One Red Paperclip

I was talking to one of my good friends the other night and we got on the topic of this guy, Kyle MacDonald, who began a series of online trades with a little red paperclip. After a year of trading, Kyle ended up with a house in Canada. Now, this is pretty amazing. This guy woke up one day, decided to trade a freaking paperclip, and winded up with a house in 12 months time. It doesn't seem very likely that one could turn a paperclip into a house, but apparently it is.

This story does something extraordinary; it's equivalent to telling someone how to turn a penny into a silver dollar. It touches upon the incredibly process of turning a small, underestimated object into a huge, treasured possession. Something about this story gets at the heart of what I think all human beings strive to do: grow and develop in value over time.

Now, this same friend always listens to me while I ruminate about what I'm supposed to do with the rest of my life (rumination is pointless in most respects, I am aware). But as I put two and two together- my slight trepidation about the near future and this red paperclip story- I realize that we all start off as red paperclips. Everyday is a chance to trade our old selves in for something bigger and better. Sometimes, we don't make the best trades, but we learn from them and wind up doing better in the future.

I love this story because it shows that through it all, you have to keep trading. If you stop looking for something more in yourself and in the world around you, nothing would ever progress. But a big part of trading is patience- if we don't have it, then it becomes easier to make poor choices and ultimately wind up with something we never wanted to begin with.

So what's the takeaway? In my opinion, it is that no matter how little you seem to have or how far you may be from your dream, you have to start somewhere. And after you decide when and how to surrender who you are for who you could be, you have to worry about 100 other things- what you ultimately want in the end, what your next step should be, how to manage all of the hype you generate because of the decisions you make. But the decisions never stop, so we'd better enjoy the ride starting now!

In a lot of ways, we are all that red paperclip, hoping for more. But I think the best thing about that tiny object was that it never tried to be more than it was. Kyle didn't try to sell it as a magic clip or a gold-plated office product. When that trade began, the little red clip was practically screaming, "Here I am. What you see is what you get, so take it or leave it." And people took it. This is a lesson for all of us- that being exactly who you are right now is what makes you valuable.

And if you aren't afraid of being yourself right now, but are still open to a little trading....who knows. You might wake up in a brand new house tomorrow.




Love Life,

Melissa