Sunday’s Inspiration: Red Paper Clip Guy

Do you know who the “red paper clip guy” is? If you don’t read on and you’ll find out…

Who is the Red Paper Clip Guy and Why Should He Inspire me on a Sunday?

Kyle MacDonald is the “red paper clip guy” and he traded a red paper clip (worth basically nothing) for a house (worth quite a lot). The story was pretty big in Canada back in 2006. I found out about it through my PR boss Jonathan Hopkins who shared the story in the office one day.

What do you mean he traded a Red Paper Clip for a House?

If you haven’t heard the red paper clip story, then here goes…

Kyle McDonald wants to dream big – he was unemployed but wanted a house to live in. He did own a red paperclip though. He has a brainwave and so he starts a website about trading a red paper clip for something else. He is looking for an upgrade. On the 14th July 2005 he made the first trade of his single red paper clip for a fish shaped pen, in Vancouver. 14 trades later and he had a house. In less than a year. On July 6th 2006, Kyle swapped a movie role for a house in Kipling, Saskatchewan, Canada. Amazing or what?

I certainly thought so!!

From the BBC Report on Red Paper Clip Guy: “It took Kyle exactly a year of 14 internet trades to move from the red paper clip to a house on Main Street in the tiny town of Kipling in Saskatchewan province – a place he has never been to before.

Now the 26-year-old is planning to write a book about the venture which saw him trade up through a novelty doorknob, a camping stove, a snowmobile, a recording contract, and an afternoon with rock star Alice Cooper.

“I knew it was possible,” he said on the BBC’s Today programme. “You can do anything if you put your mind to it.”

Let’s have a look at the 14 trades Kyle made to go from red paper clip to house:

Now the question remains – If one red paperclip is worth a house, then how much is a one man free travel blog to more than 80 countries around the globe going to be worth?

I did some checking and according to one source this website Don’t Stop Living apparently is worth over $175,000 now…but there’s no way I’d sell it for a house, or a red paperclip 😉

But seriously, how far can you go? What ideas can you come up with? How far can a travel blog go? How much money can you make from a red paperclip? How much money can you make from a travel blog? You can have anything if you want it enough, I strongly believe that now.

Live your dreams and think big, you never know where life will take you…

Thanks to Jonathan Hopkins and Kyle MacDonald for the inspiration.
Kyle MacDonald’s Blog One Red Paperclip.