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That it's 80% the people you surround yourself with on a daily basis.

Most people get stuck on a specific life path because how they are educated and raised. When we are young we have less options who we spend most our time with and our influenced by. We also have a bigger pull to do "what's right" and to "fit in" as we get into high school, etc...

But out in the real world (college and the first decade of independent life) the biggest factor in whether someone was happy, complacent, depressed, thrilled, inspired, held back, etc...

...was the people in their lives.

When they spent time with complacent, conformed people - they tended towards that. Sometimes that's o.k. - if it fits your current needs and wants. Many times it DIDN'T fit that - yet people still did it.

Once they surrounded themselves with people who blazed a more unconventional path, or made choices differently than the masses, they saw more opportunity and were influenced to do the same.

In short, for better or worse, we truly are the bi-product of who we choose to spend our time with.

This is a loaded question for sure, but I'll do my best to answer it in this space.

Tips I've found to help include, thinking back to when you were a child. What did you love, connect with, and adore back then. This doesn't always work, but can get you on the right path.

Also, you've got to disconnect from your day-to-day hustle and bustle to remember/brainstorm what your passion is. It's almost impossible to step back and evaluate when you are caught up in the busy-cycle of every day life. That's why retreats are so popular in business and self-help circles - it does help to get OUT of you environment and look back into it.

Also, just because you love tennis - doesn't mean you should play tennis professionally. Sometimes that works for people, but other people have strengths that are more hidden.

For example, I have a passion for educating/teaching. That doesn't mean I should go teach elementary kids - or go to college for education. I've found avenues for this through entrepreneurship that is hugely rewarding, but a bit outside the box.

Again, tough to fully answer in a reddit text box - but hope this helps get you started.

First, thanks for supporting us - I sincerely appreciate it.

Breaking into more household markets is a very tough, uphill battle. WE've considered trying a theater distribution, but have been warned by just about everyone inside the business that it's almost always a money losing situation for anyone NOT a major studio. Some movies intentionally lose money for publicity, hoping to make it back on DVD sales or future projects.

That's a possibility for us - but we're unsure we want to roll the dice there.

Another option is to continue producing the best work we can moving forward - knowing that the original documentary that started it all will continue to gain momentum from our new work.

Being that we have limited creativity and time, this is a great option as well - but the base film won't grow as quickly as we want this way.

We're considering iTunes as well as other platforms. While we love selling it ourselves and keeping it DRM-free (which we would still do even with iTunes) we have thousands of supporters and fans who would consider leaving reviews for us on iTunes.

We've gotten hundreds of testimonials via email - and turning those into iTunes reviews could really give us a boost inside a platform that has millions of documentary sales. Again, there is pros and cons - but this is an option.

Ultimately, we have a 12 point bullet list of ideas for 2013. We've only hit the tip of the iceberg for getting the word out - and will be testing several of these ideas this year.

Hey, this is partly true.

A couple of the people interviewed were talking about their decisions in the past - and certainly have had success since their live changes. However, many of them went through debt broke and in debt to get their after the switched.

Among the people who come to mind who aren't well known (or who are more currently going through the changes):

*Most of the filmmakers (including my story) *Will Jackson - is success in his career now but certainly went through tough times in his transistion into freelancing. *Matt & Betsy - just short sold their house and moved in as renters. Doing really fun work now, but far from "wealthy". Paid off a bunch of debt. *Victoria - lawyer from Austin toward end. Great income, but still trapped financially - lots of debt, feels stuck. *Josh Orem - professional volunteer. Almost no income. *Commodore family - paid off lots of debt, had great income, but spent 18 months living on a bus as a family of 8 to pay it off and lower expenses. *Karen Putz - Again, doing amazing work now, but had to work hard for years to get sponsorships for her barefoot skiing and to find work freelancing.

I'm sure there are a couple more, but MOST of even the successful people now went through some really lean years of sacrifice even after they chose a different path. :)

Hey, by far - it was an existing network of bloggers and online writers. I had blogged for 4 years at http://manvsdebt.com - and through that process knew a lot of other bloggers/writers.

When people heard we were doing a movie - and the compelling topic of complacency - it was easy to highlight it to their audiences. That helped a ton!