About My Project
What is Follow Noah?
I'm Noah. The guy in all the pictures and videos on this site. I used to be an out-of-work model, now I'm a filmmaker without an income or residence. Pretty cool, huh?
Follow Noah is my story, and the stories of the people I find, film and share with the world.
How Follow Noah Started
One day in 2011 I decided to change my life. I decided to start a career as a filmmaker, a storyteller. I had quit my old bartender job and had nothing but a couple hundred dollars and an iPhone. I scrounged up enough cash to buy a plane ticket to Japan.
Originally. I simply wanted to do something to help Japan after the Tsunami, and thought making a video about the culture and people might help to bring tourism to this beautiful land. I never knew it would change my life to the extent that it has.
I walked 500 km on my first journey following the legacy of a 19th century painter named Hiroshige, and the things I discovered along the road about myself, life and the world instilled a burning passion to continue traveling and filming within me. I made the decision to stay on the road for as long as it takes to finish this project.
My Plans for The Future
Until recently, I've just been shooting on a single iPhone, even using that same iPhone to do a large portion of the video edits on the road. Now I've upgraded to two iPhones and a Go-Pro. One of these days, I'll get one of those "real" cameras! I'm hoping to travel every continent at least on
This whole project started as nothing but an idea, and now is on the verge of becoming a catalyst for world-wide improvement in consciousness. Had I continued simply making videos about me traveling around the world, I'm sure it would be fun, but I've given myself a whole new set of challenges with my two new projects: 1000 DREAMS and 1000 DATES.
I found my dream when I started filming, and 1000 DREAMS is my way of returning the favor. 1000 DREAMS is modeled simply to be an online mentoring series, a slick little ass-kicker to keep us all motivated and creative. I'm heading out to interview 1000 people about living for their dreams, to hear their success stories and big mistake stories. Who knows? Maybe it'll inspire someone to make the next Mona Lisa.
1000 DATES Around The World is something I'm really doing for transparently selfish reasons: I wanna find my soul-mate! As silly and lighthearted the 1000 dates sounds, I'm also hoping that I can share some cool travel pointers and cultural highlights about the places I go and girls I date with my viewers. It will be a big challenge to film these dates on my own, but I feel that pushing myself with this project will polish and hone my skills with the camera (and with a date!) and provide some great laughs along the way.
My Mission
Even though it's lengthy: read it.
There are all kinds of leaders in the world, but there's something that almost every leader has in common: the ability to demonstrate a means to get through tough times. When tough times come around, it is the leaders of the world who take up the challenge, creating a way to overcome, to WIN.
Leaders big and small are out there, influencing the world around them and invoking change. Tough times too seem to have the uncanny tendency to multiply with the minute. How do we get through all this? How do we make sense of it?
I haven't seen much of the world yet, but one of the saddest, most damaging problems I've encountered in myself and in others is a lack of satisfaction with the lot we've been cast. Boredom with life, living meekly with wasted talents, untapped fantasies, and sighing to the wind our idle daydreams of a better life. This is the “tough time” that somewhere on the road of my travels I've found a way to overcome. This is the cause I am fighting for: a day where we all LIVE a little more.
Before I set off for my first journey, I was going through an incredibly dark period in my life, one of my most palpable “tough times”. The problem I was facing was a lack of satisfaction with the direction my life was heading: boredom. And then somewhere along the road, cold and hungry in a tent, I found my raison d'etre, my panacea for boredom.
When I first set out to travel the world, I had no idea it would change me forever, completely. My role as an adventurer seeking personal growth, richer understanding of the world around me, and a way to give back to humanity suddenly transformed to a role of lending inspiration and courage to the people I met, to the friends back home following my travels. It suddenly was no longer an option for me to stop dedicating myself to my journey. The reason being: I had become a leader; a leader with followers depending on me to get them through their own tough times. As I continued to push forward, the obstacles increased, but so did the support of people cheering me on.
This change in myself was simply a direct result of me taking a stand to actively grow, and to reach for the actualization of my dreams. With the first step, my momentum picked up and I kept moving forward. Problems came, I kept going. At the heart of it all was a burning desire to act, to live, to experience as much as I possibly could. For the first time in my life, I was focusing all of my energy purely on what I could see, do, learn. I just stopped worrying about the things I didn't have or the things I thought I couldn't do. I was living to my edge: I was ALIVE.
So out of all this, I realized a personal mission, a reason why I keep going: I feel I owe it to the people who are seeking a path out of their “tough times” to share my example, to share that insurmountable joy that comes from throwing yourself forward full throttle towards a bigger, more meaningful existence. And I do this because I care.
I am out putting my life on the line to create a story compelling enough to influence the world around me to reach for a brighter present. I'm determined to influence my viewers to seek a richer, fuller life. I'm determined to make it to the top of this mountain I am climbing, and to prove that it was worth climbing to all my friends watching.
I believe in the path I am walking, and because of that faith, I am able to enjoy the process of facing challenge and upset. I know it will make me stronger.
I'm certainly not any kind of messiah or self-proclaimed enlightened guru, but one thing I certainly am is happy. I definitely don't advise following my example to the teeth, the path I've chosen for myself has been filled with so many detours and dead-ends you're just asking to be broke and homeless if you walk the same path I have. Instead, what I'd like to tell my viewers is that there really shouldn't be any excuses for not living your life to the fullest. Trust me, I'm down here at the bottom of the barrel and I'm still going forward. If you're able to watch my videos, read my writing, hear me speak, shake my hand then you're able to take a stand and change your life.
So what constitutes a life lived to the fullest? You tell me. We all know in ourselves the answer to that question, whether the question is asked enough is the issue. Are you living your life to the fullest? Why not? Quit making excuses and take life by the horns in your own way. Go. Live. Quit daydreaming about the right time, the right amount of money, the right girl by your side. Go. Live. Remember to continue asking yourself if it's enough. Remember to keep pushing yourself for more. Life holds uncountable mysteries and rewards if we simply open our hearts and take action to seek them out.