The first time I saw the Holstee Manifesto was last December. My daughter had received the poster as a gift from her thoughtful and intuitive boyfriend. I watched as she uncurled the poster and read the words. Tears of joy and gratitude formed in her eyes, not only from the inspiration she held in black and white, but from the knowledge that the man she loved understood her so profoundly.

I do not know if this was the first my daughter had heard of Holstee. But a few short months later she was so excited to begin an internship with them. I was happy to see she had the opportunity to work for a company that inspired her creatively.

My favorite line in the Manifesto is, “So go out and start creating.” All my life I have found joy and satisfaction through creating in various mediums. I firmly believe that every human has the God-given ability to create. Too often people doubt or belittle their efforts, but that gift is an intrinsic part of being human. SO GO OUT and CREATE. Through art, music, writing, science, dance, design, invention.

I respect Holstee for their philosophy. I admire any person, organization or industry that cares not only for self, but for the surrounding community. I appreciate the inspiring words in your Manifesto. Often a seemingly small and simple thing is all that is needed: to carry on, to not quit, to persevere, to pursue, to try again, to push forward, to take a step, to take a chance. May we all strive to be that encouragement to others.

Thank you, Holstee.

-Susan Papadopoulos

The first time I read the Holstee Manifesto I felt like someone had read my mind. Every thought it shares is one I believe in and need to be regularly reminded of. It was because of the Manifesto I decided to volunteer my time at Holstee, which turned out to be such a rewarding experience. Dave, Mike, Fabian and the team are the real deal, leading by example living out the Manifesto each line at a time.

To sum it up: The same way the Manifesto speaks of Holstee’s core I’ve adopted it as also expressing a part of mine. Its been a great reminder of what’s important and continues to be an inspiring view of life, my life. :)

-Sarah Bernardo

New York City, July 2009… I stand in a lounge to attend a networking event not sure if I will meet viable contacts. At least I am trying. The economy is dreadful and all of us are looking for new job opportunities. I’ve brought my Italian girlfriend with me for support and met Dave and Mike from Holstee. I give them my card and we discuss the interesting T-Shirt with a side pocket they are both wearing. The more I speak to them the more I am captivated. In a time where most of us are laid off and trying to “Network” to find work they are diving in and making a new company with a Manifesto statement. Dave just quit his full time salaried corporate job to focus on Holstee and their future was uncertain.
 
What people might not know about Dave, Mike and Fabian is how they never gave up. Fabian walked door to door, day after day, trying to find someone to lend them a few square feet of space to house their business. Dave and Mike used their apartment to house visitors using couch surfing to raise money for rent.
 
What people might not know is the words we all read in the Manifesto was so pure, so organic and most of all these men walked the walk. They lived those words. 
 
Without passion, we are nothing. The passion these 3 men had and where they have come since July 2009 is amazing. I am in awe. The way their Manifesto has been used to create posters, quilts, greeting cards and videos is sending positive shockwaves around the world.
 
No matter what struggle you are dealing with and believe me we all have them, reading these words is like a shot of healthy power juice! It gives you a boost, a shockwave that moves your body into action and positivity.
 
The world is full of so many things that are unhealthy (food, thoughts, people) we must have the healthy power words to combat this.
 
I challenge everyone reading this to keep the Manifesto close and to read it or watch the video whenever you need to fight negativity! 

-Sonya Aleman

The Manifesto is incredible because it it gives one single-minded powerful first step in how to make the world a better place. It does not tell me to “drink tap water” or “give to charity” or “save the rainforest”. It does not burden me with guilt or shame for my current behavior (I fly a lot). Instead it tells me to look in the mirror and to begin taking myself seriously. As a human. Do the things I care about. Enjoy the last bite. Share my passion with others. 

It is hedonistic sustainability. Making the world better does not start with fixing someone else. It starts with fixing me. That is the first step. That is what the Manifesto reminds me to do.

-Mathias Vestergaard

To think that a piece of recycled paper, ink and some words can spark such a huge following is quite amazing. This shows how powerful words can be, especially the right words together. To me the Manifesto is more than just inspiring words, it is validation, acceptance and a sense of community. 

I didn’t know it at the time, but the decisions I was making and the paths that I took in my life was very much the Manifesto. Even at an early age, the choices I’ve made were not what a lot of people, especially my family, had hoped for and had expected of me. I come from a traditional Chinese family and their plans for me were the typical safe and lucrative professions, like being a doctor or a lawyer. A straight foreseeable path. 

While I did get good grades in school and was capable of going down that route. My interests and passions lie elsewhere. After all I was the creative, sensitive and “odd” one in the family. I pursued my interests in the arts and despite my family’s dismay, I went to college to foster my creativity. 

While working at my first job at a design firm, I realized something was missing. After speaking to countless people about me wanting to leave, they all advised me to stay because having a stable job is hard to come by in this economy and being a designer in New York is highly competitive. Ultimately, I realized I was not happy there and feeling uneasy about it, I left.

While applying for new jobs and waiting to hear back, I decided to design and create some bags I had in my head and sketchbook for a long time. I just had to get them out and make a sample just so I would stop thinking about them and keep wondering if they worked or not. After making the samples, I snapped some photos and emailed them to some friends. Those friends emailed them to other friends and from there, blogs and magazines starting picking them up and writing about them. From the blogs I started getting orders for the bags. I debated long and hard with myself and I realized that this was an opportunity and it may not come again, I told myself I’m going to see where this takes me and dove head first into it. Using my nick name I was teased with in High School, I now founded a Brooklyn-based design studio that specializes bags.

When I first stumbled onto the Manifesto online, it hit me hard. Until then, I was always insecure and felt a sense of guilt about the choices that I’ve made. I feared I was letting my family down and I did question my judgement at times. After seeing those words, it validated and reassured me that the decisions I’ve made had good reason. I’ve now come to accept the fact that those choices were necessary order for me to reach my potential and live a happy and fulfilling life. 

The sense of community the Manifesto evokes is astounding. When I first read it, in my head I thought to myself, ” Yes, these people get it!” It is easy to feel alone when making some tough and life changing decisions, but realizing that the manifesto resonated with you the same way it did to millions of people around the world, you can’t help but feel connected to each other in some way.

-Vincent Lai | Skinny Vinny

I have had the tremendous privilege and honor of getting to know the guys who wrote the Holstee Manifesto, especially Fabian. Shortly after meeting Fabi, I started a round the world adventure trip that took me to tea fields in southern China, scuba diving and rappelling down waterfalls in Indonesia and parties in Berlin. I’ve grown and learned more in these 6th months than in a year of PhD studies in Philosophy of Mind and Neuroscience. And life is only getting better from here! This is my life and I’m delighted and excited to live it! In the Fall, I’ll continue putting the Holstee Manifesto into practice as a student at Yale Law School as I continue to work to realize dream to change the world for the better. My life is about the people I meet and the world that we are building together. Thank you to Holstee for putting such a beautiful and empowering positive philosophy into words.

-Nathana Obrien

“If you are looking for the love of your life, stop. They will be waiting for you when you start doing things you love.”  This happened to me.

I was looking for about 30 years I reckon (from 15 to 45 years old). I tried all sorts of things to meet someone, especially in those latter years. Latin dancing classes, yoga, internet dating, you name it. 

As it happened I’d been trying to figure out what to do with my life for most of that period as well. Three decades! Two of those decades watching friends get married, have kids, and forge (supposedly) successful careers. 

Then in my mid-40’s I realised the time I was spending on ‘RSVP’ (an Australian internet dating service) was a waste of time and that I’d be much better off putting it into the new career I thought was beyond my reach. 

I re-fashioned my career as an environmental journalist (from that of a university lecturer in advertising). I started a podcast called The Environment Show which became the number one environment podcast in Australia and a radio show on 2SER (Sydney Educational Radio). It was a big change for me, but I loved it. It took an enormous amount of work, but it didn’t feel like work.

Then at 47 I was walking up the street one night and there she was. Lisa, the artist, in her studio next to the Thai food place (where I picked up my lonely guy dinner). I saw her closing up shop. She’d left her sign out on the street, so I knocked on the window to let her know.

“Oops, yes, I tend to do that,” she came out and said. “I’m a bit vague.”

I remember that first conversation—how easy it was, and warm and gentle. Like I’d known this person all my life. As I walked away I thought to myself: “Hmm, that was a good sign.” (I have a tendency for vagueness too). And sure enough that was it. The start of our relationship 3 years ago. 

Who would have thought I’d meet my soulmate and be living with her above her shop? After decades of trying and failing in love. The catalyst was when I started doing what I loved. When I became happy with myself—who I was and where I was heading. So that’s my advice for you too.

In another strange twist of fate, I found the Holstee Manifesto (and was struck by the love bit) when I was researching a cycling project - in what is effectively a business mission statement of all things. 

If you’re starting a project or business yourself there’s also a lesson in Holstee’s success I reckon. And that is to really go for it and create something that’s different, that’s really you, and that helps and inspires other people. 

Lisa and I are creating a couple of great little businesses together now. Holstee has given us a jolt of inspiration on that front as well. This part of the Manifesto is all too true for us too: “Life is about the people you meet and the things you create with them.” 

-Phil Stubbs 

I met the love of my life 23 years ago July 4th, on a beach in LA. We both came from childhoods that were rough, and we both entered our relationship determined to make our lives great. We had success! Through humility, hard work, shared vision, and learning from our many mistakes (oh, and a sense of humor) we can now claim a life contended and blessed—with two Boston Terriers, two happy and healthy children, and a comfortable home in Pittsburgh, PA.

BUT, my beloved husband was diagnosed with a fatal illness last Summer. Our days together now are numbered, and our future is filled with much hardship and uncertainty. YET, we have created a new vision for our lives, and our children’s lives, and how we plan to use our remaining time together. Our story can be kept up with here. Our mantra is “Life is STILL About the People You Meet and the Things You Create with Them,” and Gratitude For Every Single Day.

-Suzanne Alexander

‘I’ll get the next round!’ I get four beers in exchange for letting the cute guy at the bar draw a mustache on my face. He gets one from me. A mustache that is. My friends don’t even realize I have a big black handlebar between my nose and lips, it seems to look natural on me… My Latin blood I guess. 

He and I spend the last two days of my trip to Central America falling in love… fast! And we joke around, ‘There are no waves in the Caribbean right now, you should come to Berlin’ (my home town). A week later I pick him up from the airport. He brought one backpack with one pair of jeans, one thin hoodie and some socks he borrowed from his surf buddy. Obviously he hadn’t planned on chasing a girl to Berlin, silly man! We depend on the mercy of the weather gods and they treat us well! We spend another 10 days together enjoying the early spring and realizing we don’t want to be apart anymore! 

So, we pack my stuff in two bags, move it to L.A., pack his stuff and mine in the back of an old 4Runner and drive it down to Costa Rica. Home sweet Home! At least for a while… 

After almost 3 years of living between Panama, Nicaragua and Costa Rica and suffering though some long-distance time due to visa restrictions, we are now getting married! We followed our passion by following each other. Not only because we were in love, but because we were both in situations that required CHANGE. Because IT IS OUR LIFE and IT IS SHORT. When I met him, I had STOPPED LOOKING. So when I read The Holstee Manifesto it was like someone was speaking about my life and then our lives! It is a constant reminder! And the greeting card is travel size! 

-Nina Polo Wieja

Live each day as if it were your last… because one of these days, you might be right.

From a young age, I always envisioned walking a mile in someone elses shoes and what their story told. Maybe that’s why I love being an actor and playing the part everyone wants to be entertained by or aspire to.

Quick lesson learned: not all knights in shining armor get the girl and live happily ever after. Sometimes their “ever after” actually comes sooner than planned. I have attended more funerals to those taken too early and ones who choose their ending. At the age of seventeen, my life was drastically altered when my soon-to-be college roommate took his own life. How is a teenager able to commit such a selfish ending? To play the character who forces others to face a blindsided death was just Act One to my life’s manifesto. From there, I’ve had my handful heartbreaks…including watching my best friend plunge 3 stories to his death back in 2006. If you had asked what my life’s path would be, it wouldn’t have included these graveled stones to walk in my mile as Scott Wormser.

My manifesto is: BE THE EAR FOR THE SILENT VOICE.

Always listen to those in your life, even ones who’s stories will be told at a later time. Enemies are just people with whom it takes more effort to connect with…and learn from.

The role I play now is one no stage can showcase because as my life changes and grows, so does the venue. A shadow passed keeps my feet moving forward. Telling everyone of my fallen heroes hopefully teaches what they thought could never be taught. 

Within days, I will be a married man—the role I eagerly await for—and I am excited to play out my happily ever after. Act Two starts September 2.

-Scott Wormser

I did things I never thought I could. I quit my job. I travelled. I auditioned for a TV show. I modelled. I climbed a mountain. I sang with a band. I started blogs to share my adventures, to inspire and encourage everyone else to live their passions too. When I started following my passion for learning and doing, I met other people who loved doing the same. Thanks to the Holstee Manifesto I have transformed and evolved into something beyond my body’s limits.

-Treavor W.

The Manifesto has been a great sense of inspiration, so much so that each day that I have my daughter staying with me at my house, I will be reading it to her daily. 

She’s only 4 years old, but in the end, the Manifesto is the only way that I hope that my daughter grows up thinking about Life in general. 

As for me, it’s a daily reminder that Life is fleeting, so we must always strive to do right, live right, and reach for the stars.

-Ivan Elias

The Holstee Manifesto came to me at a tumultuous yet inspiring time in my life. I had just made this, what felt like, “transition” from being a straight man to gay man (in retrospect knowing fully it was bound to happen at some point). I had graduated University but wanted to relinquish any expectation I had convinced myself of in going out and find a “real job”. I had abandoned one relationship, got into another, and then left that one too.

A colleague, who is so enthusiastic about life, showed me the Holstee Manifesto poster online. I immediately bought half a dozen from the website and shared it with my closest friends (and even my ex!).  

It made me realize life is short. I should be grateful for the hurdles I’ve jumped over—not because there are hurdles in life but because I, Mark, JUMPED over them. I thought about what I loved and thought about doing it often. So I signed up to do yoga teacher training and, voila, I now teach yoga because I love it.

I now know life is for sharing, and appreciating every last bite of a LIFE you can sink your teeth into.  I now know that I am gay and that is okay. I can stop over-analyzing that and be proud of my own story.

It’s the only one where you can write your own ending.

- Mark Lendrum

“If you are looking for the love of your life; stop. They will be waiting for you when you start doing the things you love.” 

The eroded physical stature of my body clearly indicates I have not eaten for days, perhaps even weeks. My mental faculties are muddled. I am tired, decrepit; my muscles show signs of atrophy. The light of day seems so foreign to me now, a language unto itself that I simply cannot decipher. I suspect my meagre weight is approaching Hobbit-like proportions. The thought conjures reflections of the Shire; lush green landscapes with caroling feathered friends and twirling young children. It seems like a delightful place to be this time of year, if only for a moment.

I miss her.

Without warning, the door to my home berates me with the sound of a closed fist to lumber. I remain deathly still, thoroughly mute, unable to fathom who would have the audacity to enter my realm of woeful desolation. The front door calls for me again, this time with a sense of urgency, yet not enough to compel me to advance position. A few moments pass when the alarming sound of metal on metal, twisting and turning, shudders through my body. Today, the sound of victory is a consequence of squeaky door hinges, naturally tuned to the key of G. The hull has been breached with the support of a golden spare key. Today, my logic has failed me.

A dark figure clothed in casual business attire approaches me with reservation, quietly speaking in a calm, soothing manner. The look in his eyes reveals my pathetic condition; parading my mental and physical blemishes with clarity like a brawny circus mirror you can’t escape. It is my dear friend Andy. Equipped with the Holstee Manifesto in hand, he has come to rescue me from my slumber.

I blink with all my might, then whisper, “Hello.”

-Faisal M Sethi

It was the full moon. No, I’m not a “Twilight” saga fan and I don’t know whether it’s superstitious or true but whenever there is a full moon, I was told that the phenomenon would affect human’s emotions and thoughts. One day, my course mate told us about the full moon’s coming and people are getting moody at one of our museum sessions (I am a History of Art master student). At first, I took it lightly until that night I had a strange dream. I’m not going to talk about my dream in detail but enough to say that someone whom I loved so much in the past came into my dream. That morning I woke up feeling disoriented and in complete disbelief. I questioned why would the person come back into my life?

To regress a little bit, two months before the dream I called for my engagement to be held back home in Malaysia by the end of the year but unfortunately a month later it was called off. I was devastated at the beginning but luckily I took the optimist stance by saying to myself “Things happen for thousand reasons” and high chances are there must be plenty of good reasons for the engagement to be canceled, life just sometimes won’t work as how we planned. Nevertheless, the person I dreamt wasn’t the person I was going to get engaged to. 

I bought the Holstee Manifesto poster six months ago when I first moved to London to pursue my postgraduate studies. I was inspired by its words and when I moved into the apartment, I hung the poster on top of the head of my bed. I was very enthusiastic to promise myself to read it every morning before I go to school. Months passed.  Course work submitted and a winter survived, I almost forgot I had the poster hung in my room. Time flew so fast until that day I woke up from the strange dream. I felt bad. It was terrible until I had to play Youtube videos of Dame Shirley Bassey’s “This is my life” to uplift my spirit again. Worst, I made an attempt to get in touch with my past love (the one I dreamt about) but it was to no avail. Dame Bassey’s song was on repeat and I wasn’t feeling any better. The day was somber and it didn’t help much either when I decided to shut the curtains. I skipped class that day; with the song in my head (playing the words “This is my life, today, tomorrow love will come and find me”) I forced myself to make lunch. As I was about to enter my room from the kitchen, there it was, the Holstee poster, as if it suddenly exists, the word LIFE grabbed my attention. After that it shifted to the word LOVE. Then it took me to read the sentence above it. “IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE, STOP; THEY WILL BE WAITING FOR YOU WHEN YOU START DOING THINGS YOU LOVE.” I was startled but began to see the light. I have four months more until my thesis submission and I cannot afford to lock myself up in the room and feel disappointed. I have to GO OUT AND START CREATING.

Many times in life we feel so fragile, vulnerable, detached, misunderstood and yearned to be settled, loved, appreciated and needed. When one lover leaves us, our hearts tend to ponder back on the lost sweet sensations and our minds tend to wander back on the lost memorable moments. This was the rationale of my dream. However, no matter what we feel, ALL EMOTIONS ARE BEAUTIFUL. This was what Holstee manifesto has taught me. GETTING LOST WILL HELP YOU FIND YOURSELF. 

-Jamal Jamaludin