I became a huge fan of Brandon George today. Brandon is a student at my alma mater, the Creative Circus. He is also a rabid Cleveland Cavaliers fan.

As every Clevelander knows, LeBron James IS the Cavs. But in two and a half months, they may lose him to free agency.  So Brandon started a campaign to keep ‘Bron in Cleveland. It’s called In LeBron We Trust, and it consists of Brandon doing one news-worthy stunt a week for 23 weeks or until the Cavs re-sign him.

Some of my favorites include:

• Dribble a basketball for 23 hours straight
• Get hypnotized into believing he’s LeBron
• Sit inside a bin of Shaq’s used uniforms

Brandon, thank you for being a living, breathing example of what I’ve been preaching for the last six months. And that is:

Don’t be the person out there looking for a job. Be the person doing something interesting.

I hear you’ve got another year at the Creative Circus. I’d be shocked if you weren’t employed well before your graduation date.

Meet Geoff Vreeken. He’s from Vancouver, which is Hollywood North for anyone who has ever done commercial television shoots there.

People flock to Vancouver for its idyllic setting and potent pot, but Geoff knows something about it that few of us from the States even realize – that it has one of the world’s worst homeless and mental health problems, even worse than London.

When Geoff lost his job, he decided he would combine his search for employment with an effort to help the homeless in Vancouver. How? By creating Homelesscopywriter.com which, when launched in October, will serve as both his portfolio site and a way to raise money and awareness for Covenant House Vancouver.

In Geoff’s words:

The project here has become so much more about the charity (Covenant House), and so much less about me. They have this huge black hole in their donation demo: Professionals 25-40. People like us just don’t seem to give a shit. I’m really hoping to change that with homlesscopywriter.com.

The homeless situation here is awful–and our generation needs to start giving back. The Covenant House is private and non-profit, giving kids between 16-25 all the care they need from safe lodging and hot food, to free education and programs to slowly get them back on their feet. Basically, they attack homelessness at the core: young people who haven’t gone too far down the rabbit hole yet.

The mission statement is: If my client were a homeless person instead of a company, how would I creatively raise money for them on the streets using just cardboard and a marker? I’ve attached the final photography for reference (see below).

I’m excited to see where Geoff takes his initiative. And that’s the point here, that he’s taking initiative. It’s so easy for us to wallow in our own state of joblessness. But you know what? It takes work to be depressed. It’s exhausting.  And Geoff Vreeken is proving that you can turn your own shitty situation into the opportunity of a lifetime, both for yourself and for those in need.

I stand in awe, Geoff. Thank you for inspiring me.