In the early 2000s, Steve Rio was living the musicians dream. Convinced he had what it takes to be the next big thing in indie-rock, he borrowed $20,000 from the bank, maxed out his credit cards and started to play.
Five days later he was broke.
His dreams of becoming a professional musician may have died but the debt lived on. A source of shame and embarrassment, it became more than a financial burden.
For the five years he kept it secret, it became the black hole of his soul until one day he decided he needed to reset my life.
Even though hed never been more than a ride-a-couple-of-blocks cyclist and had never fixed a flat tire, he decided to bicycle down the west coast from Vancouver to Los Angeles. He announced his trek one night on MySpace yes, its amazing how soon MySpace has become so retro and the next morning he had 150 invitations for places to stay along the way. Using MySpace and CouchSurfing.com, he was welcomed into strangers homes every stop along the way.
What was borne out of a sense of desperation became a journey of self-discovery, he said at a recent Public Salon at Vancouver Playhouse.
I was in such a dark headspace, he said, and while spending six to eight hours a day on a bike, all alone, might not seem the easiest way of shedding light on what seemed like an insurmountable problem, the trip was transformative for Rio.
I had let one bad decision completely change the way I looked at the world and myself, he said. When I thought about the debt, I was flooded with shame. I hated money. It was a deep phobia.
Somewhere along the way, he realized money is just one of the ways we exchanged energy and I was completely blocked.
The epiphany came facing a big hill in California: this could be my excuse for failure or a reason for success.
I stopped calling it my debt and started calling it my education. This was my way of letting go of the guilt.
Within two months, he bagged the biggest contract of his life; within six months the debt was paid off.
Today hes the CEO of Briteweb, which focuses on values-driven communications for game-changing companies, non-profits and organizations serious about their corporate social responsibility. (He was featured in a Globe and Mail video, Britewebs enviously cool, bike-friendly office.Watch video below.)
We all have these places in our mind where we think were not worthy or capable, he told the packed Vancouver Playhouse theatre. You need to understand how those walls got there. On the other side of those walls, you are infinitely capable and deserving of whatever you dream about and are willing to work hard for.
