Every day, people just like you take charge of their destiny by committing to their dreams and being bold in the pursuit. At revolution.is, we share stories of remarkable people living unconventional lives. Each week for eight weeks, we’ll share one of those stories here, in hopes of inspiring you to begin your revolution. Enjoy!
Amber Rae
“Be A Little Nuts”
by revolution.is contributors, Bassam Tarazi
“What about a film festival for people with travel films?”
With that one sentence, the Nomading Film Festival was born. We knew nothing about events, judges, what spaces would cost, how we would make money, who would come, or anything else for that matter. All we had was an unwavering belief that everyone was a filmmaker, all of us have a story worth sharing, and we wanted to unite all travelers through film.
Had we planned it all out and realized how many hundreds of emails, phone calls, coffees, and no-thank-you’s we’d have to go through, or the liquor license, the State of New York, film festival insurance fine print, and the “oh-dear-God what if it rains” headaches and sleepless nights, we would have never done it.
Sometimes in life you have to be a little nuts. But you know what, as our naïve selves dove into it, we gained confidence every step of the way. Every small victory was a great victory.
By the time we came to the big hurdles, we had the wild card of life firmly clasped in our hands: determination and confidence.
And if there is one person in life you simply can’t get in the way of, it’s someone with the mindset of a bull running the streets of Pamplona. And we were running into the arena.
That’s really it in the end. Determination. Sure–smarts, know-how, and luck come into play but nothing can substitute for the relentless manner with which determination erodes away at doubt’s fortification.
So here’s a piece of advice: never ever let anyone take away your determination.
Your belief in what you’re doing is your force field, your get-out-of-jail-free card, and your best friend all rolled into one.
In the end we’ll all be dead and none of this will matter, so do something you believe in while you still can. It’s the only thing worth doing.
Bassam Tarazi is a teacher, businessman, and sustainability consultant who believes in being accountable and living an interesting life. In addition to co-founding Nomading Film Festival, he also launched his own motivational framework, Colipera.
Colipera leverages the idea that peers publicly stating their goals to each other is more likely to inspire action among the whole group than tackling a goal individually. Bassam has been to 43 countries, holds a Mechanical Engineering Degree, and a Green MBA. He is also a LEED AP and a certified Carbon Reduction. Currently he lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Amber Rae is a passion catalyst, authority challenger, and motivational muse. In the last 365 days, Amber worked with Seth Godin to launch The Domino Project, helped Derek Sivers turn his book into a best-seller, created revolution.is which shares stories of remarkable people living unconventional lives, and launched a “Passion Experiment” program where she helps people give their dreams direction. She’s been seen in The New York Times, Inc., Forbes, BBC, and on ABC World News. For more about Amber you can visit her website orTwitter.
