Prologue Profiles

"For me it was very one foot in front of the other, let's see where this goes but by no stretch of the imagination was I like, 'Oh this is what you're going to do with your life.' It was very tentative." - Aparna Nancherla During college Aparna (@aparnapkin) found herself directionless and depressed. Aparna is now a full-time comedian and writer who has written for Totally Biased with W Kamau Bell on FX and appeared on Conan. Since our interview Aparna has written for the Late Show with Seth Myers. You'll hear Aparna discuss how she turned comedy into a career, the power of patience, and that one of the biggest keys to success is just showing up.

"You can lose everything, but the one thing you can't lose is who you are, and you can always build upon that." - Jake Ducey During college Jake found himself frustrated with both school and life, and so he dropped out. Jake is now an author and motivational speaker and at 22 years old Penguin/Random house published his second book, the Purpose Principles with a forward by Chicken Soup for the Soul author Jack Canfield. What? You'll hear Jake discuss his path from having no plan to reaching the top of the Amazon book sales list, how visualization is nothing without action, and that if survival depends on success, you'll win.

Growing up Katie (@paperfashion) wanted to be an artist but didn't know how to make it into a career. Katie now works full-time as the creator of Paper Fashion an illustration blog with clients such as Saks Fifth Avenue, L'Oreal, and Cartier, has over 600K Instagram followers and is represented by the talent agency Digital Brand Architects. You'll hear Katie discuss her journey from confusion to creation, the power of sharing, and that to do what you love you gotta love what you do. "You have something in your head that you visualize but it takes a long time to be able to get that completely out." - Katie Rodgers

Dan takes his mic to the streets and interviews AJ / Skater & Videographer (Vimeo) / Trader Joe's, 23rd & 6th, NYC. "How'd you get into skating in the first place?""Through Mark Gonzales, The Gonz, the most legendary skater of all time, he changed skating once it collapsed with the marketing industry, he just came out of nowhere and just sparked it and became a legend, he's still skating he's like 50.""And when was this?""I was about 10 years old and it was 2005, I was cruising around with my cousins around Tompkins Square Park, aka known as the TF, short for 'training facility', it's a big open field where we just chill out, zone out and we focus on our tricks and we just do as we please and I was just cruising along Tompkins and I all of a sudden bumped into him and he was like with his quirky voice, 'Hey if you're interested in skating I'm gonna leave my board at Autumn skate shop if you want to pick it up or something, I don't know it's up to you, I don't want this thing it's dead.' [Laughs] And t

Dan takes his mic to the streets and interviews Gary / Street Artist (@mr_abiLLity)/ Sub-City Junction, Hoboken. "I work a slaving job at UPS where I lift boxes and do not pursue my dream at all, on the side I pursue my dream, however recently I got injured at work and due to injury I cannot work, so now I think this is the universe's way of saying 'Hey I know you wanted to just settle on life and do bullshit forever but you can't, so if you don't follow those dreams you're going to regret it. Opportunity, I present you.' So I have to, I really don't have any other choice." 

Dan takes his mic to the streets and interviews Chadner / Travel Writer and Culture Magazine Co-Founder (@chadner | EIGHTYMag.com) / Sub-City Junction, Hoboken. "Why is it called EIGHTY Magazine?""It's named after the bus route, which is the bus that I've been taking for 20 years, [Marinell and I] figured it's a great route because it covers a lot of Jersey City and we want to be that for Jersey City to, we want to be able to cover and write about all sorts of things that are relevant to what it's like to live in Jersey City right now.""What's motivating you, what's keeping you going?""I'm the oldest of 6 kids, I have great siblings and I want to set an example for them."

Dan takes his mic to the streets and interviews Marinell / Graphic Designer and Culture Magazine Co-Founder (@marinellllllll | EIGHTYMag.com) / Sub-City Junction, Hoboken. "It was when I was leaving my previous startup job, I was doing web and mobile app design for this one startup, and they couldn't pay me anymore so I had to leave so I started EIGHTY Magazine to move all my creative energy to that outlet.""How were you able to make EIGHTY into a real magazine, how'd you know how to do that?""I taught myself how to make a magazine two weeks before we launched it so I think it's just like if you really want to do it you'll do whatever it takes, right?"

Dan takes his mic to the streets and interviews ChicPeaJC / Culture Blogger (@chicpeajc | CHICpeaJC.com ) / Sub-City Junction, Hoboken. "I was working in the corporate world, I was director of training of tech company, I was there for 7 years, and I felt like I was empty inside, I needed to write, I needed to photograph, I wanted to do fashion [for the blog] mostly and then I decided at the last minute to focus on Jersey City and it blew up.""What was key to that happening?""Being consistent and being real and staying true to myself and being always honest, and also being positive, so I never write about anything negative, there's so much negativity in the world that I wanted my blog to be something really light and uplifting and help people connect with each other in the community." 

Dan takes his mic to the streets and interviews Patty / Children's Book Author (@mspattyg | Website) / Sub-City Junction, Hoboken. "I was watching my fiancé, Patrick, and our dog, Fenway, interact and play and he was very childlike with the dog and I was like, 'You know, I'm gonna come up with a story about the two of you.' And he dared me to, and next thing I knew I had a manuscript in my hand.""Wow, and when was this?""This was last year, this time last year.""What else were you doing at the time, were you working?""I do, I work in television at MLB network, which is Major League Baseball, I do some editing and scheduling so in that time I found a space to just write this book.""What was it like writing it?""It was fun, I got to go into my imagination as deep as I possibly can and just come up with something I thought a child would like, and I would bounce my idea off of my 7 year old niece and she approved so I went with it.""How'd you make the time to write a children's book while working?""Oh wow I would

Dan takes his mic to the streets and interviews Norm / Artist (Website) / Columbus & Grove, Jersey City. "What work are you most proud of?""I do a lot of work on fences...mostly without permission."

Dan takes his mic to the streets and interviews Tony / Radiology Student & Photographer (Tumblr) / 33rd Train, Jersey City. "What's the biggest challenge you face right now?""Being motivated to do what other people want me to do.""What is motivating you, what's keeping you going?""The future, seeing where I can take myself, I've seen my potential at some point and I want to see how far I can get with that."

Dan takes his mic to the streets and interviews Hantz / Marketing Specialist at Google (@HantzFevry) / Bryant Park, NYC. "What's driving motivating you, what's keeping you going?""The fact that I want to accomplish something, that I want to move forward and be successful.""Where does that drive come from?""From the inspiration I got from my mom. I grew up in Haiti, a country where you see not only poverty but misery, which is completely worse, and I saw mom working every day to make the impossible possible, so in Haiti you'll face a lot of challenges and I never saw my mom stopping and say, 'Ok it's too difficult I have to stop.' No, she always continued to work and face every challenge and continue to move forward, so I'm saying, 'Ok if she did that I can also do great.'"

Dan takes his mic to the streets and interviews Neal / Web Marketing Product Designer (Bounce Exchange) / Bryant Park, NYC. "I hated [working in finance]. It was the worst. Really long hours, it wasn't very fulfilling, I didn't care for it and I didn't like a good portion of the people I worked with. I was always looking for a way out.""So how'd that play out?""I thought about staying in finance in a different capacity but ultimately I found that I wanted to go out there and venture on my own and do the startup thing. I think I'm more of a person that likes a little bit of an unstructured environment where I get to make a lot of decisions.""When was the moment you decided to leave your finance job?""It was on a trip that I took to Africa, in 2012, I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro [Laughs] and I realize that I never had spent so much effort into a singular goal as I did to climb that mountain and if I had the ability to work that hard and I wasn't doing it at my career than I should be doing something else. I quit th

Dan takes his mic to the streets and interviews Joka / Hip-hop Artist (@therealjoka | SoundCloud) / 28th & 6th, NYC. "My uncles they played guitar and piano and they taught us lessons and I grew up in the hip-hop era and Jay-Z was a huge influence on me and just one day I was kidding around and me and my cousins were joking and I was like, 'You know what? I'm gonna start doing this.' Because my mother used to write and I used to write with her and so the writing just came and I was just writing and doing poetry but just putting it to a beat and since 3rd grade I've been writing ever since.""What kind of poems were you writing back then?""Just love poems [Laughs]. And then it started in 4th grade where I started talking about girls and like whatever I was going through at the time.""Heartfelt.""Yea [Laughs]."

Dan takes his mic to the streets and interviews Oliver / Music Media Producer (@oc325) / Gatwick Airport, London. "I was in accounting for 5 years and then I've always had music as something I did on the side and I always wanted to make that transition and get into music somehow.""So you left the accounting world to go to Berklee School of Music?""Yea I think for good because I needed some kind of segue so I chose this option a year ago and here I am now."

Dan takes his mic to the streets and interviews Kyle / Hair Image Designer at (@dirosahaircare) / Gatwick Airport, London. "I ended up getting left back in high school and [hair care] was pretty much the only outlet I had to really do anything and I just got really into it and I became really good at it."

Dan takes his mic to the streets and interviews Luke / Videographer (@lukeisomnipotent) / Gatwick Airport, London. "It was just a breaking point where I couldn't stand my job anymore, but I had wanted to leave months and then it was like, 'What's the worst that's gonna happen? I can find another one of these jobs if it doesn't work out, and if it does work out I'm going to be way happier.""When was this?""Two months ago."

Dan takes his mic to the streets and interviews Sandra / Neurosurgical Nurse / Gatwick Airport, London. "I wasn't thinking about any career path. I was just enjoying traveling and living a very free life. And on my travels I was ill myself and the nurses in the hospital that I had surgery they made a huge impact.""What was going through your mind when you were experiencing the help from the nurses?""It just felt very safe and loving and it was just very nice, and I thought it would just be so nice to be able to pass that forward."

Dan takes his mic to the streets and interviews David / Language Learning Entrepreneur (@DavidMansaray) / Gatwick Airport, London. "I was feeling really sad and unhappy with the life I had in London, this was in 2012, and I felt as though I was sort of in a rat race in the sense that all my money was going towards bills and I didn't feel like I was living a life that actually felt fulfilling in any way shape or form so I made the decision to sell all of my belongings and give up my flat and I moved to Spain, I didn't know what my job was going to be I didn't know where I was going to stay, actually I was reading the book 'The Alchemist' and I was about to go down an escalator and I reached a point in the book that said 'The time to start following your dreams is today, not tomorrow, because tomorrow never comes.' and it really resonated with me and I got my phone out on the spot and I downloaded an application for EasyJet and I booked my ticket there and I said, 'Ok in 3 months I'm going to Spain and I'm goin

Dan takes his mic to the streets and interviews Antoine / Musician (@antoinekatzbass) / Gatwick Airport, London. "What are you up to?""Going home to New York. I was in Europe touring with a band called Dave Mackay, we've been out for three weeks.""Where'd you guys go?""England, Germany, Switzerland, France, I think that's it.""What's the biggest challenge you're facing right now?""Getting some rest."