I don’t know when exactly I first came across the work of Aaron Draplin, but he has become one of my favorite people to follow and I have come to love his work and outlook on life. He is raw, honest, and speaks from the heart (and references crying a lot in his talks). Draplin started his career in the snowboarding industry, and  moved on to work for a wide range of clients (including the U.S. Government) and created the best memo book available, Field Notes. 

Recently, he did a Creative Mornings talk (a great series of talks taking place around the world started by the brilliant Tina Roth Eisenberg aka SwissMiss) entitled the “The DDC 50 Point Plan To Ruin Yer Career”. It’s recorded as a 50-minute video, and was one of the best lectures I’ve ever watched. If you don’t have the time to watch it, I jotted down his 50 point plan and transcribed it below (Warning: Lots of foul language below, deal with it). Many won’t make sense without watching the video, but there are certainly some great points in the list below.

1. Enjoy the goddamned moment

2. Love where you are from

3. Move somewhere wild

4. Frequent eateries that use decimal points in their menus

5. Know Your Fucking Condiments

6. Get out there and get dirty

7. And then, share what you find

8. Work with yer friends

9. Know yer tools and be thankful they exist

10. Go wherever they’ll send you

11. Shed any goddamned sense of entitlement

12. Provide proof of bonafide graphic art existence using multimedia

13. Fight for the long dogs

14. Lose the crutch

15. Exhibit a little humility

16. Quit spending yer money on bullshit

17. Be wary of certain business professionals

18. Pay of those fucking school loans already

19. Laugh at stuff

20. Turn yer back on organized sports

21. Dreamp up a plan

22. Get cosmic

23. Take color theory seriously

24. Make room for some magic

25. Say what you mean

26. Get it on vinyl

27. Be ready for when they call you up to the big leagues

28. Learn an instrument

29. Be the client

30. Go by car

31. Know what really matters in the end

32. Buy things made in America

33. Question stuff constantly

34. Know who’s got the power

35. Collect cool shit

36. Grab yer social media by the throat

37. Savor the little stuff

38. Support yer local rock bands

39. Know all the shades of being “professional”

40. Don’t worry about awards

41. Quit saying the word, “dude”

42. Make big ass posters

43. Go pantless

44. Get free

45. Treat the UPS guy, mail lady and printing pressman like they are gold

46. Know what you love

47. And don’t forget about the things you hate

48. Learn to roll with the good, bad and the ugly.

49. Work hard and love this shit

50. Be thankful for everything

If you enjoyed this list and video, check out these other great videos “Why America is f*cked [graphically at least]”, Interview for YoBeat.com Part 1, Part 2, Insights 2012 Lecture.

Follow Draplin’s individually numbered Tweets and check out the rest of his work.