Thinking today about two guys who only met because of a number of vaguely absurd circumstances. How one of them was older, but graduated college during the Great Recession and couldn’t find an adult job for years, so when he applied to the BuzzFeed internship, he was 4 or 5 years older than everyone else in his class. And how the other one was supposed to be a cinematographer, but took a chance on something else when the grip life wasn’t cutting it. How neither of them expected to last that long at Buzzfeed, one sure he would get fired for being slow and meticulous, the other assuming he’d cut and run and/or get fired if he didn’t pull unpaid overtime. How they ended up at the same set of desks. How movie trailers got the one to open up. How the other one was, quite literally, not there to make friends. How they became friends anyway. How the one took a simple idea and made it into a five minute video on the Somerton Man with his carpool buddy. How he then asked the other to fill in when the carpool buddy got transferred. How the other one had a free calendar to film a video about the Illuminati. How he kept having a free calendar to go ghost hunting in a mystery house, a terrible island of dolls and spiders, and a unassuming Kansas home. How one of them screaming at a flashlight and the other one laughing changed both their lives forever. How they took an oath to keep doing this with no one but each other. How they took a leap of faith and bet on themselves to start something new with the smartest person they knew. How their timing was cosmically horrible, launching this new thing right as the world shut down. How they persevered when it seemed like it might all end at any second. How they grew their little company, in fits and starts, until they finally got on stable land. How they didn’t even wait before ending their original ghost hunting series to start planning a new one. One where they could make all the rules. And how after months of planning and shooting and editing, that new series is here. And it’s bigger than either of them imagined. How shocked they are that thousands of people have come to see them, how dozens have flown across states and countries to celebrate with them, how millions have watched this show that they’re so proud of. How for the first time, their company has breathing room. How they can finally exhale. How all the hard work and long hours are paying off. How this is just the beginning.
Yeah, I’d be smiling like that too.
