The initiators
BY NICK CHURCHOUSEThere are different styles of people in your life. The ones who are the doers, the ones who are the groovers, the ones who moan about everything, the ones who are the analysers. And so on.
On Saturday morning I was invited down to Oriental Bay by Tim, one of the most hyperactive people I know. He's into everything.
Saturday morning he was into building a huge sand sculpture of a silver fern on the beach.
And so, as I should have guessed, I ended up on the heavy end of a wheelbarrow and a spade. But despite that being the last thing I felt like doing, having not had any breakfast, it actually turned out to be quite fun. Hard work (and I was wearing jeans) but still quite a buzz.
Some kids popped down with their mum; we got a few passersby helping lifting buckets; four women in chicken outfits turned up for half an hour. It was a real group effort. And so I got thinking about how Tim and a couple of his associates had pulled this together.
The dude is one of life's initiators. He gets an idea and just does it. Or at least tries it. You have to take your hat off to him.
Admittedly it is quite tiring talking to the guy because of his hoppity-hop bustling energy. I have a feeling while some people pop their contact lenses in before brushing their teeth in the morning, Tim has a jar of ants he empties into his trousers.
Having created his own company and driving a number of initiatives, including madefromnewzealand.com which is where the fern idea came from, Tim is a busy guy.
Surely there are countless others who feed energy and ability into his projects, and to be fair I have no idea how successful some of them are, but he's certainly got seventy hundred balls in the air at any given time.
I know a few others like Tim, those who start things up and plug energy into them.
The illustrious collective heads of the Real Hot Bitches and founders of gutter punk band Le Coq Noir, my older sister and brother-in-law, my little sister Amy too, the chief decorator of New Zealand's iPhones Jeff McEwan and handful of others in my wider group of circles.
They are the drivers of change, the initiators of ideas and they all inspire me with their motivations and more often than not their executions.
I've always put myself in the more conservative basket; I love a good idea, and have many but am often a bit too practical and careful to get wonderful new things going. I wish I was a bit better at it.
I have countless friends who are the same, some sedate and wrapped up in the status quo, others who dream but never do anything about it, and those that consciously disconstruct creative initiatives from the outset.
They all have their place and I'm grateful for them all, but the energy in life, the vibrancy and the fire in the belly of Welly is often directly due to the first group. The initiators.
They take the risk, throw themselves bodily into it and drag you along with them wrapped up in their energy and positivity.
I love them. The rest of us keep the world turning while they do it, but they get out there and kick the axis a touch, and we all lurch into a new spin, turning all the same but in a different and more enlightened way
Do you have a few fellows like this in your world? Who are they, what do they do? Feel free to have a little salute to them here. Or equally, if you are one of the illustrious amongst us, what's the latest great idea? Post a link.
- © Fairfax NZ News
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These people rock. The ones who don't know that you can't fly. They are fun to be around, but I know from standing too close to some of them that the line between genius and insanity is often crossed with tragic results.
Cool thing to do on a beach in Wellington though. Did he have to apply for Resource Consent and a permit under the foreshore and seabed or something?
Sadly no - but these people sound great!
And that fern looks awesome. You're lucky to be a part of something so cool.
People like that frustrate me. thats not to say that they are bad people, but you should be able to sit still for 5 minutes. My flatmate is similar and it drives me insane. hes always on the go doing whatever, he likes to talk and cant have a silent moment (even if hes watching tv!). me, im quite happy to sit on the couch in the evening and read my book for an hour, but for him that silence is too much, he must fill it. thats not to say that i dont blabber on a lot but there has to be a happy medium. He also likes to involve everyone in what hes doing, even if they dont want to. i think he thinks hes being polite and making sure everyone is involved, but if someone says no, then that should be the end of it. the next 10 minutes shouldnt be filled with 'come on, just do it, it'll be fun'.
thats me done
Yep, that person that books all the tickets for the game, plans a decent new years option, runs their own web venture and makes any boring task just that little bit more enjoyable. It's surprisingly hard to find people with that type of can-do.
LOL @ Athene, yeah everyone knows that type... the 'person i don't get along with' type.
wished we hadv been around on sat morning. fully would have ooohed and aaahed with the rest. the pic is fantastic. now i wana go out and do something similarly funky and original...
but me, i am the dreamer. i have my head in the clouds, making up imaginary pretties, and i am happy there. granted some of my ideas take fruition, like the time i roped my boyf and a friend to draw a big chalk mural down by the beach with me. we had this little boy join in as he and his parents were walking by. was LOTS of fun! but thats the exception rather than the rule. i prefer to sit at my computer, chin in my hands, dreaming of all the wonderful things i could be doing if i wasnt at work...
my other half is my professor potts. i have complete faith in him that he can make ANYTHING happen :) including making me fly one day !
Nick you were a machine with the wheel barrow! I knew when I saw you turn up pretty well kitted out, you were in for a quick burst, and fair enough, but you ended up being one of the biggest workhorses of the day...
One of those days that required every little bit of help to make it happen... and get it finished and captured on film on a chopper and onto one news before the rain set in... : )
You're right, it can be tiring to talk to me sometimes, I start to notice this happening... as people often feel like something big has to happen, or something significant has to be said... as I do spend a lot of time making stuff happen, and I'm in a zone that will let me blow through and ignore barriers, forget we can't fly... but I start everyday, in complete silence... perfectly quiet... I stretch, breathe and gently rise in peace... and this is with me all day... I just see many things in the world that need to change and evolve, and am just learning more everyday how to do it, so the edges are sometimes a bit rough ; )
Special day Nick, and thanks heaps for the positive vibes... many more good stuff to happen in this beautiful community..
Tim.
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.....my word, Nick - looking BUFF on the beach....!!