Issue link: https://bluemagazine.uberflip.com/i/25044
Without delving into the love half of it, it's obvious that WORK is pretty significant. What we "do" and why we do it are perhaps the most important concerns of our lives. Unfortunately all too many of us struggle even to find what to do. Society offers a panora ma of professions we could have, titles we can hide behind and even uniforms we can use to obscure what little individuality we've managed to maintain in our world of homogenized media culture. Part of the problem stems from the question itself. Instead of wondering "What job can I get?" we might more importantly ask ourselves, "What am I going to do every day? How can I merge my interests with my skills and spend productive days with people I respect, whose company I enjoy?" Schools train people to take tests and memorize facts but seldom introduce students to the real challenge of life itself. Early on, Cliff Notes taught us that knowing the answers was more important than reading the book. The emphasis became the destination, not the jour ney. First mistake. How many college graduates face the world totally unfamiliar with the job market? How many know the title they seek but have no idea what the day-to-day char acter of their life will become? Before starting Blue I had lots of jobs, many of them interesting, however frightfully low paid. I taught English in Spain, waitressed in NYC, sold advertising in Hong Kong and inter viewed artists from Hanoi to Beijing to Kuala Lumpur. At 28, I faced the fact that the" more· interesting my jobs became, the further below the poverty level my subsistence fell. Dire need can be a good motivator and in my case it contributed to my drive to start Blue. One thing was for sure-if I was going to work harder than I had ever worked before, the work itself had to fulfill one major requirement: I wanted to fill my days with the subjects I loved most. So I took my favorite subject, exploring the world adventurously, and Blue emerged from that interest. Today, Blue extends beyond my personal vision and includes the work and dreams of the dedicated Blue staff, the creativity of David Carson & Christa Skinner, and many others who work with us. At Blue we have attracted people who share values and interests revolving around global travel, environmental consciousness and action sports. We have created a work environment which, while never compromising on productivity, creativity and even a driven perfection ism, is characterized by something of the ideal and hopefully a little bit of utopia. All over the country, young Americans are creatively redefining the workplace: what it looks like and what we wear, what we do and. why we're there. I hope you're happy doing what you do and if you're not, I strongly recommend trying something different. As David Carson is well-known for suggesting, ask yourself if you would do your job if money weren't an issue. If it's still fun on that basis, then you've got a good job. If not, challenge the boundaries of your imagination and see what you find. amy schrier founder