So this is Week 1.
for the next year.
I'm working here
at Whistler Bungee
as a bungee jump operator
this week.
I have no idea where this
project is going to take me
and who I'm going to meet
and what jobs I'm going to do
over the year,
but there comes a point where
you just gotta take the leap.
Four, three, two, one.
Bungee!
Look around
What a mess
Anybody's guess
But here goes somethin'
Yeah, here goes somethin'
Yeah, here goes
somethin'
When I graduated from college,
I wasn't confident at all
in terms of what career
I wanted.
I had no idea, really.
I don't think
there's anything
that really stood out
in my mind
as to
what I really wanted to do.
I looked at school...
as if something I had to do.
I didn't really know
why I was doing it,
it's just that
this is what you do.
Most of the time when you see
grown-ups, they're working.
You will grow up someday.
What do you want to be
when you grow up?
Here I was graduating,
highest GP of my class,
valedictorian,
and all these people had these
high expectations of me
and saw this potential in me,
but I had no idea
where to put that potential.
Right now, I think
a lot of people
are coming out of school
with no clue
whether the degree
they just took
really applies
to their interests
and really
what can they do with it.
The problem is
people get in careers
and they wind up in their 40s
working 50 weeks out of the year
for a 2-week vacation
in a job they don't like,
but they're afraid.
I think he was afraid
that maybe he'd make
the wrong choices
or that he would end up
settling into a career
that he didn't like.
I became really depressed
and down about it,
and everything
just felt so routine
and as if I was going
through the motions.
That's when I thought back
to my final year of college.
We were sitting around
the dining room table
with my family,
and each one of them
had a different idea
of the career path
I should choose,
except my dad,
and he said "It doesn't matter
what you do,
just make sure it's something
you're passionate about.
I've been alive
nearly 60 years
and I've yet to find something
that I'm passionate about
besides your mother,"
and that was something
that really stuck with me.
Pursuing a career
and earning a living
takes up a lot of your time.
If you can be happy doing that,
you know, it speaks for itself.
We are told so much growing up,
"Find your passion,
and that is the secret."
Find something that you're
passionate about.
Follow your passion.
Passion. Your passion.
Passion. Passion.
If you can,
go with your passion.
And once you do that,
everything will fall into place,
the money will come,
the happiness will come.
But how do you go about
finding your passion?
Get active and be proactive
about doing something.
If you don't know what to do,
well, don't, you know,
just sit around
and wonder what to do.
Do something.
I started looking
through classifieds
and job descriptions,
and I realized I had no idea
what the job
would actually be like,
so I thought,
well, what if I could try out
these different jobs?
Here's my idea:
I'd work 52 jobs in 52 weeks
to find my passion.
Along the way, I'd learn
about the different jobs
and ask my employers
how they found their passion.
Every day I went to the library
to prepare content
for the website...
things like why I was doing it,
how to offer me a job,
and then
all my background information.
I asked my employers
to donate all my wages
to a charity aimed
at eliminating child poverty.
I had a few hundred dollars
that could get me started,
but I knew if I wanted
to continue for the whole year,
I'd have to find a sponsor.
It's a crazy idea.
It was an idea that was
just not possible in my mind.
For sure I had doubts, you know,
things like,
well, who's going to hire me
knowing I'm only there
for the week?
How am I going to travel
from place to place?
But I knew I had to just
keep taking steps forward
and refuse to acknowledge
that little voice
inside your head
that casts doubt.
Two things are going to happen
with this project.
It's either going to drop
like a lead balloon
or take off and fly.
This is it, week 1.
I'm working here
at Whistler Bungee
as a bungee jump operator
this week.
Lucky for me my soccer coach
is an owner of the company,
and so he thought
he'd give me a try.
I have no idea what awaits me
and where this project
is going to take me,
but I gotta take the leap.
All righty, here we go.
Here I am, up Mount Seymour,
really enjoying this job
right now.
I'm working as a snowshoe guide
assistant.
All right, who wants
some hot chocolate?
On your mark, get set, go!
Right beside,
right beside you there.
Sean is amazing!
Two thumbs up!
So here I am, Week 5,
I'm working as a columnist
with the paper.
Today's day three, and I'm...
I'm going to show
that employee entrance
who's boss,
so here we go.
So here's where I work.
There's my desk,
there's the boss over there...
pretty nice guy.
Well, back to work I go.
Here I am with Olivia.
We are on our way to Edmonton.
So for the first 5 weeks,
my jobs
were in the Vancouver area
so I could stay
at my parents' place,
and then Week 5 I got a sponsor,
nicejob.ca,
and they gave me 1000 dollars
each month
to put towards travel expenses.
I looked on Craigslist
to find a ride share
with somebody that was heading
in my direction.
Just got a phone call,
Sean has a place to stay
in Edmonton.
Way to go, boy.
Here I am, downtown Edmonton,
working at Best Buds
flower company.
These are my co-workers.
Hi!
So I'll show you some things
that I created today...
pretty nice, eh?
Also, we have this down here,
and look at that...
they are actually selling it!
So here we are, day 1 of Week 7,
I'm working at a yoga studio
here at Lotus Soul Gym,
so here I go.
I was just instantly captivated
by the whole concept.
One of the reasons why
that resonates so much with me
is because I'm 59 years old,
and I'm still trying
to experience life,
there's all these things
that I want to do.
When I teach yoga, I feel like
I'm 100 % authentic.
I never teach a yoga class
and say,
"God, I'm glad
that class is over."
I think, all to often,
we accept whatever we land,
whether that's through choice
or by default somehow,
in a career, and then we say,
"Okay, well, I guess
this is what I'm doing,"
and then we're taking away
the power to choose.
I don't think he's sure
or understands
what the potential is
or where this is going to go,
but I think he's willing
to take the ball
and run with it.
Moo!
Here I am, Week 8,
working on a dairy farm
in Rimby, Alberta.
Right now
I'm on a pile of manure.
It's all part of the job.
So here I am, Week 9, working
at Lake Louise resort.
This week I'm working
with Hespeler Animal Hospital.
This week I'm working
with Hespeler Animal Hospital.
I'll be a veterinarian
assistant.
Hi, I'm Tracy, nice to meet you.
I imagine that
takes some training,
so lets hope
some supervision is involved.
I became a veterinary technician
because I love
working with animals
and helping animals
that are sick and hurt,
and it makes me feel better
at the end of the day
when I've done something
to make a difference.
So this is Winston.
We are going to put a catheter
in him and take some blood.
He's a little yappy
this morning,
so hopefully
he's calmed down now,
but I doubt it.
Oh, Winston, Winston, Winston!
Winston
was a little rambunctious.
He's a little dog,
but he's a feisty little guy.
He's a trooper.
Those are kidneys.
Really interesting.
I got to assist
with a couple of surgeries,
take down, record notes
and document,
monitor the levels,
so the pulse, the heart rate.
It was a lot of information
to digest.
Hopefully over the next few days
I'll be able to kinda
figure everything out.
I worked in a bank for years,
and they pushed the sales,
and I decided I can't do sales.
You know, you want
to get to school,
get through and get out,
and then get a job,
and you think
it's going to be all great,
and then you realize
that it's not really
what it's cut out to be.
You work for a long time
before you retire, right,
so you may as well be happy
doing what you're doing.
It's been really rewarding
this week,
working with the animals,
you know,
you kind of develop
a sense of relationship
with them.
You know, each animal
has their distinct personality,
and you want to see them do
well.
She's going to be okay.
Call me Dr. Dolittle.
So I just got dropped off
on the side of the road
by the Greyhound bus.
I managed to survive
during the project
by keeping costs down
as much as possible.
Bus driver said to go this way
so I'm heading south.
I'd hitchhike, take the bus,
and stay at people's houses.
Oh, here comes a car.
Going to hitchhike.
They almost hit me,
actually...
not too impressed.
I think living
as cheap as possible
really added to the experience
because most often
I was staying
at employers' houses
and not at a hotel,
so I was able to learn
about the job
but then also
what the whole lifestyle
of that profession was like.
Here I am, first day on the job
just heading to work
working for a recruiting
company.
They recruit positions
for corporate executives,
so I have to look nice,
so I got my suit,
dug it out of my backpack.
Wish me luck.
I don't know,
I definitely cannot
see myself doing an office job
anytime in the near future.
It's a little mundane.
Just dropping off these towels.
First day on the job
working at McGee's
bed and breakfast...
life of an innkeeper.
And, you know, a lot of people
say to me,
"Oh, my god, well,
I don't know what I want!
If I just knew what I want, god,
that would be everything!"
Then here's what you do.
Find out
what you don't want.
Here we are
collecting cat tails
and cutting them up,
and then taking into town
and then maybe selling them
to restaurants.
The easiest way
to get a date
or to attract
the person of your dreams
is "Okay,
who's the date from hell?"
It's funny 'cause I was saying
that I don't think
I could see myself in an office
but I don't know if
I could see myself in the forest
day after day either.
What's the job that you would
absolutely despise and hate?
And write all that down.
"Don't want to do this!"
See, people are really
associated
to what they don't want.
Write all that down,
and the opposite of that
is the job of your dreams.
And the opposite of that
is the job of your dreams.
In week 11 I went to a town
in Quebec
called Trois-Pistoles.
The year before I attended
a French language program there,
and stayed with a host family,
and the host father,
he owns the windows and doors
company in town,
so he called me up and said,
"Hey, Sean,
why don't you come and do
one of your 1 -week jobs here?"
Trois-Pistoles
is a really small town.
It's kind of like
you're in a bubble
in that
it's a simple way of being,
so I was in Trois-Pistoles
working,
and there was this girl
named Danna
who I kept seeing
around town.
Sean obviously stands out
a little bit because...
the blond dreads and he's tall
and personable.
I'd see her everywhere,
but we never really had
a meaningful conversation.
He caught my eye in Quebec City.
I was just hanging out
with my friends
and I had this really nice
silk scarf on,
and it got caught in my jacket,
and so my friends and I
start prying at it.
Karlin's trying
and Matt's trying
and everybody's trying
and then all of a sudden...
I kinda rushed on over there
to play the hero role
and try and get the scarf
out of her zipper.
And... you know,
I guess it's sort of a knight
in shining armour type feel.
We watched the sun rise together
that night.
And here she was spouting out
all these ideas
and life philosophies
that I thought
were unique to me,
so I couldn't really contribute
anything meaningful
to that conversation.
I wasn't quite sure
if he was listening to me
and, like, actually agreeing
with me
or if I was just
talking to myself,
but either way,
it didn't matter at that point.
It was a surprisingly
good conversation.
We started hanging out
more and more,
and she got to know me better,
and I guess we fell in love.
You know, after a little bit,
I found out about the project
that he was doing and that,
and so I realized that there...
It would have been impossible
to continue some sort of future
with this.
We were both not looking
for someone
in our lives at that time,
you know, here I was,
doing a different job each week,
and I didn't have time
to fall in love.
It was obvious
that I very likely
could never see Sean again.
The final morning when it came
time to say goodbye,
I couldn't speak.
I knew that if were to try
and say something,
I would start crying.
I guess it was at that moment
that I knew
this girl was trouble.
I can't think of a time
when a relationship
actually derailed
anything he wanted to do.
It is possible
as long as you make, I think,
a right amount of sacrifice
and knowing
when to make that sacrifice.
I remember thinking about my dad
and when he first came
to Canada.
My mom was pregnant
with my older sister,
and they had five thousand
dollars to their name.
We were facing a number
of challenges,
particularly getting a job.
Yes, it was exciting,
but it was
very, very frightening.
Growing up
in the middle class society,
you tended to look
more to the professions.
It was almost by default,
I think,
that I became an accountant.
Here he was
in this new country
with a young family.
He needed to get a job
so he could get a paycheck
and put food on the table.
He wasn't able
to make job satisfaction
a top priority.
You find that you are
going down a road,
you get married,
and then you have children.
Looking after the family
is a full-time job,
and before you know it,
you reach retirement.
I really admire
that my dad put us
before himself,
and it's something
I'm really grateful for.
Waking up this morning,
I was just thinking...
oh, like, another morning,
come on, Sean,
get going, get engaged,
and... uh, it can be
quite tiring,
because day after day
having to get your game on...
routines can be nice too.
With me this afternoon,
you will be hearing a lot
from him this week,
is Sean Aiken.
He's the man who's doing
one week jobs
for the entire year.
Sean, thus far, how was
your week been at Dave?
I know it's early,
it's only Tuesday, but so far...
It is, it is early in the week,
but so far it's been awesome!
When I was a little kid,
I didn't like
being alone in the dark,
so my dad got me
this little clock radio,
and the idea of somebody
being there
and entertaining you
just struck me from the time
I was about five years old,
so I knew I always wanted
to do this.
Since you are trying to find out
what you want to do
with your life,
what's really at the top so far?
Is it yoga instructor?
Radio DJ.
Radio DJ. He's good.
The whole key is to make it
as conversational as possible.
You're talking to one person,
that's it
when you're doing your thing.
Dave weather brought to you
by Staples Business Depot...
I think that the most important
message for you
is to make contacts,
call people up,
go out for coffee,
go out for lunch...
that's how you get a job,
not so much
putting in the resume.
You got a million people
throwing in a resume someplace,
but what you have to do
is create a personal
relationship with somebody,
and that's going to get you
where you want to go.
Currently 16 degrees,
tomorrow we have clouds.
So I just finished my first
little, uh, stint on the radio
with Dave FM.
I think it went pretty well.
Talked about the job
and everything,
and it makes me wonder what
I'm going to be talking about
for the rest of the week.
I don't know how
these Radio DJs do it.
It seems like they always
have something to talk about,
some news going on,
and there's never dead air.
...with a chance of showers,
and it's going to be 27.
Nice work, nice work!
All right! Okay! Yeah! Whoo!
After Trois-Pistoles,
I went home to Toronto,
and I didn't really know
what was going to happen
with Sean and I.
We both experienced
some pretty intense emotions
in Trois-Pistoles,
and then the first weekend
that I was home,
I got a phone call from Sean,
and he told me
he was going to come
and visit me that weekend.
He hitchhiked to Toronto,
and I was even more
smitten with him.
No guy has ever hitchhiked
halfway across the country
for me before,
and that's pretty awesome.
So, since Trois-Pistoles,
me and Danna have decided
to try and make it work...
Um, I'm just not sure how
exactly that's going to happen,
and how
we're going to make it work.
I'm really happy.
I feel like it's been forever,
but it's only been a week,
and I definitely realize
how much patience
everything's going to take.
Sean had said to me,
"I have no idea what's going to
happen over the next year,
but this is worth seeing
what happens
with this relationship."
This week I'm working
with New Tribe.
It's a tattoo and piercing place
down here in downtown Toronto.
Now it's Monday morning.
Time to start a new job,
start off fresh over,
and meet a bunch of new people.
Hi, I'm Johnny Tribe.
I'm the head piercer here.
My name is Glenny
and I'm a tattooer in Toronto.
Hello, my name's Joey,
and my job title here
is the shop assistant,
or the...
this may get bleeped...
but shop bitch.
I was a young teenager when I
first started getting tattooed.
I thought it was really bad-ass
and then I was like...
"Oh, that would be
such a cool job,"
but I never really thought
it would be a reality.
I had a friend of mine that had
a small shop and he said,
"Do you want to come
answer the phones?"
I started answering the phones,
tried piercing,
found out
I was pretty good at it.
Done, there you are.
We saw a nose piercing...
we saw a tongue piercing,
and we also saw
a nipple piercing,
which all of them
seemed like they hurt.
Seeing the needles
kind of go in,
especially the tongue,
was like...
It was kind of intense.
It was like... ah.
Tongue back in.
It's good.
It keeps me young.
I'm 42... I'm 41 years old,
so it's always fresh every day.
See all this? Clean it.
Cool.
I guess I'm just finding it
difficult
to really feel like
I'm actually contributing
to the company.
I feel like dead weight
a little bit, you know...
like I'm not actually making
a meaningful contribution.
I guess that might be
a limitation
of the one-week job project
in technical jobs
such as this, you know...
being a tattooist
or a piercer
where it does take
that specific skill set,
which in one week is
kind of impossible to develop.
On one hand,
there's an artistic element
involved
when someone's, like,
"Draw me a mermaid."
But then when you go
to do the tattoo,
to actually execute it,
there's nothing artistic
whatsoever about it,
so you might as well be welding.
Until next week.
Sean was about a quarter
of the way through the project
and I called him up and I said,
"Hey, Sean, I quit my job."
The first thing he said was,
"Hey, you should
come out on the road."
I told him that would be
an interesting idea,
but I would have to run it
by my wife, Karen.
No, I wasn't happy at all
about it initially.
We had just gotten married,
so it would have been difficult
starting off
this new branch of our lives
without him there.
I have known lan
since elementary school.
We met in Grade 4.
In junior high, he challenged me
to a game of ping-pong.
He said that
he was better than I was,
and I said,
"Let's have a match."
And we played, and I won.
He beat me, quite badly.
And slowly after that,
we became better friends.
If you know me and lan,
you know we really share
a special kind of friendship
and that, you know, not so many
are lucky to have,
and so it's something
I'm really grateful for.
Sean and lan have
such a special relationship.
I was worried about
losing something to Sean.
There was still a long time
in the project
till it was complete,
and so I asked Karen,
"Okay, I'm just going to go
on the road for 2 weeks..."
just a taste of the experiences
that Sean was having
on the road,
and then I was going
to come home.
I'd like to think
that we all need to accomplish
something every day.
We need to have a reason
to get out of bed,
so understanding yourself
and your own personal interests
is paramount
to your future happiness.
Unfortunately,
this is going to be
his last stop
on his journey,
because he'll never want
to leave this place.
Today, this morning I was
working on the production line,
so once the bottles
come through,
they're finished,
in the box,
so closing up the box,
placing the box on a crate,
and then they take them away
to be shipped out to the stores.
You know, it sounds
really boring,
but actually it's kind of fun.
You get into a mode
and it's just...
Team steam.
This job is absolutely
my passion,
and as soon as I started
delivering beer
and got involved
in the brewing business,
I realized this was
the right fit for me.
What sells beer
is having a network of contacts.
I spent the afternoon
with Richard,
one of the sale reps
here at Steam Whistle.
It was a lot of fun, you know,
we went out
and met some clients,
tried to generate
some new clients.
Should I just put this
over by your bar here?
You know, he identifies
it takes a lot of motivation.
Most of the time,
you go in there,
they are going to say no,
and you just got to be
persistent and keep going back.
Think about the things
that you like to do
and how you may be able
to apply those interests
to a career,
and then based
on that information,
go out there and make a search.
If you are waking up
in the morning
happy that the fact
that it's Monday morning
and you are going to go to work,
life is going to be way better.
Then all the other stuff,
which is evenings,
hanging out with friends
and family, and weekends,
enjoying your time off,
life is good.
Welcome to Steam Whistle,
and hope you have a good week.
So I stand out on the streets.
A big part
of what I'm doing this week
is promote the ride
to conquer cancer.
We have different pamphlets
and displays
for the different stores,
so basically
what I'll be doing
is going around to these
different stores around here
to hopefully to get up
some point of sale information
about promoting the ride
to conquer cancer
that's happening next June.
I have been hired
by the foundation
to come and manage and oversee
what's going to be
the largest bike-ride fundraiser
that Canada has ever seen.
I have the ultimate job.
I'm able to combine my passion
for bike riding
and sports and athletics
with doing something meaningful
and giving back
to the community.
Thank you.
It's good.
I like when they say yes.
It's a good feeling.
It's like you made a sale.
Not really a tough sale,
but it's a good feeling
nonetheless.
When I first graduated
from school, I took a job
which I really loved
and I had passion for,
and I thought, "Okay, it's time
to try something else...
branch out."
I took a job,
well, selling toilet paper.
I hated that job and my advice
is don't sell out.
Don't find a job
that is a means to an end
because it's a paycheck for you.
Find something that inside
your heart, you want to do.
At the end of the day,
it'll work out.
So I'm pretty happy with the way
things turned out today.
Uh, I got the promotional stuff
into about, I guess,
Um, not bad for the first day
on the streets.
Time to head back to the office.
I went to go meet
the, uh, world-renowned
cancer researcher
Dr. Tak Mak today.
Uh, I'm fortunate
because I'm trained
as a scientist
and I'm paid to do
what I want to do every day.
I mean, isn't that amazing?
I realized that the people
who are most passionate
about their jobs
were the ones who had an idea
of how they were contributing
to something greater
than themselves,
um, working
on a cure for cancer,
I mean wow, talk about
making a difference!
You know, it mattered
that they showed up to work
every morning
because they were part of it.
Week 25, day 1,
working with
Roots Canada this week.
Roots is a big sponsor
of the Toronto
International Film Festival
that's happening this weekend,
and they're responsible
for the clothing
and also the celebrity area,
so who knows, maybe we'll get
to meet some stars.
To be honest, I have no idea
what I'm doing for the week,
I think there's...
we're going to be covering
the film festival,
so doing their blog,
taking some video footage,
photos for the roots. Com
website,
I think that's all I know.
I don't really know.
I guess I'll find out.
So, we've spent a lot of the day
I guess waiting for celebrities
to arrive
and to get our chance,
our opportunity,
our moment to speak with them.
So we just came down the stairs,
and we just got yelled at
for not doing our job,
but we don't really know
what our job is this week.
We have three different bosses,
and each one of them has
different expectation on us,
and it's just making it
really hard.
I think that my biggest
challenge with the Roots week
was that I didn't know
what was expected of me.
Trying to deal with that
is difficult
because you can't
please everyone,
which is a constant sense
of unease
and a little bit of anxiety
'cause you're uncertain of
"Am I doing my job correctly?"
Near the end of the week,
I was told
to go over to Toronto Island
to this music festival
and we were told to go backstage
and shoot interviews
with the different bands.
So we get to the concert gates
only to find out that we can't
take our camera in with us.
Uh, they gave us tickets
for the concert,
but they didn't give us
media tickets,
and that was kinda
the whole point
of going to the island
in the first place.
And so once again,
we're unable to do
what's asked of us,
and that's just
not a great feeling.
That whole miscommunication has
tainted the whole experience,
and that uncertainty,
and just not having
a great feeling about it all.
Sean's world
is ultra optimistic,
and I would say that the
negative side of Sean's world
is when things
don't come through,
I guess it's a lot
more disappointment
when you set your sets
that high.
I think I've learned
a lot this weekend
the importance
of communication
and clearly defining roles,
and as an employee,
if I'm not entirely certain
what is expected of me
to just stop and say,
"Wait a second," you know,
"I'm not too sure
what my role is."
How you approach a situation
and the attitude
that you bring in it
is going to dictate, you know,
the outcome
or your overall experience
of that situation.
Success in life
is a result of good judgement.
Good judgement
is often a result of experience,
and experience is often
a result of bad judgement,
also known as failure,
but we get an education.
Lots of action going on
down here
at the festival headquarters
down here at Roots.
Wyclef Jean just came in,
just doing some yoga moves
on the yoga mat.
That was pretty impressive.
I mean, I was a yoga instructor
Week 7,
but I don't think I could
pull that off.
So my advice to you is
while you're in college,
do like my homey right here...
you know what I mean?
Get 52 jobs,
you know what I mean...
one job a week.
Stop being lazy,
you know what I'm saying?
Let's get this thing going.
So we decided we'd bust it
to Montreal for a few days.
Got a ride...
posted on a ride share website,
Craigslist,
and hooked up with Rob,
so he's taking us there,
which is awesome,
so that's what
we are going to do.
Here we are, Week 26,
the halfway point
of One Week Job,
in Montreal working
with Cossette Communications,
so it will be really interesting
to get an inside look
of the ad process
and how it goes from conception
into production.
Welcome aboard.
Thanks for having me.
No problem.
We sell frickin' ideas!
The analogy...
it's like if we are the clothes
of what the corporation wears.
We have one foot in a board room
with product managers,
marketing vice-presidents
who have a very high
fiscal responsibility volume,
and then the other part
of your day...
is with creative guys.
And, uh, there goes my Venus.
Venus and Mars...
The job you're working on,
the big idea is
"une vraie biere de serge."
It's real beer for real guys.
So here we are
at the production house.
We are going to be showing
the client
the first off-line edit
of the 30-second commercial
shot for Molson
a couple of days ago.
It was pretty cool
to see how, you know,
the team comes together
and everybody has their inputs
and everybody
has different ideas,
and actually,
that was something
that I found interesting
in that what made sense
to this one person
doesn't make sense
to another person.
So the challenge
becomes the best possible way
to get your message out
to your target audience.
Being in the situation
where I'm able to try out
a different job each week,
it gives me
a really unique perspective.
Each week I ask my co-workers
what they like most
about their job.
The number one answer I hear
is the people they work with.
The advertising agency
is an industry where everybody
becomes your friend.
It's maybe a clich,
but it's true.
People are my colleagues
and my friends also.
Their work satisfaction
comes from their co-workers
and their friendships
and their relationships
they develop by being there.
I can totally relate to that
because I realize
that whether I have
the best job for the week
or the worst job,
it's the people that
make the experience special.
It's the people that
make the experience special.
Just on our way
to an interview this morning.
It's intense
because it's going
I guess live
across all of America.
So, morning show on Fox news.
Sean Aiken is a creator
of oneweekjob.com.
Have you come close
even defining
what your passion really is?
I'm getting closer.
Boom! Hello, USA! USA!
After the US media started
covering the story,
I started getting emails
from Americans
with different one week job
offers throughout the States,
and I thought
it would be really cool
to see what the American
job market was really like.
Like, who knows?
Who knows what awaits?
Here I am, Week 29,
I'm in Atlanta, Georgia
at the Atlanta
Conference center.
I'm going to be a trade show
salesman this week.
I'm working with a company
called Fundamental Designs.
They have designed this plastic
squeeze bottle
called the FIFO bottle.
The first two people
that started coming up,
I kind of see them
make eye contact with me
and that kind of expectant look
that...
"Okay, you're kind of going to
have to inform me
what this product's all about."
It gets down to an attitude
towards the whole thing.
If you feel that the glass
is half empty type of person,
frankly, not a good idea
to be going down the road
of an entrepreneur,
but if you think
"Yup, I know I'll be able
to make it in one way
or another,"
When you do fail, you realize,
"Okay, that hurt,
let's not do that twice,"
and then go out
with a lot more confidence
to then try it again,
make it successful,
and that's pretty important.
This week is Week 30.
I'm working with a T-shirt
company
just outside of Atlanta
called Snorg Tees.
When we started it out, I guess
I was the driving force
behind getting
the business going.
Um, the first few months,
like, we put the site up
and we thought
we were going to run a few ads,
and stuff was going to start
flying off the shelves... no.
Against the advice of others,
I decided to add more shirts
and spend more money,
and things turned around
abut three or four months in
and we became profitable.
Well, that's quacktastic!
When you come in
and you look at a business
and you see "Oh,
this is how things work,"
and it just seems like
it flows smoothly,
like, it didn't
start that way.
We're raised
in the school system
to work for someone else,
so when you work for yourself,
you are kind of, like,
"Well, where is my paycheck?"
It gives you a kick in the butt.
You've got to be creative
or think of some way
that you're going
to make sure you do.
And then you say high-five!
Week 31, I'm here
at the Georgia aquarium.
It's the world's
largest aquarium.
I'll be helping out
at different exhibits,
so answering questions
about the animals,
helping out visitors
with directions,
information stuff.
I love my job.
Every day is a good day
when I get to see fish,
and I see fish every day.
That's a really big fish!
The real message that
we trying to convey with this
is that you look at a globe
and you see
all these little oceans,
but they're actually
all connected,
and as humans we think of
"That's the Atlantic Ocean,"
or "That's the Pacific Ocean,"
or "That's the Indian Ocean,"
well, they're named that way
for reference,
but they're all connected.
When you're first
getting out of school,
follow your heart,
follow your passion,
don't go for the money,
you know,
unless money is your passion.
But for those that go directly
for the highest paying job,
it's probably high-paying
because it is not a lot of fun.
Here I am right now
in the aquarium.
As you can see,
Sean Aiken is behind me.
He is talking to this producer
at CNN.
Good Morning America
called the other day,
which is also exciting,
No idea what's going to happen
next little bit,
but interesting
to check it out.
All right, thanks a lot, Sheila.
Talk to you soon. Bye bye.
Yes, it's awesome
like CNN, Good Morning America,
it's like wow, it's awesome,
but I look at it
just another opportunity
to get some more jobs,
get some more
interesting opportunities
and also another way
to share that information
and share the experience
I'm having with others.
When lan had been in Atlanta,
I asked him to come home,
When lan had been in Atlanta,
I asked him to come home,
and there was no disaster,
catastrophe,
no definitive reason
why he needed to be home
right then,
but we had never been apart
for more than three weeks.
Lan left today to go back
to Vancouver
to spend some time with Karen,
a couple weeks,
he's going to meet up with me
in New York two weeks from now.
I'm staying here
at the Hyatt Regency tonight.
The Georgia Aquarium put me up
'cause I have an interview
tomorrow morning at CNN.
I'm going to go from Hyatt
to homeless,
because I don't know
where I'm staying tomorrow.
That's one thing
with the project
that I have to learn
is that it's constantly
changing, you know,
and you can never take something
for granted at all.
You just gotta go with the flow
and take it one day at a time,
or one week at a time.
So here we are, CNN,
time for an interview.
I'm going live, nation-wide,
across the U.S. Yeah.
Hey, I'm on CNN.
All right, still trying
to decide
what you want to be
when you grow up?
Well, you'd better
join the club,
because one man
is taking
an unusual approach
to uncovering his passion.
He's working 52 jobs
in 52 weeks.
Sean, are you feeling okay?
I mean, why 52 jobs in 52 weeks?
Well, it's a good question.
I finished my college degree
and I had no idea what
I wanted to do for a career.
Just got back
from my interview,
got a bunch of different emails
from people,
actually, offers in Miami,
which is awesome,
because that's where
I was looking to go,
and also willing to actually
help with the transportation
to get me down there.
There I go.
After that, I don't know
what I'll be doing.
Guess that keeps life
interesting.
So I just arrived in Miami,
starting work tomorrow,
going to be working
as an exterminator
with a pest control
inspection company,
so that's that.
Kind of having an issue
with the project right now.
As the project continues
to grow, you know,
more companies are interested
in the publicity opportunities
that come along with hiring me.
It's kind of really difficult
to balance that
and the aspect of actually
trying to figure out
if that job's for me.
I'm working here
in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
this week,
with Horowitz and Company.
I'm going to be a stock trader.
When I was in college,
I was really interested
in the stocks,
and that really excited me,
and so I'm really excited
to kind of learn more
about how everything works
in the stock market.
I don't necessarily think
that I always had that
as a burning desire
that I wanted to do this,
but as I get more and more
understanding
of what it could do for others
and how I could then
really do well,
and you stepped into it,
and it was like, wham!
You know, you get this
incredible jolt of energy.
It's pretty exciting
from start to finish.
I have a feeling that it's going
to go back up.
It's got one last surge in it
for the day,
and then I'm going to get out.
While you have control
of what you do,
the markets
have the ultimate control.
The economy
has the ultimate control.
Unfortunately,
with the incredible amount
of stress involved in it,
it kind of sometimes
is very overwhelming.
All this pressure...
Go, go, go, go. Come on.
You know, you want to hang on,
and it's easy to become
over greedy
and try and stick in there,
and you can end up
getting burned.
I, you know, if it was me here,
I'd dump the stock.
I would take my profit, move on,
look for something else,
or just kind of go away happy
because the fact of the matter
is that an extra two or three
cents is not going to...
The stock
doesn't care about you.
It doesn't?
No, it doesn't care about you.
Right now I'm focused
all my attention on one stock,
and how many stocks are there,
you know, in just
the New York stock exchange.
I could be watching
other stocks,
and maybe other ones are moving,
you could be making money there,
but you can get wrapped up
in one.
You don't always have to do
what you've always done.
You have to be flexible...
you have to be extremely
flexible, especially today.
And there's an amazing amount
of things out there
that you can do.
It's not the career
that defines you, you know,
you are the definition
of who you are,
and a career is just a conduit
to what you want to do
ultimately in life.
Ultimately in life.
Here I am in New York.
Lan's coming back on the road
to do some more filming.
Danna's going to come
on the road for a few days.
I'm really excited to see her.
You know,
it's been a while, and...
I hadn't seen Sean
in a few months,
and I was quite anxious
to get to New York.
There's so much happening
with the project right now too.
Lots of medias picking up,
so we haven't been able
to talk too much
on the phone or anything.
And I wasn't sure
if things had maybe changed him,
or if he was different.
I don't know.
I'm excited to see
where it's all going to lead.
I was worried that maybe
he didn't have time for the girl
from Trois-Pistoles anymore.
This week I'm in Manhattan.
I'm a fashion buyer.
Kind of a little nervous
about what I'm wearing.
I think she might be
a little critical.
- Hey, guys!
- How's it going?
Here, have a seat.
We take this business
really seriously.
It's going to be,
you know, kind of intense.
Like when a designer calls me up
and says,
"I have something so out there
and so new and so...!"
You know what that means to me?
Not sellable.
And they are like,
"Oh, I'm an artist..."
You know what?
Art belongs in a museum.
This is fashion.
Fashion goes in retail.
Okay, Sean, so we are here.
We are at one of the buildings
in the garment center.
We are going to be doing,
I was going to a showroom,
so we are actually going
to place an order
for one of our stores.
So the next step is,
pull out the pieces
that you don't like...
And then work
with the ones that we do like.
Actually...
That dress
was really a winner,
and so was the tuxedo shirt.
I don't know...
well, I mean, like,
those ones, I guess...
I still don't like that dress.
Beatrice, how has that
been selling for you?
This has been one of
our best-seller dresses.
Hmm.
Fine.
And when Mercedes was like,
"Sean, you're
doing this by yourself."
I was, like...
"What? What do you mean?"
I had no idea, like,
no background information
about the client,
but I just went with it,
and I was able to just kind of
figure it out as I went
by asking questions
and kind of drawing upon
what I had been doing
the last couple days,
and then kind of
hearing the words
and the lingo that is used,
and I think it turned out
really well.
At any age,
you can make a change.
I think that the biggest thing
is fear.
I live with it
every single day.
I wake up and I'm like,
"Oh, my god,
am I going to be able
to make payroll this week?
Are we going to be able
to find a new client?
What's the next adventure,
what's the next retailer,
what's the next designer..."
But that fear,
it keeps your passion going,
and keeps you alive,
and keeps you moving.
This week I'll be a baker
with One Girl Cookies.
I'm looking forward
to really getting in there
and working with my hands
and learning about
the baking process,
and obviously trying out
some tasty treats.
Alright, are you guys ready?
Ready.
People, I think, feel
frustrated with their jobs
when they come in
and push papers around
and at the end of the day,
they don't really know
what they did.
I had a number of jobs
like that,
and that's probably what led me
back here.
I tend to roll in the middle
just a little bit, and rotate.
There's a lot of excitement
in the back.
Everyone's
kind of buzzing around
doing their own thing
in the different orders
that came in today,
and so they have to
really work hard
to get those out on time.
I've never really baked before,
aside from maybe
premade cookies
that all you have to do
is put them on the baking sheet
and then toss them in the oven.
And Good Morning America
is coming in to film.
I have a big zit
on my nose.
I feel so lame.
Is that good?
Sean Aiken has only been working
at the One Girl Cookies Bakery
in Brooklyn
for a couple of days,
but already, he's become
a frosting expert.
His goal isn't to create
the perfect cookie,
instead it's to find
the perfect job.
You know, you are here
in a job one job a week.
Do you think that's ample time
that someone would be able
to honestly say
how they feel about a job?
Is that realistic?
You're right, it's not.
You know, to say, "Is that
the perfect job for me?"
It's more about the overall
experience for me
in kind of learning,
learning new each week.
Some critics have called
Sean's job a week experiment
symptomatic...
I feel the media
can change people
because of how much
it feeds into ego,
and so I was just hoping
that Sean's
priorities hadn't changed.
My week as a photographer
in New York,
James, my boss for the week,
gave me this list
of all these items
and asked me to go and collect
these different things
for a photo shoot.
This week, a lot of media
came to a head,
and it was really overwhelming,
all happening at once.
I was trying to juggle
all this media
answering phone calls,
answering emails,
and just trying to keep my head
above water
in organizing everything
with the project.
New York Times.
A young man gives a year over
to the job hunt,
sampling one at a time.
And because of that,
the job suffered.
About a half hour before
I was supposed to show up
at James's house
with all these items,
James called,
and I paused and said,
"I'm still working on it,"
still thinking that a half hour
was enough time
for me to collect everything,
but it was too late.
From James's voice, I could tell
that he was disappointed.
He said, "Sean, I just want you
to hop in a cab
and get on over here."
He didn't mention anything
about my failure to perform
until the next day.
He stopped me
on the way out the door,
and he said, "You really
let me down yesterday.
I was relying on you to get
all those different items."
I started making excuses and
said, "You know, James,
I was on New York Times,
and Yahoo..."
And I started listing out
these major medias
and saying I was getting
these important phone calls
and 300 emails,
and it was almost as if
I was trying to validate
not doing what was asked of me
because of this media attention
that I was getting.
As James sat looking at me,
I just felt transparent.
To him that was
somebody looking at his core
and disappointing them.
I got up
and hurried out the door
and down the street
and around the corner
and pulled my jacket up
over my head, and just bawled.
I just started crying.
It was a weird feeling.
I felt lost, and like I didn't
know who I was anymore.
I don't know where this image
I constructed ended
and the real me began.
So we're sitting at the airport,
I think it's 9:00
in the morning,
and our plane was supposed to
leave at 9:05 to Atlanta.
Turns out there is actually
no 9:05 plane...
it doesn't exist, but there is
one on December 18th.
Guess what day it is today?
Not December 18th.
Well, I happened to book
the flight on the wrong day.
I got to call
Danny the firefighter
and tell him
that we're not coming.
Hey, Danny,
it's Sean Aiken calling.
Actually,
we have a bit of a problem.
When you really think about it,
maybe it was meant to happen.
Maybe we are not supposed
to go to Florida.
Cool, well, thanks a lot, Danny,
I appreciate it.
It was probably for the best.
I really wanted
to be a firefighter.
So here's the plan,
I didn't have enough money
to go to Florida
to be a firefighter,
but I remembered an email
I got
from Irene
and her husband, Darren,
who own this pizza shop
in Austerville on Cape Cod,
so I called her up
and I said, "Hey, Irene,"
explained the situation,
and I said we could be on a bus,
so we'd be there in six hours.
She said great,
so we're going to Cape Cod.
This is our own private
guest house.
Have a look
at the mini bar here.
So we have truffles, beer...
How nice is that?
Bananas, fruit,
living room area, two beds,
sweatshirts on the bed for us,
t-shirts, wireless Internet.
Basically, we're never leaving.
This is a 19 inch pizza.
This is a successful career
for me.
I believe that careers
take on multi phases
throughout your life,
and depending on where you are
at your stage of development,
you develop into that role.
Always want to rest on your
knuckles and your fingertips
because if you go like that,
you'll punch through the dough.
As long as I'm finding
satisfaction in what I do
on a daily basis,
and I'm happy with it,
that's great for me because
at the end of my last career,
I was unhappy.
I felt like I was trapped...
You go around like a clock,
round the outside.
Five years into this career,
I'm very content, very happy.
I'm excited about the next five,
ten years,
and where I can take things.
- Now it's your turn.
- All right.
- Work it in.
- Yup.
Actually, I'm really glad
that we came,
because the last few days,
and it's just been so hectic.
That's pretty good.
Mamma mia.
Coming here, and just meeting
Irene and Darren...
they are just so kind and real
and authentic people,
and to just so warmly welcome us
into their home,
really kind of brought me back
to why I'm doing what I'm doing,
and this is what it's all about.
Meeting these types of people,
and just to bring it back
to what makes this experience
so special.
When you don't
take an opportunity,
sometimes you look like,
"Oh, I should have done that."
Take the time
to find something
instead of just settling
for second best.
You have to go out
and find yourself first.
Another happy customer.
I realized in those few weeks
that it had gotten
completely off track,
and gotten away
from why I originally
started the project,
You know, to find a career
that was going to make me happy.
To the point, the media had been
helping a lot by getting jobs,
getting interest out there,
but at the same time,
it had overshadowed
some of the jobs on the project.
So that was cause
to kind of rethink from then on
how to balance the two.
Welcome to Hollywood.
This week,
I'm a Hollywood producer.
I'm going to be working
with one of the top producers
in the industry.
His name is Randall Emmett.
He's produced
over 40 feature film titles,
the most recent being Rambo.
Fine, get me the LA Times,
who else?
It's a rip-off, right?
Now, I know you don't have
a creative bone in your body...
How do you know that?
Yeah, you're about as creative
as a three dollar bill!
All right, I'll call you later.
What we do here is obviously
produce movies,
and most people don't know
what that means,
so we're going to try
to give you a little insight
to what a Hollywood producer
does.
You know, basically
I'm responsible
for buying the script,
deciding who is going
to direct the movie,
who is going to star
in the movie.
It's my job to also
secure those actors
and also to the budget,
make sure
that we have the money.
Unfortunately, we get probably
I have a very small staff,
we like to keep it tight.
I'll have you read scripts
the entire week
and actually be my eyes and ears
for stuff that we are
looking out for.
So when you read,
then you have to ask yourself,
"Okay, is this something
that I think everybody
would want to go see?"
I mean, if my taste isn't
in sync with America's taste,
then my box office weekend
most likely will be zero,
and that's what
we are trying to prevent.
You know, it's really cool
to kind of see
how things come together
from concept
to actually
bringing people together,
getting the producers together,
forming a company,
and making
the necessary calls,
getting the paperwork in place
to actually going
to production
and putting
something on television.
Now, here's the thing,
and I'm not playing with you.
It's called oneweekjob.com.
They have a website,
and you can go to it,
and every week this guy, Sean,
does a different job,
and this week he's working
for a movie producer... me!
It's sick, isn't it?
It's a great idea.
All right, I'll call you later.
Bye.
Randy is really funny.
He's always high energy,
just left and right!
His mind is just going
all over the place.
You know, people,
when they watch
Access Hollywood,
Entertainment Tonight,
that's what they think
our life is.
You know, it's a lot of business
and it's a lot of negotiation.
The other side of it
is you get to go
to the premieres,
and that's the perks of the job,
but for me, the passion
is making good films
and trying to put together
a great film
so that I can take an audience,
you know, on a journey.
It's my first day on the job
as a real estate agent
here in Hollywood Hills.
You know, I never thought
that I would want
to be a realtor.
When I was younger, I went
through a bunch of jobs.
I thought I wanted to be
an actor,
I then did voice-over
for a while.
Real estate is something
I kind of
got into accidentally.
What we are doing right now
is going on Caravan,
which is where we go
look at houses
that are currently on the market
for clients that we have.
So I can look at them,
see them for myself,
and then tell my client
about them
whether I think it's something
that will fit them or not.
I didn't realize how much
being a real estate agent
is a lot like running
your own small business.
You are kind of working
within the framework
of a larger parent company,
but in fact it's really
your own
kind of independent business,
organizing your own schedule,
your own hours,
and meeting
with different clients,
and kind of coming
to the office when it suits you,
and when you need to.
Now that we've gone through
the preliminary questions
with the client,
and so we have a better idea
of what they are looking for
in a house,
it's time to actually
go out there
and look at
some different houses
and try and get a list together
that the client is going to be
interested in looking into.
The best thing about real estate
for me
is when I walk into a house
and I know that that house
is the right home for someone.
Knowing that they are going
raise their family there
and that they are going
to have memories there,
and then showing that house
to someone for the first time
is just kind of cool,
because their eyes light up
and they are like,
"Oh, this is it,
this is the right one!
So that's fun...
that's the fun part for me.
I think I'm the most happy
when I'm in the moment,
and when I'm looking around
and I'm just soaking up
my surroundings.
I'm saying, "This is it!
This is life!
Enjoy this!"
The positives of a mindset
like Sean's world
is that anything is possible.
I know that sounds clich,
but it's really true.
The only limitations you have
are the limitations
that you put on yourself.
One thing I've always loved
about traveling
is that I never know
what tomorrow's going to bring.
I wake up in the morning
and think...
what do I want to do today?
It's just continually
open-ended possibility.
I am a lot more of a realist,
however, I believe
in plan A, plan B, and plan C.
Things with everything
were just picking up
at tornado speed for Sean,
and as much as I was trying
to be there for him
from halfway
across the continent,
it's just not always possible
to be there
for the ins and outs.
So, just got off the phone
with Danna.
She was really down,
had a really terrible day...
wasn't too sure.
I was like, hmm...
maybe I'll start backing away
and pushing away from her a bit,
and maybe that's like
kind of stop calling
and give her her room,
to figure out what she needs.
I was just like,
"Whoa, what are you doing?
You're in over your head."
Like, get out of this
big trouble territory.
This guy is on the other side
of the continent, like...
what are you doing? Wake up!
And so I took a huge step back,
and was just like, all right,
you know,
I'm here for him
when he needs me,
but I'm not going to overtly
pursue this relationship
any longer.
So here I am, it's week 43.
I'm a motivational speaker
in Denver, Colorado.
Eric Chester, I'm working with
this week, has a talk here,
a presentation
with a student council.
It's about 14 high schools,
He's actually going
to pass the mic over to me
and tell them a little bit
about what I've been up to
for the past 43 weeks
and why I'm doing
what I'm doing.
It's just about
to get going here.
I'm a little nervous...
never been a motivational
speaker before.
It is something that I would
like to do in the future,
share my story
and all that I've learned
over the past year,
so hopefully it goes well.
You know, kids are
dead-on honest.
You can con a con,
you can fool a fool.
But you can't kid a kid.
I didn't know much,
but I pretended to know
so that you know what wouldn't
happen to you know who.
And all of a sudden
I became a teenager,
suddenly I knew everything.
If you don't resonate with them,
they'll just turn around
and they'll walk right out
on you.
In fact, sometimes
when you do resonate
they'll turn around
and walk right out
because they don't know
what to say.
They may be a little spellbound.
As I look out in this room
today,
I see people
who like quality of life.
You are the people!
You are the student council!
You are the ones who had your...
that raise your hands up!
You stand up! You sign up!
Finding a career
is not an easy thing to do.
It's a lot easier
to make choices
when you don't have
a huge car payment,
expensive habits,
when you're light,
when you can make a lot of
economic choices very rapidly.
Hello.
Why would I do
something so crazy?
If you can effect
a one percent change
in the lives
of a hundred different people,
you will have, in effect,
created a whole unit
of human contribution,
and when you think about that
from the role
of being a speaker,
an inspirational,
motivational speaker,
you really can effect change.
You feel 10 feet tall
and bulletproof.
No feeling like it
in the entire world.
Half the time you don't even
want to collect your check
because you didn't do it
for the money,
you did it because of the
feeling that you have inside.
It's an enormous unwritten
benefit of being a speaker.
First year
that I was in child care,
I was, like,
ready to pull my hair out,
but I decided to stick with it,
and after that first year,
I realized that it was a gift
and that it was very important
for the children
to have a man in their lives,
so that was kind of the thing
where I was like...
okay, it's important...
and as you work with them,
you can actually
see them grow,
so you can actually see results
of what you're doing,
and it's not just working
on a spreadsheet
and seeing some results
of a business venture.
You are actually seeing
them grow and learn things.
As a parent myself,
I have found happiness,
and now my family's happy
because of that,
so happiness trickles down.
Everybody, everything,
every company,
deserves 2 or 3 chances,
so if you go to work
on your first day of work
and it's a negative situation,
give it a couple chances,
and then
if you feel in your heart
that it's just not
going to work out,
make changes.
Once we grow up, life's over,
so I'm refusing to grow up,
and that's kind of
what I'm teaching my staff
and the kids as well.
What surprised me most
about the project
was that complete random
strangers
would offer a place to stay
or like offer a job
at their work.
My son Judah and I were there
to greet them
with leis and what have you,
and we welcomed them here,
and the one week job project
started in Hawaii.
It's week 45.
I'm a astronomer in Hawaii.
This week we will be
going into different schools.
I'm working with
an outreach program
basically educating students
on astronomy
and trying to get them involved
and kind of seeing
the different possibilities
that lie within
that profession.
We do that through hands-on,
minds-on activities
that kinda make it fun to learn.
And place it
on the front of the fat tube.
Everybody got theirs together?
Today we are going to be working
with third through sixth grade
here at Keaukaha elementary,
and we're going to be
kinda teaching them
about ancient astronomy
and how it connects
to modern astronomy.
Really the pay-off is seeing
the spark
in our young peoples' eyes
and to see the difference
in that we're making
within our communities.
I think that's to me
the driving force
behind what we're doing.
They're having fun,
but they don't even realize
they're actually learning
at the same time.
We tricked them.
So at last we finally made it
to the Summit of Mauna Kea,
now here we are
It's quite crazy to think
that here we are in Hawaii
and there's snow everywhere.
Here in Mauna Kea
at the summit
is gathered the 13 largest
telescopes in the world.
The reason why
they have this concentration
is because of the elevation,
they're able to gather
really good data.
That's why so many of the
world's top astronomers
flock to this area
for their research.
The edge of the visible universe
is the beginning
of the universe.
So because the speed of light
is finite,
the further away you look,
the further back in time
you're looking.
Just because we have a horizon
we can't see beyond
does not mean
that there's nothing
beyond that horizon,
it just means we can never know
what's beyond that horizon
because of the time it takes
for light to get to us.
Wow.
There are too many jobs
in which you're just constrained
within a specific
job description
through which
you can't go beyond.
Look for something you'll be
able to express your juices,
your creativity, something
that you're passionate about.
To me, that's like...
that's success.
So walking around here
at the base facility
and seeing all this machinery
and how it works,
it's easy to get lost
in the complexity,
but it's kind of
really interesting
to see the questions
they're actually answering
as to what are
the origins of the universe
and why we are here.
Just seeing Sean
hunting for his passion
felt exciting to me.
I like seeing people take risks.
I still believe
that in my younger years,
I began to settle.
I felt a hope and inspiration
to not be afraid
even now as I'm older
and going through transitions
to say, you know, at any time,
any place, or anywhere you are
in your life, you can choose.
You can choose once again
to follow your passion
and take some risks
and go for the best life
you can have.
Sean?
I think you found something.
All right, here I am
underground.
This is an old lava tube.
If I don't
make it out alive,
I just want my family
to know that I love them
and all my friends,
and, you know, just carry on,
you know?
Keep on trucking.
Week 46, I'm a park ranger
at Hawaii
Volcanoes National Park
here on the big island
of Hawaii.
Looks like I'll be working
with eruption crew this week
surveying trails,
trail maintenance,
and ensuring visitor safety.
Tons of active volcanoes,
craters, a lot of lava flows,
so it should be
a lot of fun.
The main thing is to provide
visitor safety.
The other thing is
to protect the park resources.
So what we do
is we are available
in case somebody needs help,
they will come to us.
Today we are going to be doing
a back-country patrol,
so the area we're going
to be walking in
is going to be
over new lava flows
with uneven terrain,
and so we need to be careful
of our footing
and watching
where we're stepping.
Yeah, Rob told me
his view on life,
and he says that
he sees it as a trail.
It's a journey that we all
must choose our own path.
There is no use in looking back
and thinking, you know, "Maybe
if I had tooken another trail,
where would that
have ended up?"
You know, right now,
it's really difficult
for me to look back,
because I'm constantly thinking
about my upcoming jobs
and how am I
going to get there,
where am I going to stay
when I get there,
but, you know,
at the end of the project,
I know that looking back on it,
I'll be able to reflect fondly
on all the people I've made,
all the experiences I've had,
and all the things that I've
learned over the past year,
and just be looking forward
to next trailhead.
I don't know why,
but for some reason,
I knew something
was wrong at home.
When I called, my mom said,
"Sean, doctors
have found the lump,
and it needs to be biopsied."
She promised me
that it was nothing,
and that in her heart,
she believed
that everything would be okay.
When I stopped home
on the way to my next job,
the doctor had called,
and the results were in.
And he told me that I had been
diagnosed with breast cancer.
Well, this is not something
that you associate
with yourself.
You hear the word
and it's always somebody else,
but you never think
it's going to be you.
I remember so vividly
walking into the house
and Sean was down here
waiting for me to come home.
I took one look at him and Bob
and I started to cry,
so they then knew
that I had not been given
particularly good news.
Immediately, I didn't know
what to do,
I didn't know what
to feel or think.
It felt really surreal.
The challenge that Sean faced
is whether he could
continue the project,
but that was a bridge
he had to cross.
In my mind, I was battling
"Should I stay or should I go,"
or "Yeah, I should stay,"
and I was just kinda
going through the motions,
and I just wanted the time
to stand still.
Sean was packing,
and we were taking him
to the Greyhound Bus Station
in an hour,
but I saw the look on his face
as if to say
"Okay, maybe I should stay,"
and immediately I said to him,
"Don't you even think
about staying."
There's just no way
that she would be happy
having Sean by her side
when he had this so important
a project to complete.
They started herding me along
and "Sean, you'd better
get going.
You're going to miss your bus.
I just love the project,
I just think it's so exciting,
I just said to him,
"Go do it, go do it for me,
enjoy every moment,
tell me about it,
and just go live, go live."
I think that a person
given a choice
would aspire to do
great things with their life,
and yet greatness is not
just handed over to you.
It's something you need
to work at.
There's going to be
some obstacles,
there's going to be
some challenges,
there's going to be some
road blocks in your way,
but if you have the will,
the desire inside,
you'll find a way through,
around, or over those obstacles.
I guess I realized that
the project is not about me,
you know, it's kinda grown,
and there is
something here,
you know, there's a movement,
you can kinda feel it,
you know, with just how people
are getting onboard
and they want to be part of it,
there's something more here,
there's something bigger.
Man the bird! Look at that.
Pull it, pull it, pull it!
Lean into it, lean into it!
Lift, now drive him up,
pick him up.
Wow, after just even
a few drills,
I'm like wow, I've got
a lot of respect
for these firefighters.
Exhausted, like, just fatigue.
Like, I could puke.
Yeah, I'm just realizing
that it was really selfish of me
to expect Danna
to be waiting for me.
And here I was travelling
all over the place
and being on the road,
and it must have been
really difficult for her
to be at home,
and now that the project's
coming to an end,
I'm really looking forward
to working on us.
I was so beyond happy
for Sean
to have all of this done,
and he had completed it.
Week 52, final week,
I'm bringing it back
to my home town,
Port Moody, British Columbia.
I spent my whole life here,
so it's only fitting
that I end the whole year,
my experience,
as being mayor of the town.
Let's clean this town up.
Congratulations, your job.
Thank you.
I think the ability
to listen to the residents,
and to see the results,
to see those dreams
and the aspirations of the
residents become reality.
To me, it is personal
satisfaction.
I've quickly realized, as mayor,
that it can be quite difficult
trying to manage
all the stakeholders,
so basically, you're trying
to keep everybody happy.
There's all these
different committees,
different interest groups,
and everybody's
got their own agenda,
and everybody wants you
to give them more money
and not cut their budget,
so it can be a difficult task
trying to manage all these
different peoples' wants
and trying and keep
everybody happy.
How many people do we meet
on a daily basis
that hate going to their jobs,
you know?
Change can be good.
You don't have to be born,
raised,
and die in the same town.
You don't have to have one job,
and that's the end of it,
you know, you have to have
a narrow vision.
The world is yours.
I've always known
that I'm capable of anything
and that if I really
wanted something
and committed to it,
that I can achieve it,
and, you know,
to actually see all the people
that have helped me out
along this way,
that I could not have foreseen,
and the generosity,
and just openness,
and the willingness
to get involved
and support the project
over the course of the year
has been incredible.
Do any of us know
what we are looking for?
I think maybe when we find it,
we say,
"Okay, that's
what I was looking for."
To me, the most important thing
that I think Sean has done,
he's set himself a target
and despite all the obstacles,
he met that target.
That is something
that will pay off
for the rest of his life.
Ultimately, by starting
the one week job project,
I discovered that my passion
is to explore.
I've decided I would be
fulfilled
as a real estate agent,
a teacher,
or a motivational speaker,
but for now,
I'm going to share my story.
I want people to take away
a sense
that it is possible
to find your passion.
Sean is... he's a pioneer
for young people
to really begin to explore
what it is that you want.
Does it become maybe a bit
of a rally cry for a generation?
The longer you wait
to pursue your passion,
the more inertia
you have to overcome.
My advice is suck it up.
I just think you
have to go for it.
You always have to go for it.
Take some time
and figure it out.
Don't just jump
into the first opportunity.
At my age, at 45,
time goes by very quickly.
It's very precious.
Don't waste it.
Until you take your last breath,
it's never too late.
There was this great relief
that one project had ended,
however,
I think we both realized
that it was really the beginning
of a new project,
with each other.
With each other.
I hope that others
take my experiences
as just another example
of somebody
who believed in something
and went after it,
and it worked.
What do you want to be
when you grow up?