Change: What can a paperclip teach us?

How do you turn a paperclip into a house? Is it possible? In fact, have you ever wondered how you take any tiny idea and achieve some brighter bolder ambition?

You might honestly think this story was made up, but it’s true. I’ve seen the photos.
Now, I’m left pondering the question…

The story of the paperclip

The story is a few years old and known as the story of ‘One Red Paperclip’. An average Canadian, Kyle MacDonald (see photo), found himself out of work and bored of sending off his C.V. in order to land a job. A job he needed to buy a house. A house he wanted so as to provide for his partner. Fair enough. He was in pursuit of ‘Something Better’ like many people are. But he didn't resign himself to days of sofa-sitting and nights of X-box playing.
He began with the single red paperclip that was holding his C.V. together on his desk.
Ironic really, that a piece of stationery symbolised his ‘stationary status’ (please pause to appreciate the clever wordplay there). He advertised the red paperclip online in exchange for anything ‘Bigger and Better’, and then waited... expectantly...


The paperclip soon turned into a fish pen (not magically you understand), the fish pen eventually – through trading - became a camp stove…a snowmobile… and up and up the exchange ladder things went until… Kyle and Dominique got their house. Truly. The striking thing is that no money was exchanged in the entire course of trading, and a lot of happy friendships were created along the way.

Just a tiny almost daft idea that triggered a risk that fuelled a belief that accomplished a dream. Plus a lot of travelling in a van.

Holding it together

It is a story that applies to us all, including to our work at Lifespace Trust, with young people who are sometimes working out whether they can – just like the red paperclip - ‘hold it together’ any longer.

Many young people we talk with feel… stuck. Have you been there? Stuck… but wanting to exchange it for ‘Something Better’. Whether that’s better relationships, better prospects, or better health. Sometimes they perceive themselves as boxed in, fed up and let down by a society that says they must ‘hold it all together’ when what they need to do is… LET GO! To take a risk and talk honestly to someone about those scary exams, those embarrassing body changes, those upsetting family changes and the pressure to hold it all together. Mentoring is a chance for young people to do this. To tell their story, start to get unstuck and move forward.

Mr.Dubious

I’m dubious about anything that suggests instant change. Life seems to be more like a tricky and unpredictable process of exchanges between people, hopefully in the direction of ‘Something Better’. But not always, and sometimes not often.


Back to the question: How do you turn a paperclip into a house? Or make anything better than it currently is?

Well, Kyle’s story suggests that we... 

1. Begin from where we are. Not from where we would ideally like to be.

2. Believe in what we do have, even if it's just a silly red paperclip.

3. Be aware of what we can do to change things, not dither about on those things we can't.

4. And as importantly, be open to others.

Because then you never know what good things might just happen next.

(This article first appeared in Connection Magazine (c) 2012, author Chris Spriggs, and is reproduced here with permission; images courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net and shutterstock)