David Erasmus

I am currently lucky enough to be road tripping around the USA in a school bus we bought off eBay with a bunch of my closest brothers. Experiencing the Good bad and Ugly the USA has to offer.

Currently I am in Muscle Beach, LA showing off my muscles…..Obviously not true,  I am just sitting in a coffee shop taking advantage of the glory that is bottomless coffee.

A couple days ago I sat outside our 173rd Fast Food restaurant with a Hitchhiker named Shaun that we picked up in Texas. We began to contemplate the world together and found  the conversation moved to a topic that I have noticed myself taking about with Americans on an almost daily basis…..Intimacy.

My experience is that the USA  are EXPERTS in entertainment and will keep you busy, eating, watching and spending until the cows come home!

It is my conviction though that the only thing that truly satisfies us is Intimacy.

To know and be known.

I believe the cost of entertainment as an overriding culture is that it is passive and does not require vulnerability. Without vulnerability I don’t believe we can gain true intimacy and without intimacy we have nothing.

Ironically though amidst the thick cloud of diversion and amusement in the American Culture probably the two most obvious influences on my position on this stuff are Americans, Brene Brown and Tony Campolo.

Brene above unpacks in a hilarious way the inconvenient truth that being vulnerable to pain needs to be at the centre of our life pursuits.

Tony Campolo has massively helped me put language to what I think is important in life direction through two simple words I listened to on his podcast “Across the Pond” ……..Intimacy and Action.

I decided 10 years a go to try my best to follow Jesus, I am not great at this and fail regularly.

Thankfully it is in his nature to forgive or else our relationship would be, well…buggered!

I believe Jesus calls us simply to live intimately in relationship with him, letting him into our shit and shine  and sharing intimately in love with those we live life with.

The second word Action I believe should comes from that place of Intimacy.

Intimacy without Action is indulgent as without it we are just a bunch of wet hippies chatting a bunch of hot air.

Much of the work I will do in my life will probably in hindsight be completely pointless however I believe if the action I take comes from a place of intimacy and is genuinely intended to create loving relationships and intimacy even if it flops hard then I think it will be enough.

Thoughts welcome this idea is still in progress……..

People always say to me “How come you get people to work free for you for 6 months?”

This obviously isn’t true but I have been fortunate enough to receive a lot of good will from those I meet and I have often thought about why this is….

I don’t promise the world in terms of financial reward or promotion but I do spend a lot of time getting those around me to understand the vision, the journey so far and help them see why their help would be valuable.

This AMAZING Video from RSA is the first thing I have seen that backs up what I have been seeing in practise.

If you don’t have time to watch it, it says, for people who have mentally challenging jobs bigger financial rewards DO NOT act as an incentive but rather, Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose are the reasons people get out of bed and work hard.

Dan Pink argues that Pay is a hygiene factor, that we need enough not to think about it but the above are real drivers.

I guess you would need to ask my guys and girls whether I have succeeded on this or not……

Once you or one of your creations is released into the public domain you become very quickly aware how small of a pawn you are and how big the chessboard is.

We have been very fortunate that the press have taken kindly to us and GIVEY over the last couple of weeks.

With articles in Mashable, GoMo,The Independent on Sunday, Third Sector and Mobile Marketing all very positive we have been beaming from ear to ear.

But Interestingly right after our Mashable article we got our first small dig in the ribs from a guy called Simon Painter.

The interesting thing is that what he says is not wholly untrue so I can’t write him off as a ‘hater.’

It is obviously one sided and I have retorts however good or bad to answer his points which I won’t bore you with.

It  is simply interesting to note that this is our first public stoning and I doubt very much it will be the last.

In fact I would be gutted if it was as it would probably mean we were not doing anything interesting.

I guess the press and bloggers are always writing for impact and so are rarely incentivised to be encouraging or provide a balanced view.

In all our press so far we have benefited from VERY positive write ups so would be unreasonable to expect something different from the prosecution

I guess it is important that the team and I hear the weaknesses they may present but don’t let the negative aspect affect our progress.

In that respect I guess the same is true with good press; don’t buy into the hype and pedestal but be sensitive to the aspects of our story that the people are buying into to better focus our attention.

Note to self:  In summary; Welcome criticism and praise in equal measure but pan through the dirt for the specs of gold and leave the rest in the dust as we motor forwards!

(I Googled : ‘odd couple’ and got this. It is not relevant but brought me joy)

Some of my friends in Roehampton run an amazing charity called Regenerate working with kids in Gangs and street culture.

I have been privileged enough to join them in trips away to Kenya and Zambia, giving these young guys a chance to get out of their context and do some great work in schools and orphanages. It is a completely life changing experience.

The volunteers that help regenerate do their work are fantastic at mentoring these young people and have built amazing relationships.

I remember looking once though and thinking “why on earth does this cool gang kid bother talking to this white haired, out of touch, boring old person.” (I just thought it I didn’t say it )

It bothered me for a while but then I realised….It is simple, this is one of the only people in his life that have continually bothered to turn up despite how he acts towards them.

When I realised this I felt empowered as the Volunteer in question was not accepted on any grounds other than continuing to communicate with his mere presence. ANYONE can do the same.

In a busy Mobile world full of Facebook events, invasive notifications and constant better offers, just turning up speaks louder than anything else.

Our time and presence is the one commodity we cannot fake, replicate, digitise or blag.

No matter what your Love Language of preference is, I think that as the world gets busier and busier quality time is harder to find and therefore increasing in everyone’s priority list.

Excuses, SMS, FB Messages and emails are cheap.

Turning up is expensive and VALUABLE

I love this presentation.

What Ben is saying here is going to mess with my head all night.

I think we all agree that the change is to Mobile and Cloud.

The question for me is what is the RESULT of the change of the Mobile and Cloud world.

horowitz