The Square Life

Brian Petersen: Explain to me exactly what your organization does.

Josh Brazier: Kaiizen is a for-profit / non-profit hybrid. We use the money that we raise from [Kaiizen] apparel sales to help a non-profit that we have which is the non-profit side of Kaiizen. The purpose of that non-profit is . . . it’s really got a dual mission, we say Kaiizen is for the kids, we sponsor orphanages in Mexico, we’ve sponsored one in South Africa and we do work with kids and education in Brazil. But our main drive and purpose is to the outlet, kinda like the college non-profit, to help college students worldwide become more socially aware and more socially active. We take trips every six weeks or so to an orphanage and there we will have a really fun four day weekend where, not only are they having a fun experience but, it’s a cultural experience where they get to learn about the culture and they do some type of big service project at an orphanage.

BP: Sounds interesting, it’s something I haven’t heard of. When you originally started it up was your original vision this whole thing or was it a for-profit apparel company and then you had the idea of doing non-profit work or was it a non-profit work and you had the idea of making for-profit apparel?

JB: It was all for-profit from the beginning. I wanted to start up an apparel company of surf [wear]. I’m from Southern California. I didn’t get into surfing until pretty late in my life. Surfing is something I enjoy and definitely love so I wanted to start some type of apparel company that made a difference. From the beginning I didn’t know what cause it was going to, I just thought that whatever money I made I would donate a certain percentage to different causes to help them out.
The original idea to do orphanages was because my aunt worked for one in India and we raised some money for them doing benefit concerts and stuff like that. Then we took a trip to Baja California to surf and check out some orphanages I found on line and once we visited that first orphanage we were pretty much hooked. We’ve been going back ever since to the few that we sponsored in Baja and other places too.

BP: So your original idea was to have a
company that had a philanthropic end, it wasn’t just a making t-shirts company?

JB: Exactly, I’ve had some pretty big experiences in my life before I started this that lead me down where I knew I had to do something that would make a difference. From there was my intention to create a type of company that was a really good example of helping out. Not just fun and design work but to help out. That was my vision for it in the beginning.

BP: It sounds like you found the orphanage through your aunt or some you found on-line, is that how you are coming in contact with these organizations that you help. Are you seeking them out or do they seek you out?

JB: Basically we do a research trip once a year, just an exploratory trip. This year we went all the way from Tijuana, Mexico to Cabo San Lucas, which is about 1000 miles. It was about 2000 miles round trip. We were able to visit tons of orphanages and saw the problems and documented it. We are putting together a documentary to show what we’re trying to do in Baja. No, we don’t have them contacting us.

BP: Did you serve an LDS mission?

JB: Yes, I did in Southern Spain. I spent some time in Morocco and some experiences I had there is what lead me on the course of doing what I do today. I worked in a refugee camp in Morocco for about 8 months where a bunch of refuges from Nigeria and Southern Africa had walked across the whole Sahara Desert to try to have a better life in Europe. I got to meet them and hear their stories about their friends dying on the way and drinking their own urine just to stay alive. I became very good friends with a ton of them. Then one day I was on a boat leaving to go to Spain for a meeting and I heard my name called by a bunch of people and I saw my friends. They were in handcuffs being deported by the police. The police let me talk to them for five minutes. It was a total shock and a surprise to me. I felt super inadequate. After, the police escorted me back to my first class seat where I got the free drinks and the nice warm towel. The injustice there was horrible to me. That’s what made me decide when I got home I had to do something, I didn’t know what it was but I just felt if I opened my life up something would come.

BP: So when you got back you started working on that right away?

JB: I read a book in the beginning; I think it was towards the beginning of 2002, that talked about the principle of Kaizen. I told my parents who are big entrepreneurs about my idea and they said let’s trademark it. I added another “i” because I thought it looked better, Kaizen is usually spelled with one “i”. From there I trademarked it and started working on designs and working out the idea. Then I moved up to Utah and met the guy who co-founded it with me, Josh Budinger and we’ve worked on it together.
I guess with life it’s nothing you’d expect from the beginning ideas you have but it totally fits. Even after that first trip to the orphanage, it was a surfing trip with just four of us and when we got back everyone was like, “Dude, I want to go.” The next May we had 60 people go and from there we’ve had more and more people and it just hasn’t stopped. You take what you get.

BP: What was that book you read? I don’t know what Kaizen is, I didn’t know it was a larger principle.

JB: Kaizen is a Japanese principle of doing better each day or a constant improvement. It’s something that I really try to work into my life of getting a little bit better each day. I read it in a book The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, it’s like one of those self-help, funny books that I like to read sometime to help myself out. My friends make fun of me for that.

BP: I do the same thing. I enjoy those books.

JB: It’s by Robin Sharma. It’s just a book that talks about it and I really caught onto the idea. It isn’t until you get bored in a math class and then you get an idea that first sparks. That was when I was first into surfing and wanted to do some type of clothing. It just branched off from there.

BP: Where do you see Kaiizen heading in the future, in the long term? Is this something you want to have as your project and goal for as far as it can take you, expanding to other areas of the world? You have your apparel, your education, your orphanages, which one of those or are they all going to grow together? What is your end vision?

JB: The end vision is, I’ve committed myself to the board of Kaiizen for five more years at least. My next evaluation will come up then. My heart is definitely in this forever. The San Diego chapter is going great. I would really like it to become a club or a chapter at every college campus in America as this fun, cultural service that doesn’t take up a lot of time or a lot of money, and you can get involved on a bunch of different levels.

BP: When starting this all up and your labors in the past five years, what was the hardest hump for you to get over, that you did or didn’t know about, that other people who are in the position you were five years ago, might be about to face in starting up something of their own?

JB: The hardest thing that I have had to deal with is that there is kinda a cyclical nature to business where it’s your passion and you have so much passion for it and there’s not an outlet for that passion. You may get doors closed in your face and things aren’t just working out. Like this year alone I have probably traveled 80,000 plus miles around the United States and the world trying to spread this idea. I’ve gone through the cycle of almost on the break of burning out and then having an experience that keeps me going for a little bit. I think the best piece of advice is to take care of yourself. Just take some time for yourself so you’re always okay with yourself and taking that time to be balanced and everything is going to come together.
I had a point in time for a year that [Kaiizen] was all that I ate, drank, and slept. When I woke up that was what I thought about, when I was trying to go to bed it was all I was thinking about. It became almost unhealthy. I think that will happen to anybody setting up their own thing because it is such a passion. You just have to balance yourself and take time for yourself.

BP: That’s great. Sounds like Kaiizen is a tool that other people can use for that balance. You are involved in it every day of your life but it seems like Kaiizen can be that balance for other people. Taking time out of their crazy passions or what they are trying to get done to take some time for themselves and to help other people.

JB: Exactly. We hope that when they come on these trips they have the opportunity to help out and an opportunity to think outside of themselves for a little bit. It’s really easy to start now instead of when you’re retired and 60 to start making a change, whatever change you want. I hope that it will definitely motivate them to do whatever it is in their life that they need to to be that balanced person.

For more information about Kaiizen visit www.kaiizen.org