Today, my boss handed me a paperclip.
Now I'm going to try and turn it into a campervan.
I don't know how or how long it's going to take and I definitely don't have some genius master plan hidden away.
I've just got a paperclip.
But that's sort of the point.
Free will is a gift. Use it.
I've spent a lot of this year realising just how much you can change your life by simply deciding to do something.
Earlier this year, I bought an empty van, converted it into a campervan and moved into it. Since then I've ended up living hundreds of miles from home, climbing mountains, camping in ridiculous places, meeting complete strangers and generally having absolutely no idea where I'm going to end up next.
And I've realised something.
We're all incredibly good at coming up with reasons not to do things.
"That's stupid."
"That'll never work."
"What if it goes wrong?"
"What's the point?"
So I want to see what happens when I do the opposite.
I have the freedom to take this completely worthless little paperclip and attempt to turn it into a campervan.
So why not try?
The challenge
The rules are pretty simple.
I'm starting with one paperclip.
I have to trade it for something else.
Then I'll trade that item for something else.
Then that for something else.
And I'll keep going.
Paperclip → ? → ? → ? → ? → Campervan
I can't just buy my way through the challenge, the whole point is seeing how far I can get through trading, meeting people and probably making some absolutely terrible decisions along the way.
The ultimate goal is to somehow end up with a campervan.
Whether that takes 10 trades or 100, I've genuinely got no idea.
And if I actually get the van?
If I manage to trade my way from a paperclip all the way to a van, I'm going to convert it into a proper little camper.
Then I want to take it on an adventure and drive it into Europe.
After that, the plan is to raffle the finished campervan and donate the profits from the project to brain cancer research.
I genuinely don't know if this will work
That's probably my favourite part of the whole thing.
I'm not starting this challenge knowing the ending.
I might get stuck on the second trade.
Someone might hand me something completely useless.
I might somehow end up with a lawnmower.
Who knows?
But if I already knew exactly how this was going to work, it wouldn't be much of an adventure.
Every trade will be documented, and I'll keep this blog updated as the challenge progresses so there's a complete record of how one tiny paperclip hopefully becomes a campervan.
And if you're reading this because you've just seen one of my videos and you've got something you'd be willing to trade...
Get in touch!
You've just got to offer me something better than whatever I'm currently holding.
Let's see how far this stupid idea can go.
Free will is a gift. Use it.
— Matt Cooper (That Van Man)