Planning Her Passion, the Old Way
/"Follow your passion," is probably the worst piece of advice you can give to a young person just starting out, because following your passion may also mean giving up some of the other things you expect out of life.
But for a few people, that advice works out, and it is their success that gives hope to the bright-eyed young people coming out of high school or college.
This Christmas season will be busy for Angelia Trinidad. After raising more than $650,000, she closed out her second Kickstarter campaign a few weeks ago. That sum is a whopping 6,584 percent of her modest $10,000 goal. This isn’t chump change.
Angelia Trinidad (Photo from colorlines.com, courtesy of Angelia Trinidad)
According to Kickstarter’s statistics, only 1,619 successfully funded projects have raised more than $100,000 -- less than two percent of all projects.
The 24-year-old Filipina-American just might be able to (finally) move out of her parents’ San Diego home where she has taken over the garage for her warehouse/office.
So what is Trinidad’s big idea that attracted 23,000 backers? An old-school paper planner.
The Passion Planner (Source: www.passionplanner.com)
She finds that taking the time to write things down helps her to focus. Back to the future? Find out more about Angelia's great idea.
Angelia at her "office" (her garage) (Source: passionplanner.com)
To look at her in her Southern California casual style, including a backwards baseball cap, sandals and jeans, you wouldn't think she is a highly thought of CEO. However, she's garnered the attention of the local business scene and has been invited to do motivational and business workshops; she even gave a TED talk at UC Irvine.
Through it all, Angelia has managed to keep her head and priorities straight to focus on what's really important to her. Her "Planner" must be working for her.
“I think my version of the American Dream is just having enough and having lots of people that I feel close to,” he told a reporter.
“I value friendships and my family way more than money. I remind myself over and over again what my values are and what I want out of my life. What the Passion Planner does is helps you find out what matters, on paper.”
Ed Diokno
Ed Diokno is a former journalist writing a blog, “Views From The Edge” at dioknoed.blogspot.com.
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