“What Do You Do?”

By Chris Collier

“What do you do?” the Uber driver asked me after 10 minutes of silence. It’s an easy conversation starter, but it’s somewhat rare to find a stranger in tune with the world of window tint, paint protection film (PPF) and ceramic coatings.

“I’m a writer.”

“What do you write about?”

“ … Have you heard of window tint and PPF? I cover those industries.” Motorcycles and Movies Lee, my Uber driver, was into motorcycles and had attended the SEMA Show several times. And he had heard of PPF and tint. But to my surprise, we conversed about anything but. It was a point of commonality, but our shared interests didn’t end there.

I quickly discovered that Lee, born in Hawaii, shared a love for movies— my favorite thing outside work. From The Terminator to Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, we discussed all genres.

The conversation shifted from movies to football. A San Francisco 49ers fan, Lee said that “football is the only thing on” in his motorcycle shop during the NFL season.

“I work to live, not live to work,” he shared.

“Work-life balance is something that I struggle with to this day,” Chris West, XPEL’s director of automotive films, shared in a January blog dubbed The Art of Work-Life Balance. “I know the cliché phrase, ‘Do what you love, and you will never work a day in your life.’ Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anyone to pay me to lay on a beach and sip a margarita, so here we are … My longest
stretch without sleep was 38 hours.”

No Simple Feat

Running a business in the industry is no simple feat, and West knows that as well as anyone. His message is simple: “The business and work will still be there if we run them correctly. Having a life outside of work doesn’t equate to a failed business.”

Yes, the wide world of window film is important, and it is definitely not going anywhere. So live like Lee—watch your movies, attend football games and tinker with your motorcycles.

That Uber trip inspired me to watch as many new-to-me movies as possible in 2023. Avatar marked nine last Friday night.

Chris Collier is the editor for Window Film magazine

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