A Shot of Inspiration: Sundance Channel’s “Iconoclasts”

What do you get when comedic genius Dave Chappelle spends some time with author and living legend Maya Angelou? How about Sir Richard Branson and Desmond Tutu? Artist Chuck Close and Magician David Blaine? You get a mixture of inspiration and collective wisdom that is Sundance Channel’s “Iconoclasts.”

I stumbled across “Iconoclasts” when Eddie Vedder, of Pearl Jam fame, was hanging with surfing legend Laird Hamilton. As a Pearl Jam fan, I knew a little about Vedder, but I knew nothing about Hamilton. As the program unfolded, and the two spent time together, their celebrity melted away, and I got a glimpse at what makes them human. I saw why they do what they do. I heard the passion. I witnessed the way they constantly overcome fear. The balance of family, life and work. It was there, for all to see.

All of the characteristics that define us as human beings are the consistent themes of each episode of “Iconoclasts,” which I have faithfully watched since being transformed by the beauty of the destruction of the icon, and in a way that show has torn down conceptions of what vision, passion and action means for myself.

I’m often asked where I got the idea for “Innovators of Vancouver” and I simply point back to “Iconoclasts.” I was inspired by a glimpse of humanity that went beyond the surface, and I felt that there were enough interesting people in Vancouver that could paint a picture of what vision, passion and action looks like locally.

Sometimes I get lost. I forget why I do what I do. Then I turn on an episode of “Iconoclasts” or talk with my friends and I am reminded of the simple fact that I am intrigued by what people do with their lives, the why and the how, it’s all interesting. It’s fuel. It sends me to another place and I find the daily motivation to finish what I have set out to do.