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The Guy Who Invented YOLO Says We're Using It Wrong

by Hope Schreiber

The only time I can think of someone using YOLO incorrectly is when my mom texts me, "Be safe tonight. No drinking. I love you, I worry and YOLO!"

Like, Mom, NO! That's not the motto!

Well apparently, everyone's been using YOLO incorrectly. This better not show up on my street credit score.

Jeff Archer is living his truest life. At 51, the Florida resident gets to do what he loves for a living: stand-up paddle boarding.

He has a few other credentials on his resume, like cycling and running a coffee company... Oh, and he invented YOLO.

That's right. This dude invented YOLO:

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Not this dude:

Shutterstock

YOLO, for those who live between a rock and the ground, means "you only live once."

Archer and his partner Tom Losee founded YOLO, a paddle boarding company, in 2007.

YouTube

The two also own the word and all merchandising rights associated with it.

One of the key principles of their stand-up paddle boarding company is to live every day as if it was your last.

Losee told the World Paddle Association,

The term 'you only live once' define those [paddle boarding] moments. I immediately knew what I had been missing and felt that it would be so easy to share both from a practical and philosophical means.

Now, Archer wants to reclaim the term after pop culture so carelessly tossed it aside.

This comes after Drake's appearance on "Saturday Night Live," where he admitted to creating the term and then apologized for it.

So, what's the real meaning of YOLO?

Archer told Metro,

Its true meaning is to get out and enjoy your life and see all the great things life has to offer. It's about waking up to life as this amazing blessing we have, a life and we truly only live once. It's to enjoy things and to live things in a really passionate way. It sounds like a much better meaning than throwing your ham sandwich across the room yelling 'YOLO.'

Obviously, Archer has never thrown a ham sandwich across the room and yelled "YOLO." Please do not knock it 'till you try it.

Citations: This man owns YOLO but he says we're using the term incorrectly (Metro), Q&A with Yolo Board owners Jeff Archer/Tom Losee - UPDATED (World Paddle Association)