How to make an entrepreneurial dream reality in 38ish steps

1. Have life-changing experiences during childhood summer camp and collegiate retreats
2. Graduate college and enter the world of commuting, bills, coworkers, 401Ks, the gym, and watching Friends re-runs
3. Bemoan your lack of rejuvenating getaways, proximity and access to diverse yet similar people, friends, and an environment that encourages personal growth, letting go, and play
4. Tire of hearing yourself complain
5. Rent a 15 passenger van and a gaggle of cabins in Michigan with money you probably shouldn’t be taking a risk with
6. Spread the word you’re running a Life of Yes℠ Sleepaway Camp
7. Cross your fingers
8. Have your heart burst with each application that comes through
9. Select your first (and only?) group of campers
10. Figure out what a Life of Yes℠ Sleepaway Camp is
11. Have one of your most memorable adult-experiences at Camp
12. Spread the word you’re running a second Life of Yes℠ Sleepaway Camp
13. Cross your fingers
14. Have your heart burst with each application that comes through, including your first OUT OF STATE’ER
15. Select your second (and final?) group of campers
16. Figure out how to make Camp better
17. Have one of your most memorable adult-experiences at Camp
18. Spread the word you’re running a third Life of Yes℠ Sleepaway Camp
19. Cross your fingers
20. Through no action on your part other than creating Camp, get written up in Forbes, the Sunday NYT, and Tasting Table
21. Have your heart burst with each application that comes through, from people all over the world including LA, NYC, and Ecuador
22. Select your third (and final?) group of campers
23. Quickly throw together a fourth Camp two weeks after your third Camp and a week before your wedding to accommodate the applicant overflow
24. Figure out how to make Camp better
25. Have one of your most memorable adult-experiences at Camp and subsequent Camp
26. Spread the word you’re running a fifth Life of Yes℠ Sleepaway Camp
27. Cross your fingers
28. Repeat
29. Repeat
30. Repeat
31. Shake your head that campers have come to Chicago from LA, Seattle, NYC, NJ, Philly, Maine, Wisconsin, and Denver, that they’ve been age 23 to 62, that they have their shit together, that they’re falling a part, that they’re chief financial officers, that they’re nannies, that they have two kids, that they hate kids, that they want but can’t have kids, that they’ve sent their friends, employees, coworkers to subsequent camps
32. Get asked by previous campers if they can return to Camp to build upon their first experience
33. Invite Camp alum to Life of Yes℠ Sleepaway Camp, Ph.D. edition
34. Have Camp alum register for Life of Yes℠ Sleepaway Camp, Ph.D. edition
35. Figure out what a Life of Yes℠ Sleepaway Camp Ph.D. edition is
36. Prep for the last Camp of 2015, your ninth
37. Know it’s going to be one of your most memorable adult-experiences
38. But still, cross your fingers…

Photos from the eighth Life of Yes℠ Sleepaway Camp, July 2015