“The only way to be truly satisfied is to do great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do.”
It’s this mantra of the late Steve Jobs, which 30-year-old American entrepreneur Mike Rios has adapted into practice. The one-time creative “ad man” for companies such as Nike, Coca-Cola and Tiger Beer, embarked on a radical career-change when he moved to Cambodia in 2009 to co-found 17 Triggers.
“If someone had have told me in my senior year at high school that I’d be living in Cambodia, I would’ve told them that they’re crazy,” he says.
Unlike a regular advertising agency, 17 Triggers is a mix between a marketing, consultancy and innovation firm that only works for good causes. Typical clients include foundations, NGOs, governments and development organisations that are trying to solve “stagnate problems”.
“We’ve helped Cambodians understand the need to buy toilets, taught mothers how to take care of their newborns properly, and changed awareness about issues concerning financial literacy, human trafficking, orphanage tourism, and family planning,” Rios says.
“We identify the right problems and think about innovative solutions to trigger the masses to change and actually have real impact.”
Adopted from South Korea and raised by parents Phillip and Sue in Michigan, Rios showed early signs of lateral thinking and creative problem solving.
“My mum tells a story about me as a baby. A lot of people when they do puzzles complete the border pieces first, but I would always refuse to do that because it was too easy,” he says.
Rios developed his creative interests at Blandford Nature School and City High Middle School, with both offering alternative curricula, predominantly based on writing, film-making, and creative arts.
Although not claiming to be the greatest academic student, Rios was recently invited back to City High, where he delivered the commencement speech to the graduating class of 2012.
“When I graduated from high school I didn’t really want to go to university. I had been working at a TV production company and my dream was to make films and TV commercials,” he says.
“I ended up studying a Bachelor of Arts in advertising and public relations at Grand Valley State University,” he says. “In university you’re with so many like-minded people with so much energy and passion. It’s just a magical four years where you really believe that when you graduate you can change the world.”
At the completion of his freshman year, Rios spent the summer term studying photography and creative writing in Brazil, which turned out to be a significant source of inspiration.
“From that point on I went abroad every year. I did an internship in Germany. I did another one in London. The following year I went back to Brazil and then I ended up going to Thailand about a year after I graduated.”
It didn’t take long for Rios to realise his dream of making TV commercials for a living, when he landed a job with Nike.
“I had always wanted to work for Nike and I was fascinated that they could tell so much of their story in a minute,” he says. “I couldn’t believe that I was actually lucky enough to be working for them, but then when I went to Thailand, I realised there’s so much more to life than selling widgets.”
After a few months, a conversation with then boss Adele Amos would set Rios on a path to Cambodia, which was unforeseen at the time. While working on the 25th anniversary of Nike’s ‘Air Force One’ shoe campaign, Amos delivered a rude awakening during one memorable lunch break.
“She said to me, Mike, I want you to go be crazy. Before your house payments, your car payments and your girlfriend payments take over your life,” he says. “She said look at me, I have this Porsche, I have this mansion and all these things, and all I wish is that someone had told me at your age to go be crazy.”
And that he did.
Immediately Rios quit his job and started off on a new journey by teaching English in Thailand for five months.
“I just explored so many options. At one point I was thinking of enrolling in culinary school in Thailand, another time I was thinking of going back to Brazil, and another time I ended up backpacking in South America for a year,” he says.
While picking up freelance work to finance his travels, Rios had an epiphany that made him question his purpose.
“I realised we’re not only selling Coca-Cola, but we’re selling beer and cigarettes to people who are earning less than $2 a day, and it made me really question what I was doing with my life.”
Shortly afterwards, Rios met fellow traveller Lillian Diaz at a volunteering event in Cambodia, and their friendship blossomed into a business partnership.
“She was the poster child for development work and I was the creative ‘ad man’. We thought what if we combined forces and created something different? So we did and it was kind of like chocolate covered bacon,” he says. “These two worlds that don’t belong together but when you mix them it’s so good!”
In 2011 Rios delivered a TEDx talk at a TED conference held in Phnom Penh, with his message emphasising the search for meaning in life and work, while challenging the audience to take stock, and think critically about their definition of success.
“A dong chim comes from Korea and it literally means ‘poop-needle’. A dong chim occurs when a person puts their hands together in the shape of a gun and pokes another person in the anal region. It’s just a violent action and it really makes you wake up,” he says.
“You have to dong chim yourself to really find meaning in life. I challenge people to stop thinking about what you do for money, and start thinking about what you do for meaning. You don’t have to quit your job to change lives; all you need to do is invest in people.”
Now married to a Cambodian wife who’s also an entrepreneur, Rios stresses the importance of world travel for life perspective and personal development, particularly for university students.
“Living abroad is one of the most rewarding things you can do in your young adult life, and you won’t know what it’s like until you try it,” he says. “You can live your life forever scared of barriers you set yourself, or you can break them down. Once you break the first barrier, all other barriers start falling with it.”
In fact, Rios says we should all “go be crazy” if we really want to make impactful change during our time on the planet.
“For many people life is like a multiple choice test. If the answer isn’t A, B, C, or D, then there are no other possibilities.”
“The world needs more people who don’t go down the narrow path, and who choose to explore unknown territory. The world needs more people who don’t see life as full of problems, but full of possibilities.”
Daniel Bramley is a first year Bachelor of Journalism student at La Trobe University, Melbourne. You can follow him on Twitter: @bramley_d
