This one-minute video is one of the best things I’ve ever seen on YouTube. It was created by Patrick Boivin, a French Canadian autodidact movie maker. Patrick started in the creative arts by drawing comic books and soon realized that it was much faster to tell a story with video. Frankly, the world is a better place because of that decision.

Case in point: Dragon Baby (below), where an unsuspecting 2-year-old is attacked by a dragon while playing in his back yard. In Patrick’s world, 2-year-olds don’t get their butts kicked by dragons; they do the butt-kicking themselves. Watch how the scene unfolds:

Here’s why I love this so much: Patrick could be doing all kinds of other things with his time. He could be filling out tax forms, pursuing a professional curling career (he is Canadian, after all), or simply mowing the lawn. Instead, he chooses to stretch the limits of his capabilities, working to hone his skills as a story teller to sharpen his creative aptitude. Keep in mind: what he knows has been self-taught. When you watch the toddler doing battle with a stuffed dragon, remember that he went from having no skill whatsoever to putting together something this good, simply because he wanted to.

It might also be useful to pause long enough to ask ourselves, “are we pursuing our own dreams with the same kind of perseverance and purpose, where the actual work to get better is so much fun?” If not, why not?

Hats off to you, Patrick. Keep up the great work.

(By the way, Dragon Baby is Iron Baby’s little brother. You can use this link to see Patrick’s other work.)