On Saturday morning, I broke down crying in the Atlanta airport.
The weight of the past year suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks while I boarded the plane, and I couldn’t help but think about how drastically different my life had become in only twelve months. I had just celebrated my 27th birthday with twenty of my friends in Atlanta the night before, and I was headed home to Boston (my “home” because I don’t actually have a home these days) to celebrate again with my high school friends and family.
A year ago today, I was in the Bahamas for a friends wedding, having officially quit my day job just a few days prior to focus all of my energy on Nerd Fitness. I hadn’t made a dollar yet through the website, I didn’t have a lot of money saved up, I had never been outside of North America, and I hadn’t really put together much of a backup plan in case things didn’t work out.
If you had told me then that in the next year I’d visit Machu Picchu, scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef, fly a stunt plane in New Zealand, and explore Angkor Wat in Cambodia, I wouldn’t have believed you.
If you told me I would be invited to give a guest lecture at Google too, I probably would have punched you in the throat.
And yet there I sat on that plane, getting ready to ship up to Boston with tears streaming down my face as I read an an email from my contact at Google that my talk was now officially live on the Google Tech Talks page.
In this talk, I discussed how we can use the addicting and fun features from video games to get in shape and level up our lives – hey, they invited the guy from Nerd Fitness to give a lecture…so I gave them as much “nerd” as possible.
Here is that talk.
My Talk at Google
Steve Kamb talks at Google (Video)
It’s quite long (around an hour or so), so you might need to wait until you get home from work to watch it. I’d really appreciate it if you could take the time to go to the video’s page and give it a thumbs up if you liked it, share it with your friends on Facebook and Twitter, and/or chime in on the comments. I know the comments section of YouTube are about as low as you can get on the “intelligent conversation” scale, so hopefully with your help we can bring up the total average IQ 🙂
(special thanks to Saint, Spezzy, and Tony for having such kick-ass transformations and stories and allowing me to feature them in the presentation).
And yes, the Google complex is as cool as you’d expect it to be: ball pits, slides, old school arcade games everywhere, sleep pods, and the greatest cafeteria I’ve ever seen. No wonder everybody puts on the “Google 15.”
In some more exciting news, I was invited by Google to give my talk at their headquarters over in Dublin as well!
I’ll be in Ireland for the month of August and then Spain for the month of September – if you live in either spot I hope we get a chance to meet up. I would love the opportunity to speak at other companies around the country/world as well, so if you happen to work for a company, school, or conference and you think I’d be a good fit to give a talk, I’d love to hear from you.
Thank You
Whether you’ve been reading Nerd Fitness for only a day or for the past two and a half years, thank you. Being a part of this community is the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me, and I can only hope that this amazing group of people has had a similar effect on others. I am inspired every day by your emails and message board posts, and I can’t help but smile every time somebody sends in a picture of them wearing a Nerd Fitness t-shirt. I have big, massive plans for Nerd Fitness and this community…
The next few years are going to be a lot of fun 🙂
I feel very fortunate that I’ve found what I’m meant to do with my life. I really love helping people, and I love finding ways to better my life along the way. The Nerd Fitness Rebellion is truly becoming a worldwide revolution, and it’s all thanks to the great folks in this community. So, again, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.
Get ready though, because we’re only just getting started. I’m going to take a few days to relax, recover, and recharge…and then continue formulating plans for world domination.
For the Rebellion,
-Steve
###
Today’s Rebel Heroes: Tom and Kyle at the Mud Run MS in Philly:
Tom and Kyle rocked their Nerd Fitness shirts for this 10K run and completed a series of kick-ass obstacles along the way that tested their agility, strength, and endurance. These guys were already well prepared for the race, but their NF shirts pushed them to another level. They’ll be running the Merrell Down & Dirty on July 17th in their NF shirts as well, so if you’re going to be there, keep an eye out for them!
Have you ordered your Nerd Fitness shirt yet? Pick one up (only $20 with free shipping anywhere in the world), and send me a photo – you could be the next Rebel Hero!
