 by Yanik Silver

I have a little secret way of tapping into deeper wisdom…

You see, I love the serendipity of writing questions, doodling, or jotting little notes to myself a few pages forward in my journal. Then, when I “land” on that page, something magical usually comes together….

In the Evolved Enterprise book, one of the questions I shared that can help you dig deeper into your meaning is “What would my 111-year-old self tell me?” (It’s a question inspired by Tal Ben-Shahar and his work on happiness.)

This question brings forth a profound inquiry of tapping into elevated wisdom from an extended point of view.

Fact is, I love questions.

I believe our questions dictate our answers and this is definitely one worth thinking through.

However, I have a totally different direction for you….

The other day I came to the page in my journal where I had written the question “What would my 11-year-old self tell me?”

Hmmm…

First, I had to bring myself back to that time and place. It was 1984, and I played Dungeons and Dragons, loved eating Fruity Pebbles, and collected Smurfs.

And from that viewpoint of a slightly nerdy and unsure of myself 5^th grader, here’s the first answer I wrote in my journal:

“Have Fun!”

Makes sense. I realized that at age eleven I was a little more carefree. There was still an innocence to my life at this moment as it was 2 years before my parents got divorced.

Okay, “have fun” is a good start, but I want to explore more deeply what message is hiding under the surface. So what else would my little dude tell me? I continue writing:

“I know my magical child loves to draw, laugh, and play. And living in a more magical way, you get to write ANY script you want. That means including all the pieces that fill me with joy. And I certainly know what those ingredients are.”

Better.

I’ve realized your first answer is not usually your “real” one. There is a deeper, more profound knowledge to be found by continuing to ask again and again.

You Might Laugh When You Try This

Here’s a process to go further….

I have my friend Bill Donius, author of Thought Revolution, to thank for this. He taught Mavericks about one of the most connected ways you can get guidance from a different part of yourself or open up new ways of thinking

You can tap into your full creativity by writing with your non-dominant hand. It feels odd when you start and maybe even totally silly or completely illegible, but it works.

Now, with my left hand, I wrote this message back to myself:

“It’s easier than you think because your heart always has your answer. You might not like the answer or it’s inconvenient, but it’s truth. If choosing between 2 choices – which one brings out more play? More joy?

Not just “fun” only because that can change – but your deepest self is discovered through play. You’re making it harder on yourself too. Just laugh a bit more. Oh yeah, your turtle says “hi”… – 11-year-old enlightened Yanik

—

Random side note: Funny that using my left hand brought up my pet turtle I had for a short time as a kid. When I went away to the beach, my best friend Jamie was supposed to watch him, but the turtle (slowly) ran away.

—

I attributed this insight to the “11-year-old enlightened Yanik” because that’s exactly how it feels.

Kids provide some of the most amazing insights if you let them, and your own 11-year-old self probably has a message for you too.

Think back to what you loved to do when you were 11 and what gave you joy. Now how can that be brought back into your life in a fully integrated way? Where can you mix this into your business or life in some way again – but now from a new, expanded perspective?

One big thing for me was drawing. I actually thought I wanted to be a professional hockey player and then a cartoonist in the off season. I loved to draw and doodle and created my own characters, like “Meteor Mouse” and “Big Nose Fred.” I even created a comic book with my buddy Jamie under the imprint of “Silver Dragon Comics.” (His last name was Dragon, as you might have guessed.) It wasn’t really a profitable venture as we only sold 2 copies – to my parents and his – but I guess technically it was the start of my publishing career in a way.

Years later, I started drawing and doodling again in my journals.

I realized how much I loved it and actually included all my own doodles into my new Evolved Enterprise book, on blogs, and even in some of our marketing. One hint you’re doing something you love is when time stands still or it generates more energy for you as you’re doing it. I remember writing the final draft of the Evolved Enterprise book and was totally beat at 3 a.m. and ready for bed. But at that moment, I realized I wanted to include my own doodles in there. Bam! It was a huge blast of inspiration, and I kept drawing for another two hours.

My 11-year-old enlightened self also said to focus on play…

Your Greatest Joy Revealed

Play is one of our most natural expressions of who we are in our perfected state, and it’s an incredible way to connect to anyone in your life.

The other night, we had a dad and sons barbecue at my neighbor’s house. It was good food and wine (for the parents), but the real highlight was playing together. We played dads vs. boys in street hockey, basketball, and soccer with a quick S’mores break in between the final match ups.

Simply playing together is one of the greatest joys we have together (and it didn’t hurt that the dads beat the kids 5-4 in a wild soccer match thriller!).

The book, Play, by Dr. Stuart Brown covers why play is invaluable for relationships, learning, working together, and socializing as mammals.

I like playing with words too, and there’s a reason “recreation” is another word for play – because it “re-creates” our world.

Play is what we’re naturally drawn to if we simply give ourselves the permission to explore how we want to play within our lives and work. Sadly, most people believe work is in direct conflict to play, but that’s not the case.

As Dr. Stuart Brown says, “The opposite of play is not work – the opposite of play is depression.”

Have you ever been around someone who is simply playing? There’s an uninhibited joy that takes hold. There’s a loss of time, and we feel totally in the moment. Play is such a simple concept, but how much time do we even allow ourselves to explore what play really looks like?

“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he’s always doing both.” – James Michener

The Virgin Billionaire at Play

One of the characteristics I’ve seen up close many times from being around Richard Branson so often is his playful side. He is involved with serious projects, but he makes sure he doesn’t take himself too seriously. In fact, one of the rules on Necker is that there’s no work in the afternoons. Seeing Richard do this, I think he gets more productive time by focusing it all in allotted blocks and by continually rejuvenating and refreshing himself from playing more.

It’s not uncommon to have Richard instigating the party, dancing on tables, or generally mixing things up.

I love showing up on Necker and having some sort of silly surprise for him or a small prank. This year, in support of ocean conversation, we both donned mermaid (or merman!) tails for our Q&A.

And last year we surprised Richard by having everyone on the island wear lemur suits for our “serious” brainstorming meeting. When he walked in, he just laughed and gladly jumped into his own lemur outfit.

It’s funny to see this picture continuing to get out there in his social media posts. I get a kick out of seeing it pop up again and again, like on Richard’s Instagram, with the caption: “Don’t take yourself too seriously. Nobody else does.” (My daughter Zoe responded to the picture by asking how her lemurs are doing.)

I always believe a good costume adds to the play and fun of any kind of event. Making more of your work feel like play leads to big results. That brainstorming session that started with lemur suits actually turned into one our most impactful projects to date – sinking an old WWII ship and turning it into a marine conservation platform. (Read about the project here – http://www.divethebviartreef.com/)

And putting that together was definitely fun!

Quite frankly, our work doesn’t need to feel like, well, work.

So often we discount what comes easily to us that actually feels like playing simply because it comes so easily and seems like such fun to us. For me, part of how I play is helping brainstorm better business ideas that can have a greater impact on the world. I love thinking of the unique positioning, the hooks, marketing angles, cause elements to bake in, and so much more. It’s so alluring for me to map all aspects and facets and how to create more leverage beyond what many others might see. To me, that’s fun! I love it!

I love engaging in a potential problem like that and then figuring out the pieces to build something really meaningful using the Evolved Enterprise framework. I get a kick of asking the right questions to trigger the answers that move the needle. Or intuitively diagnosing the real buried issue that these entrepreneurs don’t even realize is hiding behind what they think their problem is.

When I get out of my own way, I realize how valuable this really is for others.

But since it feels like play, it’s too easy to discount it. To not value our own worth and our unique expression of our work… Why does it have to be hard? That’s some sort of belief we’ve inherited somewhere along the way. It doesn’t have to be that way if you incorporate the belief that our work can be inter-meshed with our play.

“The richest and fullest lives attempt to achieve an inner balance between three realms: work, love and play.” – Erik Erikson

Play is one of the great unifiers to have all levels of people, no matter how successful, drop their walls. That’s why, at many of our Maverick experiences and retreats, you’ll see there are opportunities to play. There are deeper connections, opportunities, and friendships that develop when you’re randomly together on Tuesday night and have been transformed into zombies by a Hollywood make-up artist than when sitting around a conference room.

Actually, one of my favorite playful events we put on is Camp Maverick, which is coming up. It’s absolutely a chance for the inner child to come out and play. Imagine heading to sleep away camp with a group of exceptional entrepreneurs to learn, play, and make a difference.

Basically, they’ve removed all the boring parts of going to a seminar and replaced them with summer camp awesomeness on a full 400 acres that we have all to ourselves. I don’t think I can quite do it justice, so watch the video here – www.GoCampMaverick.com.

My mentor, Frank McKinney, says he can always spot when an adult has let their inner little boy or little girl die. They just don’t have that same spark in their eyes. And that spark is lit by playing more by adding more play into your work and your life.

Think about what you loved to do when you were a kid and what your 11-year-old self would tell you.