Unbeknownst to Chris, the next opportunity would be sooner than he thought.
After hugging each other goodbye, Dan returns to work and heads to lunch a few hours later. As if by fate, standing before him in the cafeteria line was none other than YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki herself. He knew he had to take advantage of the happenstance.
“I explained to her what happened and Susan told me to get back in touch with Chris and find a time for him to come back,” Dan says.
Meanwhile, Chris was well into his drive toward Los Angeles when he took a break to refuel and finally found time to check his phone. An influx of notifications appeared. “I saw that I got a new email, a new Instagram DM, a Facebook message, everything,” Chris says. Even Susan
tweeted at Chris
to personally invite him back to the headquarters.
“There was this pressure of, ‘Do I turn around and drive two hours back to do this, or do I just keep going to LA?’ And If I'm allowed to do this right now, will I be allowed to do it later?”
Chris ultimately decided to continue toward Los Angeles; the apartment was more urgent. But a nagging thought remained.
“In January of this year, I made a commitment to myself that I would say yes to everything. That’s how this whole plunger series even started,” Chris says. “I love YouTube and this was like a dream come true. I didn’t want to wait to do this.”
Chris’ mom, who was with him in the car, immediately began looking for flights from LA to San Francisco. She booked him a flight out the next morning.
“It was just pure excitement, like ecstasy. As amazing as it could be.”
Dan offered to pick Chris up from the airport himself that next day. Not only had he cleared security for Chris to attempt the throw this time, he’d also arranged for his colleagues, one of whom is an international knife and axe throwing champion, to join.