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 Behind the Scenes I spent the last days of 2005 hiking the Torres del Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia. Starting a business is a whole lot of work, and I decided to take my vacation as far away as possible. The breathtaking beauty of glacier lakes and unending skies helped me forget about our daily business dilemmas, and at the same time, it reconnected me with what Shift is all about.
Aaron first told me his idea for Shift in our apartment.
While I was excited about the concept from the outset, I admit it wasn’t Aaron that convinced me—it was our friends, and better yet, their friends. When I started getting phone calls from people I didn’t know (our friends’ friends’ friends?), it finally started to sink in: We need this magazine! We need to be inspired by eco-innovators, to find out what we can do to live more responsibly! We need to learn to shop, invest, eat, and travel more sustainably! And when we feel like basking in envy of the rich and famous—let it be for their energy efficient homes, their eco-adventure travels and their investment in green causes! A sustainable lifestyle magazine. Of course we need it—Let's make Shift happen!
 To us, it’s not just about getting the information out there but about presenting it in a new way. Caring about our planet can no longer be mislabeled a radical sentiment. Mainstream companies, culture creators, and the vast majority of Americans are increasingly demonstrating interest in changing the way we think about our relationship with the environment. We hope our magazine can help change the image and even the language of environmentalism so that more people can realize how easy, fun and even sexy it is being green. We hope you will help.
Making a magazine come to life, though, takes more than enthusiasm. (More even than the support of our friends and their friends.) We’ve spent the last year presenting our case. We’ve talked to the experts and done the research. And now we’re ready to bring Shift to you, the public. We hope you’re excited by our vision for Shift, and that you recognize its just the beginning of a new way of living. If so, be a part of our team. Tell us what’s important to you, and what you like about our magazine. And tell your friends and their friends to check us out. That’s how all shifts start, right?
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