I keep doing things I’m not supposed to do. Then they work. Then I do bigger things I’m not supposed to do.
High school dropout turned world-famous DJ. Got banned from the US, went bankrupt, then built a multi-million dollar tech company. Hypnotized 5000+ people on stage just to see if I could. Now I’m going after climate change because… why the hell not?
Here’s the thing: I document everything. Every experiment. Every failure. Every holy shit moment. Not to teach you – because I’ve learned something strange: When people witness me doing the impossible, they start doing impossible things too.
This website is my laboratory. These stories are my evidence. And the Frolic 100 are my witnesses – not just watching me, but having their own realities rewired by what becomes possible when someone goes first.
The question isn’t if you want to see what happens next. The question is: What will happen to YOU when you do?
There’s a handful of negative words that I’ve begun to reframe. Being Bored is one of them. In today’s world we do everything we can to avoid boredom. People can’t even drive their cars any longer without also engaging in dangerous distracted driving. Every day I get scared looking into my rear-view mirror and seeing the tell-tale sign of the person behind me looking down...
The doldrums is a sailor’s term for when they are at sea caught in calm, monotonous, windless weather. It’s a term that I’ve learned can also apply to times in your life, and certainly has in mine. The doldrums generally follow exciting times, times of tremendous growth and commitment to your goals. After having achieved some success, things begin to taper off. This is...
I’ve always been forced into action, usually for straight up survival reasons. If I didn’t make money, if I didn’t generate income, I’d be screwed. Often the things I did ran their course, and it was time for me to move on. There was no choice about it. For the first time in my life, I’m not in this position. I’m in a very comfortable place, yet I’m...
For the last few years that I’ve been exploring “What’s Next?” I’ve been very successful at learning what it isn’t. As I test, explore, research, and play with ideas I’ve built a very long laundry list of things I don’t want to do. This includes everything from the fact that I don’t want to go into work somewhere, it has to be done from my...
For so many people, whether or not they will voice this, when asked “What do you want?” the (secret) answer is: “More”. More money, more “stuff”, more house, more vacation, more whatever. The thing is, when you get “more”, the answer still remains “more”. I can remember 10 years ago figuring out my monthly budget. If I could generate...
There’s a scene in the 1993 Tom Cruise movie The Firm that I think about often. The lead character named Mitch, played by Tom Cruise, is having a meeting with an FBI agent at a dog race track. We see the Greyhound dogs whipping around the track chasing a mechanical bone. Mitch: Doesn`t the dog ever get the bone? FBI Agent: Yeah. When it happens they can never get that dog to run again. For...
Upon reflecting my story so far, and the distinct chapters I’ve lived, I begin to see a clear pattern. The things I’ve done all have had exciting periods of explosive growth. Of creation. Then things plateau, which is not terrible either. Often that’s the period of seeing some return on the sacrifice I made during the growth period. Eventually, however, the plateau turns into...
As the new year (and new decade) begins, I get very reflective. I’m coming off of what ended up being 2 years off. And by off, I mean off of traditional work. Just over 2 years ago the decision was made that I would step away from my responsibilities at Stealth Seminar, that a new team would come in to replace my work. I had reached the limits of my abilities, and it was time to change...
At the start of last year I came up with an experiment – every day I would take a moment in the morning to add to a list of gratitude. You can read my previous blog entries about this here and here. To recap; Every morning I would open a Word document where I had a numbered list. I’d then take a moment and add to it. At least 1 thing, but as many as I felt in that moment. I usually...
I recently attended a 4-day workshop in my home city of Toronto. I decided to full immerse myself into the experience by treating it sort of like a “staycation” by booking a hotel walking distance from the venue. This meant after each day I would not go home. I would not visit my family and switch to being a family man. I would stay immersed in my experience, allowing myself time for...
I’ve come to embrace the idea of living with paradoxes. Two completely competing thoughts or ideas or states of being, that both can be true even if they counter each other. The most recent example was with my son’s performance in high school. His grades leave something to be desired. I want to really push him to get those grades up, at the same time I acknowledge that the life...
This is a video capture from my book launch for my memoir, Requiem for My Rave. It’s available now through Amazon. More details click here.
I used to be ashamed of my lack of official education. I don’t have a single piece of paper with my name on it. I lost interest in high school and never even finished. Now, after all these years, I realize I’m a life-long learner. I found my own way to learn. Being part of a class curriculum isn’t part of that. Being an entrepreneur means I don’t have to prove myself to...
I had an interesting problem to solve this year. With my memoir Requiem for My Rave coming out, how do I promote it? I really value the peace in my life without using social media. I’ve written many times for this blog about it. If I’m going to practice what I preach, then I needed to come up with another way of promoting it. The other problem is that the community that the book is...
The Toronto Star did a feature on my past as a rave pioneer and my new memoir REQUIEM FOR MY RAVE. What is an interesting addendum to this story and relevant to my blog here is that a company then contacted me out of the blue and offered to mount it for me. I admire their “blue ocean” strategy of contacting people who appear in newspapers. This company is based in the US, so I assume...
I’ve spoken quite a bit about sleeping on the floor of my office for 2 years at the start of my DJ career, but it wasn’t all clear sailing from then on. One of the biggest struggles of life came AFTER my DJ career had ended. In the year 2000 I got myself banned from the United States for DJing without a work visa. Getting the right paperwork proved difficult, and eventually I just...
My memoirs of my rave years has just been released, titled Requiem For My Rave. A requiem is an act of remembrance. The second part of the title refers to “my” rave. This thing that I created and suffered in service for. I started writing the book at the conclusion of my rave company, Hullabaloo, in 2005. I finished the first draft in 2009. I then hit “save” and ten years...
When I have need of a contractor or subcontractor, I have learned the ultimate Litmus Test that cuts a good 90% from contention: Do they return phone calls in a timely, professional way? Simple as that. And if they fail that test, by not calling me back, they are cut from my list. Immediately. I will not chase someone to do business with them. If they can’t get back to me quickly now, how...
I’ve done a lot of stuff, and gone about them in my own unorthodox ways, and this certainly includes my education. I never had any college or university education, but now I look back at how much my education never stopped, no matter whether I was in school or not. In high school I lost interest being there. Not sure why exactly, but at some point I did the least possible to scrape by. I...
Facebook has been receiving a lot of bad press lately, and for good reason. Since the start I had seen Facebook as a tool for bad, and people now are starting to realize it isn’t some benign free service that someone created just for you. There’s a reason there’s a saying “If the product is free, you are the product”. I always resisted Facebook. In the beginning I...
There is always emergencies. You might as well plan for them. Going into debt or having a credit card handy “for emergencies” is not prudent planning. There are simple emergencies like car trouble or replacing your broken computer (that you need to work), and then there are the really big ones like job loss. I like the Dave Ramsey philosophy of first getting a $1000 emergency fund...
I’m always on the hunt for new experiences. Some people like to travel, I like to create and experience new things closer to home. My latest experience was a float tank. The isolation tanks that are filled with a high ratio of salt water that is warm and you float inside it, like laying in the void. Robin has brought it up for over 10 years now. There is definitely more float centres...
Every single business I’ve created was started with next to no money. There is a term called “bootstrapping” a business, which means starting or creating without external money or resources. To this day I’ve never taken money or had outside investment. We’re inundated with startup culture stories of raising money. I always scratch my head when I hear people or...
It’s really tough to not get caught in negative thinking traps. The overwhelming news, the shared outrage on social media, it can be a lot to overcome. I just read this enlightening article about the negative biases we live with every day. One piece of advice stood out to me: Regularly ask yourself, “How could I be wrong?” as a challenge question. It’s so easy to go the...
I’ve written before about how much I enjoy being unplugged and away from things. Here is another one. Most days, weather permitting, I go for a 5km walk. It takes about an hour. I have a route worked out through my neighborhood. I do it because it feels good to be outside, out in the fresh air, good to be moving. It’s exercise, but that isn’t exactly why I do it. It’s more...