Gather round, folks. Patrick Richmond of Secret Compass shares his inspiring story directly here.
Surely, there must be more than this?
I’d studied law and qualified as a solicitor before realising that the 9-to-5 was not really for me. I could never quite get a grip on what I really wanted to do and it really frustrated me.
My search got going at the end of 2008: I now know that a lot of it was aimless searching on the web, looking for my perfect job.
Fast forward two years of further aimless web wandering and feeling totally unsettled, when I stumbled across Escape the City.
It was a moment of clarity for me – here was a forum where there were others exactly like me, who knew there was something else, but could not quite put a finger on what that was.
There was a “Heroes” section where people who had made the biggest leaps into wildly different careers were interviewed. I was hooked.
Escape to Mozambique
After a few weeks I spotted an advertisement: “Managers required for barefoot beach lodge in remotest Mozambique”. This was more like it – give me some of that.
I applied and got through the various rounds and eventually got the position.
I spent the next 9 months living, working and breathing life as a manager at an extremely remote eco-lodge in Mozambique. My time there was paradise and I am so glad I made the leap when people thought I was completely mad for doing so.
The return
I eventually returned and fell back into some legal work to keep the money coming in, and was finding myself becoming frustrated at finding myself back in the same old position.
I now realised that the only way I could be successful in any job/career would be to find something I had a passion for, so I narrowed down my searching to things I knew I would love to do.
This helped a little but I was still a little overwhelmed by what exact direction to take.
Round two
I found myself again looking at Escapethecity (since it had previously been such a great help) and I stumbled across this article.
Lev Wood was a former Officer in the Parachute Regiment. After leaving the army he decided that he didn’t want to find a “normal” job and that instead he would set up his own expeditionary company, enabling adventurous and independent-minded people to explore the most isolated and wild regions on the planet. This company became Secret Compass.
Joining Secret Compass
I immediately set about writing an impassioned letter about why I wanted to work for them. I was asked to interview and was eventually offered a position as an intern.
Since joining Secret Compass I have developed expeditions to Ethiopia, Iraqi Kurdistan and Mozambique.
A couple of months ago an opportunity came up to head all things marketing at the company. I grabbed the opportunity with both hands and also still go on expeditions, including a recent one to the stunning Zagros Mountains in Iraqi Kudistan.
I would not have been able to do any of this without the help of the team at Escape the City, so thanks to you all!
