Hi all!

Here’s the next posting of my Man of the Month series on the brilliant Ted Lau.

These interviews highlight some really amazing men who are making a difference and using their creative edge to do what they do best. They have been chosen because I’m impressed by their contagious spirit, creative thinking, and the opportunities they bring to the world, plus how they reflect infinite possibilities back to the rest of us. If you haven’t already checked out last month’s posting on Pat LP Camozzi, scroll down to read all about him as well.

Be sure to also read all about the fabulous women featured on my Woman of the Week blog.

August’s Man of the Month is:

Ted Lau

Here’s a little bit about him:

After somehow completing a degree in Communications at Simon Fraser University, Ted roamed the streets of Vancouver trying to solicit business from people. He soon found out that in order to get business, you first need a company with services people want.

Enter Ballistic Arts Media Studios Inc. Along with his equally demented business partner Tak Kawana, Ballistic Arts was birthed in 2002. As a full-service creative agency, Ballistic Arts remedies all patients’ marketing ailments with the proper doses of graphic design, blend of website development, spoonful of video production, and a twist of photography services for good measure.

Like all ADHD-ridden entrepreneurs, Ted can’t sit still. So, instead of having him talk them to death at work, his colleagues have put him in community groups. He currently serves as Membership Chair for the Entrepreneurs Organization’s Accelerator program, and was the recent Marketing Chair for SHARE Family and Community Services Society’s Just Desserts Gala fundraiser for the past 5 years. In 2007-2009, he served as a board director for the Tri-Cities Chamber of Commerce and sat as Marketing Chair. And because he likes chairs so much, he sits in a wooden chair when he mentors graphic design for the Immigrant Services Society of BC, and in a soft cushiony one when he attended IABC Professional Development meetings in 2009. Oddly enough, Ted stands when he gives his weekly video & music lessons to at-risk youth in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. He even danced (kind of) as an Athlete Marshal at the Opening and Closing Ceremonies in the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games!

He’s married (yes, really), a father of a little baby girl (again, yes, really), a black belt martial artist (to protect himself from himself), and able to speak 4 languages (sometimes all at once, and none very well).

And here’s how he answered my 6 questions about creativity:

What does it mean to you to be creative?
It means…Living Life!

What inspires your creativity?
I really only think in two places. When I’m in the shower and when I’m sleeping. It’s not like I go, “okay, I need to get creative, time to sleep!”, or “hmm, I want to be inspired, time to hop in the shower!” Ideas seem to find me, not the other way around. And I notice these are the two places where they typically come to me most. I try to explain it to friends as mental fishing. There are answers to everything floating just beyond our mental grasp somewhere out there and if we’re lucky, we can fish out a few gems from time to time. These ideas swim to the surface just as I’m on the cusp of waking or finishing up a long shower (and yes, I take the longest showers in my house). I also feel that there is a bigger conversation going on in the depths of my dreams and I somehow contribute to it when I’m asleep. I typically don’t take anything back from these conversations, but sometimes, just sometimes, I catch the answer to a problem that I’ve been struggling with just as I wake. BTW – I’m not crazy, really.

Ted & Teddy

What keeps you moving forward in making things happen?
My parents used to play these Chinese kids songs for us during car rides. They all had an underlying message in them. Kind of like all the kids cartoons in the 80s that had all this nonsensical fluff for kids and then gave an underlying message for kids not to do drugs or to be nice to pets. Anyways, one of the songs’ underlying message was to not let life pass you by. The chorus had something to the effect of “in a blink of an eye, you’ll be an old person, so make sure you don’t waste your life away”. I was a very literal kid and actually thought that if I blinked in a weird way, I would become old and my life would have passed me by without me doing anything with my life. Totally freaked me out. This might explain why I can come across as impatient to some people, because I want to get things done. On one hand, I live by the whole “life is short so don’t muck around” motto. On the flip-side, my Hapkido master is this funny, grumpy, spastic, and wise little old Korean man whose sole purpose in my life is to teach me patience. “ted-da (my name has two syllables when he pronounces it), life is long. Don’t rush through life. Enjoy and learn from it.”

What’s the wildest journey your venturesome spirit has taken you on?
While this isn’t the wildest journey I could share with you, this is appropriate for the size of this article:

When I was younger, I had a lot of dreams where I died. They were always kind of scary experiences because there would be these long black pauses with nothingness after them, then I would wake up and feel kind of scared, kind of relieved, but mostly refreshed. I could never explain it. I dated a girl in high school who had hippie-ish leanings and bought me a dream book. I didn’t actually read it until years after we broke up. It said that dreams about death were about change in one’s life. I embrace most changes in my life, so I guess my subconscious was signaling changes in my life back to me.

What’s the boldest, most provocative statement you are willing to make?
Myself: At this moment in time, I truly love my life. I’m not saying it in a granola-y sort of way. I just believe that my life has guided me along and laid things out for me quite nicely. It’s not that I don’t have to work hard or make difficult decisions, but everything always seems to work out. I’m simply not smart enough to foresee all that is ahead of me, but that’s okay because something out there seems to take care of that. It’s kind of crazy, but it’s been quite awesome for me and has also been true for me.

My industry: What can I say, it’s a lot of fun. (Sorry, not very provocative, but it’s true).

What’s next for you?
Haven’t finished what we’ve started yet. “Next” isn’t on the horizon yet.

And here’s a picture that inspires his creativity:

I’m a fire sign and this picture from the Nine Inch Nails’ Ghosts album, calms me down.

What an inspiring fisherman you are Ted, thanks!