Finding Passion and Purpose Regardless of Life Situation

Christopher Renfro found his passion and purpose in life three years ago in 2009 and has since turned it into a profitable passion in a big way in spite of suffering from a severe disability.   

Christopher creates art though what he calls light painting.

In a recent interview with The Weekly Flickr, Renfro said;

 “When I first found light painting in 2009 it just completely blew my mind. I have spent my entire life really not knowing who I am, what I am supposed to do, or why I am here and when I found light art photography I knew instantly who I was.”

“I have a mental illness called borderline personality disorder, and it has created a lot of challenges in my life. When I’m having a rough day I can just go off and create art. And just the act of creating something is very therapeutic to me.”

Watch Christopher's Weekly Flickr interview below.

Christopher posted his initial photos to Flickr and was quickly invited to join a community of fellow light enthusiasts. He says, “I wouldn’t be here and have gotten this far with them and their support.”

Take a look at Christopher Renfro’s stunning photos on his Flickr Photo Stream, here.

According to The Weekly Flickr, Renfro’s advice to others with disabilities is to never give up. “You don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring,” says Christopher.

Denis Diderot said, “Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things.” Passion is where the magic happens. Passion is the engine that drives purpose.

Christopher Renfro found himself when he discovered his passion for light painting and it gave his life purpose. He disability could have left him bitter, angry and lifeless. Instead, Christopher chose to live a life of passion and purpose.

It doesn’t matter, whether you suffer from a disability like Christopher Renfro, or are a teenager like Olivia Bee in yesterday’s post, it doesn’t matter what your past is, where you come from or what your educational background is, everybody has one of a kind passions and a specific purpose to fulfill in life. Find them and your life will be fulfilled and meaningful. You will truly discover who you are.

For more information on discovering your passions and purpose in life, including your profitable passion, see Don’t Seek Success – Be Happi.

Be Great!

MB

Veronika Scott Empowers Homeless Women in Motor City With Jobs Making Sleeping Bag Coats To Keep The Homeless Warm

There is a lot of talk these days about the decline of values in our youth and their self centered nature. From my vantage point I believe those theories are either overstated or just plain wrong. In March 2013 I posted an article about 6 year old Dylan Siegel who wrote a book to help his friend suffering from a rare illness. Our future is in good hands if the two new examples below are representative of today's youth and young adults and I believe they are.

Yesterday, as I entered an Albertsons grocery store in Boise, an 8 year old girl named Emily and her 6 year old brother were near the entrance selling cups of Kool Aid (Peach Mango and Strawberry) to raise money for a classmate with cancer. She explained to me that her friend was undergoing Chemo Therapy and had lost all her hair. Emily wanted to buy a wig for her friend so she would not be self conscious about her appearance. Emily and her Mother went to a wig shop and the owner told her that if she could raise $30, the wig shop owner would contribute the rest of the money for the wig. I am happy to report that as I left this young entrepreneur with heart and purpose, she had made almost $80 in just one day. That is a lot of Kool Aid at 50 cents per cup. Many people gave Emily up to $10 to support the cause.

Perhaps Emily will grow up to do something similar to 23 year old Veronika Scott, a remarkable young woman filled with passion and purpose. For Veronika's “Design Activism” class at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. Professor Stephen Schock charged his students to “Design to fill a need” that wold benefit the disadvantaged in their community. Students had to design a project that was doable.

Veronika Scott
Founder of The Empowerment Plan

Veronika decided to do something to help the homeless, a group that tugged at her heart and for which she was passionate about assisting in some way. One in every 42 people in Detroit are homeless, some 20,000 people. Scott's passion stems from her own family situation. She tells ABC News, “I was raised in a situation of poverty. It wasn't abstract as it is for most people. So knowing that can happen to my family means that can happen to anyone."

Veronika went to the Neighborhood Service Organization, a community development center in Detroit and started talking with the Homeless.

Scott tells the New York Times what she was able to glean from her research; “I noticed that there were people sleeping outside of shelters even when they could have been inside. There are many reasons why people are homeless, but I could see one thing all of them needed: warmth.”

Ultimately, Scott came up with the idea to design and produce a coat that would double as a sleeping bag. Now that is imagination!

According to a blog post for ABC News, “For five months, and even after her class ended, Scott worked with the homeless at the shelter Neighborhood Service Organization in Detroit to develop the first prototype of the coat.”

Sleeping Bag Coat
Photo by Brittany Thomasson

The result is a self-heated waterproof coat that transforms into a sleeping bag at night.

“I became known as the crazy coat lady,"Scott said.

Scott says her original concept was to offer comfort, warmth and pride to the homeless, but one homeless woman's words would not only alter the concept, but propel Veronika Scott in a direction should could never have anticipated.

"This Homeless woman told Veronika, “Your coats don't matter, jobs matter. We need jobs, not coats.”

"It was then about who I could employ." said Scott. At that point the coats became a creative and worthy by-product to aid the homeless, but her true mission became to give the homeless what they needed most, a job.

As for the coat/sleeping bag itself, Veronika probably did not even realize what she was on to. “The truth is Veronika’s garment has great international ramifications,” Imre Molnar, a dean at the College for Creative Studies tells the New York Times, “Her coat could be used by refugees or for disaster relief operations.“She came up with a great idea that is simple, but well researched. Because of her passion for the homeless, I can’t see her not succeeding.” It has been reported that the Red Cross in interested in the coats as well.

In December of 2011, Veronika Scott founded a non-profit organization called, “The Empowerment Plan.” The Empowerment Plan's mission is;

“We're a Detroit-based nonprofit organization dedicated to serving the homeless community. We hire homeless women from local shelters to become full time seamstresses. These women manufacture a coat that transforms into a sleeping bag, which is then given out to homeless individuals living on the streets at no cost to them.

We believe in giving second chances to those who want it, and providing warmth to those who need it.”

"At the end of the day, people gravitate to the coats because it's easy to understand, but the uniqueness in what we do is who we hire," Scott said. "That woman really changed the whole direction."  (Source: Crains Detroit Business.)

Scott encountered her share of people suffering from what I call Negavitis in Don't Seek Success – Be Happi. The Empowerment Plan website explains it this way;

Veronika Scott with one of her Employees
Photo by Fabrizio Costantini for The New York Times 

Veronika started the Empowerment Plan as a 20 year old product design student at The College for Creative Studies in Detroit. It started as a class project and became a non-profit organization when she graduated in December 2011. During the creation of the project, she was told over and over again that this organization would never succeed. Not because the person running it had no business experience but that the homeless women she hired would be almost worthless, that she would be lucky to have anyone show up, let alone make a coat. 



"Everyday I enjoy proving all of those people wrong. The homeless women I hire are powerful, driven, and I am privileged to be a part of their lives."

Veronika is quite proud of her first employee, Elisha, a homeless woman living with her children in a homeless shelter. Veronika and Elisha started making their coats in a room the size of a closet at a Detroit homeless shelter, where they did not even have enough room to layout the coats. Today, The Empowerment Plan has a staff of 14. As for Elisha, she learned new job skills, earned money and was able to move herself and her family out of the shelter and into their own apartment after just a few months. (Source; Forbes).

In 2012, The Empowerment Plan distributed more than 1,000 coats to people in need, and Scott said it plans to hand out 4,000 coats nationwide through other organizations.

Veronika tells Crains Detroit Business, "I never in my wildest imagination and dreams ever expected it to become like this," Scott said. The non-profit raised $25,000 last year with a goal of $700,00 this year. Contributors include companies like General Motors which also donates materials that allow the coats to self heat.

Veronika is not resting on her laurels. Next up is a For Profit company based on a one for one model. Scott explains her vision of the For Profit Company to the New York Times this way;

Veronika Scott models the Sleeping Bag Coat

“For revenue, I want to sell them online to individuals who can afford to buy them,” Ms. Scott said, explaining that anyone purchasing the coat will automatically be given a second one that can be sent to various shelters and charities anywhere in the world.”

Veronika Scott found her profitable passion and purpose through her desire to help the homeless. She came up with a very imaginative and creative idea to provide a practical garment which would provide comfort, warmth and pride to the homeless. But as one insightful homeless woman bluntly told her, pride and self worth come from jobs, that is what the homeless truly needed. Veronika could have ignored that advice and continued on with her coat/sleeping bag design, but Veronika listened and her mission evolved to not only produce a valuable asset for the homeless but to empower them with a job giving them a sense of purpose, a second chance and a way out.

When brainstorming and researching your profitable passion, keep your eyes and ears open, your original idea may very well evolve into something you did not initially imagine. In last week's post, Shelly Fisher was making costume beaded jewelry to aid various charities, but when somebody asked her to design a attractive custom designed medial alert bracelet, she listened and her passion evolved into something spectacular to help save lives.

To learn how you find your own profitable passion and purpose in life, see Don't Seek Success – Be Happi.

Be Great!

MB

Unusual Passion Leads to Great Purpose for Ocean Ramsey

Ocean Ramsey believes sharks need love too. The poor reputation and demonization of sharks is unfortunate and ill-founded according to Ms. Ramsey. The Hawaii based Scuba Instructor is passionate about improving the horrible image of sharks around the globe. To prove the point, Ocean, who could not have a more appropriate name, recently swam with a Great White Shark in a stunning promotional video for an HD camera company. 

In a post on the ocean conservation site Water Inspired, Ramsey says “A lot can be said between two creatures that don't speak the same language. Even without eye contact, hanging on to the dorsal fin allowed me to feel the sharks’ subtle unseen movements; feeling the way the water displaced as we glided together, and the gentle but strong swaying of the sharks’ caudal fin (tail) so careful not to kick me as I released my hold.” (Source; Huffington Post, Ocean Ramsey, Shark Diver, Swims With Great White Shark.)

Watch Ocean Ramsey swim with a Great White Shark Below;

In video interview for the Huffington Post, Ramsey who “free dives” with the sharks, and can hold her breath underwater for almost 6 minutes, says she is not so much nervous when swimming with sharks as she is excited to observe them. 

Ramsey, who has been swimming with sharks since she was only 14 years old, notes in the video that shark bites are so rare in comparison to other tragic events and that most of us have probably been around sharks in the ocean and just didn't realize it. “That's a testament to the animal that you haven't been attacked,”

For Ocean, swimming with sharks is far more than just an unusual pastime or as a vehicle to improve their reputation of the sea creatures she loves. Her purpose is to educate us on shark conservation. She notes, that with films like "Jaws" and television shows like “Shark Week,” these amazing creatures of the deep blue sea get a bad rap. Many species of shark are endangered or close to it, and she says, “…people don’t want to protect things they are afraid of.”

Ocean Ramsey has found purpose through her passion and love of sharks, proving passion and purpose can be found anywhere, even underwater. Indeed, Ramsey has turned her passion into a “profitable passion” too. She is a stunt woman and stunt double for underwater scenes in film and television.

For more on Passion, Purpose and finding your “profitable passion,” see Don’t Seek Success – Be Happi.”

Be Great!

MB