Click here to check out the article that was published in the Ushuaian newspaper “El diario del fin del mundo”.
Finally that $30,000 student loan for that bit of paper I have that says I’m a “Marketing professional” has paid off. Yep, marketing myself, not yet a successful campaign, but a marketing campaign none the less.
One thing that I have learnt about what I’m doing ie trying to live my dream and get to Antarctica, is that you can’t be shy, you just have to put it out there, you can’t be worried about looking like a fool (something I do pretty well) or appearing arrogant, you can’t be bothered what other people think of you, you just have to do whatever it takes. And this is a little bit harder for us kiwis that got brought up with tall poppy syndrome. This is what we call in NZ when someone talks themselves up and they get cut back down to size, which is good because it makes a humble population, but the bad side is that it represses people to outwardly express their desires, ambitions and dreams.
My theme for my “campaign” is the more people that know about my goal, the more people can help me achieve it. And it is only going to take one person, just one person, it just takes being at the right place at the right time, and if I don’t knock on that port agents door, ask the sailor at the yacht club, or go and visit my cruise ship contact, I could miss being in that right place.
And also my good ol’ travel theme “you lose much by fearing to attempt”. Sometimes it gets a bit draining, going up to random people, giving them the spiel of what I’m trying to do, but I just say those phrases. And majority of the time it pays off, it’s surprising and warming how many people give you supportive feedback and are willing to help you.
You are always going to get the guy that looks at you with pessimistic eyes and thinks you’re a bit of weirdo. But he’s the kind of person that takes satisfaction in making people inferior, when the truth is the only joy that guys get is pretending he’s better and making other people unhappy, and kicking his dog when he gets home from work at night where he wallows in his negativity and enjoys the company of the ice clinking against the side of his whisky glass.
My uniform since I have arrived has been my t-shirt that says “I will do ANYtTHING to work in Antarctica”, my jacket that says the same, and I hand my business card out like they are candy. Putting it out there.
Last week the local newspaper (El diario del fin del mundo) here did an article on my goal and quest to get to Antarctica. So I have been going around other Antarctic related businesses, eg Port Agents, Fishing companies etc handing them my article and business card, talking to them about Antarctic work options etc. But it’s good to have an article that captures most of what I have done and is Spanish so they can read it quickly and summarises what I have done and what I want to do.
It was quite funny, the day the article got published in the paper a person came up to me on the street and said “I saw you on the internet”, I replied “oh yeah the article in El fin del mundo”, they are like “nah, theres 4 photos of you on the Kaitek night club website dancing around on the stage with the same t-shirt on”. Ummmmm, so it appears I have a double in town that looks the same as me with the same t-shirt 😉