Michael Karnjanaprakorn

I’ve always lived my life and made decisions based on a couple of key principles.  These may sound like tried and true cliches, but i actually DO follow them.  Stop and think about what they actually mean instead of letting them fall on deaf ears.

1) Never chase the money.
2) Every step moves you closer to your goals.
3) Do what makes you happy.
4) Live life with no regrets.
5) Trust your gut.
6) Most importantly, have fun because life is short.

When I graduated from VCU Brandcenter in 2006, I wanted to travel around the world. So, I did. At the time, it was probably not the smartest thing to do. When people were putting together their portfolios and going on job interviews, I was in the computer lab planning my itinerary and booking travel. Looking back, it was probably one of the best experiences I ever had in my life. And something I would have regretted if I didn’t do. I mean, what other times in your life can you travel around the world by yourself with nothing to worry about?

Looking back at the past 3 years, I’ve applied these simple life principles that guided me down many different paths to get me where I am today. I worked at Naked Communications in London to build up my creative skill-set. I moved to New Orleans to work for Trumpet and help rebrand the city of New Orleans. And most recently, I worked for creative startup Behance in New York. Each one of these experiences have taught me some valuable life lessons.

Like all good things, they must come to an end. Friday will be my last day at Behance. I’ve had a wonderful 1.5 years working at this startup and have learned so much in the process.  Before I decided to work at Behance, I read an article on the “Paypal Mafia” and I knew that I had to be in a similar environment.  Looking back over my experience here, I can truly say that it was everything I expected and even more.  I wish the team luck in all of their future endeavors and I’m thrilled to see them grow and be successful.

But, much like my decision to travel around the world, I’ve decided that it’s time for me to focus all of my time and energy on All Day Buffet. The next phase of my life will be to utilize my past experiences and skills to grow and build All Day Buffet to the point where it becomes successful.  I’ll be solely focused on working with Jerri Chou on growing All Day Buffet and The Feast Conference, working with Laura White to launch her own company, and internally developing some other brands we have brewing in the pipeline.  I’m a philanthropist at heart, and at the end of the day, I want to help as many people as I can.

Lastly, a real quick story to wrap things up.  A couple of weeks ago, I had breakfast with Annie Duke (professional poker player) who told me a great life lesson and story around sunk costs.  In the most basic terms, the concept is used in making good decisions (which is the secret to the success of professional poker players).  Wikipedia defines sunk costs as “costs that cannot be recovered once they have been incurred.”

So, for example, if you’re waiting in line at the grocery store, and the line next to you moves faster, most people won’t hop over to the faster line because of the time they “invested” in their current line.  This makes absolutely no sense as anything invested in your past shouldn’t influence your future.  Another example revolves around relationships.  Most people stay together because they’ve “been together for the past five years.”  Again, people shouldn’t make decisions based on past investments.  And if you’re wondering how this applies back to poker.  Once you make a bet and put your chips in the middle, that money is no longer yours (so you shouldn’t make bad decisions on getting it back).

Instead, you should look toward the future and look at all the different paths, opportunities, and possibilities presented to you right now.  The sky is the limit.  Everything in your past gets you to this point but it’s up to you to make the best possible decision on which path you want to go down. And that’s where gut intuition, happiness, and the rest of my cliche life principles come into play.  Because at the end of the day, if you make the right decision for yourself, there’s no way that it’s a bad one!