Get Inspired: Stories

Morgan Evans | Teams & Events Coordinator | Etsy

Dear Tony,

I heard you talk at Etsy.com on April 13th and have been composing this letter since then. Immediately after you finished your presentation I felt a renewed sense of excitement about my life, my art, and the world.

I draw comics and the project I am working on now is a self-help comic book about how to be happy. I know that it’s a giant, age-old topic that has been expounded upon for centuries but it recently became my mission to recognize and record on a personal level the importance of making oneself happy. I am going to do this in comic form using a juxtaposition of words and images to illustrate and explain the lessons I have learned in my life so far.

When I heard you speak at the Etsy office, I got really excited because I felt like you were speaking directly to me. It reminded me of the relevance of my project in a critical and immediate way, as well as recognizing its
eternal pertinence to all aspects of life.

Originally from New York City, I went to college in a rural town in Ohio and graduated from Oberlin College in May 2007. I spent the summer after school living in an apartment in my mom’s backyard in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. In September I moved to New Mexico for a job (that ended up falling through) but more than anything else, to get away from the East Coast and college and family and friends that I had yet to ever live without. I spent six months living in Santa Fe, waiting tables and then working at the local ski slope. I got a little sick of the decadence and excess of the resort-town mentality so I moved up to Albuquerque to live with a friend whom I had met in college. I spent 9 months there apprenticing at a Neon sign shop and playing rugby. I dated but I didn’t fall in love. When winter of 2008 came around it became clear that I was ready to leave the Southwest. I had plans to spend January traveling in India with a large group of family so I used that as my lever and packed my stuff in boxes and shipped it and myself to my dad’s spare bedroom in Tribeca. Through a college connection I got an internship at Etsy and have been working there for a month now.

I really appreciated that your life outlook (which you apply directly to your company’s mission) places the emphasis on happiness. I have realized lately that nothing means anything if it doesn’t make you happy. It was awesome for me to learn about a business like Zappos that puts these seemingly esoteric principles of happiness at it’s core and highlights them as goals in the forefront of everything it does for customers and employees alike.

My self-help comic book feels like it’s a personal project that I work on in my spare time, but the truth is that I am working on it every minute of everyday with every conversation I engage in and every experience I have. We
are all looking for happiness and fulfillment – as you mentioned – the only question is how actively we are searching and how aware we are of the quest. I have recently realized that it is not a selfish thing to be honest about your search for happiness (the truth is that this quest is what drives us to take most actions and make most decisions) and the mark of maturity is being outwardly aware of this impetus. Being honest with yourself, taking control of your own life and acknowledging your desire to realize your own potential is the best thing you can do for yourself on every level - professional, familial, inter-personal, etc.

It was really an amazing experience to have you articulate all these thoughts that have been swimming around in my head. Now feel like I can go back to work on my book with a renewed sense of importance and legitimacy.

I wanted to write you a letter of appreciation for sharing your energy and enlightenment with me, with the rest of Etsy.com, and with the world at large. You inspired me to think, create, act, and most of all, be happy. I am looking forward to reading the books you recommended and perhaps coming to visit your Las Vegas office at some point.

Thank you so much,
Morgan Evans