Stop Dreaming, Start Planning» Escapees

Quit your corporate job, go on a big trip and start a business. That’s pretty scexy!

Guest — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 12:27:07 +0000

You can follow Ed’s journey at www.bangkok2birmingham.com and request an
invite to Dromomaniacs at www.dromomaniacs.com

In case you are wondering the title isn’t a typo. I’m not quite sure if it’s a word which works, or has even been used before, but I thought it was pretty apt to describe how I feel at the moment. Simultaneously the most scared and excited I’ve been in my life. Together – ‘scexy’. A new feeling for me, and perhaps one which I’m sure plenty of recent escapees can relate to? The fact that I’m writing this at 3.12am on a Wednesday morning is perhaps indicative of this mindset. So what’s bought on my scexy mood?

At Christmas this year I finally took the plunge to quit my corporate job, go on a big trip and start my dream business. In just over 2 weeks I’ll set off on a plane to Bangkok and head back to Birmingham (where I was born) overland along the Silk Road.

I’m also looking to use the trip as an unconventional marketing strategy for
my new business – Dromomaniacs. The word means ‘those with the insatiable
urge to travel’ and Dromomaniacs aims to become ‘the society’ for those with
that insatiable urge. Specifically it is designed to appeal to what I’ve termed
the PUBB (Post Uni Before Baby) generation (really don’t like the word ‘young
professionals’)

Obviously lots to be excited about. Completing a trip I’ve dreamed of since I lived
in Bangkok for 7 months as an 18 year old; the endless possibilities of where
Dromomaniacs might lead to; and the success of both totally in my own hands.
But what isn’t so well advertised when quitting a nice cushy corporate job is just
how scary this can be. Here are 3 reasons why.

1) The realisation.

I left the corporate world at Christmas. Great, wahoo, big party! First week of Jan and I suddenly thought shit, what have I done? I’ve left a job I was good at, didn’t hate and earned me a nice wage so I didn’t have to think about what I spent. Suddenly it just hit me that I no longer had a salary, pension or any certainty in my future. Being alone was suddenly a stark reality.

2) Do I actually have the right skills?

The corporate world may be good training for a number of things, but it certainly isn’t for the nitty gritty of setting up the fundamentals of a business. Designing a website and getting the right designers anyone? Nightmare! Setting up the tax stuff? Doesn’t someone else do that for you? Self promo? Feels a bit uncomfortable!

3) Am I taking on too much?

Is a question I’m always asking. Is setting up the fundamentals of the business stupid before I go on this trip? Shouldn’t I just wait till I’m back? True, I could, but I felt that the trip could be a once in a lifetime opportunity to get people interested in Dromomaniacs and signing up and contributing whilst I was still on the road. I love the idea of living out a dream to create a business and have been inspired by the ‘location independent’ lifestyles I’ve learned about at Escape events. But the practical realities of that certainly scare and sometimes overwhelm me!

Woops. I almost forgot to mention that I’m going on a near 10 000 mile journey alone to countries where I don’t know the language and travelling along roads which were recently featured in ‘worlds most dangerous roads’! Yet somehow that doesn’t feel nearly so scary as the business bit! That’s just pure excitement!

So there we go. I’ve laid my cards on the table. Hands up if anyone else is feeling
scexy? Personally I’d rather be scexy than boring.

Making my English teacher eat 75,000 words

Guest — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 09:00:16 +0000

Matt Gibson works in sports management, but spent most of his free time last year fulfilling a dream and writing that novel. Here he talks about his journey.

Ever since my English teacher laughed at me at school, for saying I wanted to write a novel, I became determined that I would eventually make him eat his words.

After spending a few years telling people I was going to write a novel, and them telling me I wouldn’t, I eventually bit the bullet and spent last year writing “Bleeding Green – A season on the run with Real Calcio.” See www.bleedinggreenrealcalcio.com.

What to write about

Writing a novel takes time and perseverance, so you really want to write about a subject that you have an in-depth knowledge of, or are passionate about. My main passion is football and having been a player manager of a Sunday football team for fourteen years, which spent the last four years getting thrashed, I decided I would write about a fictional season.

How to go about it

Having never written a novel before (I failed my A-Level English – perhaps my teacher was right to doubt me), I first bought the Writers and Artists Yearbook which lists publishers, agents, the publishing process, seminars to attend, how to market your book and pretty much everything else you could possibly wish to hear.

I also, through a friend, came across an editor, who had written football books before, and he agreed to help me with the novel and he put me in contact with a publishing company. I really recommend getting an editor – you will have to pay for one but it is a necessity and will be worth the money.

Be disciplined

I have a full-time job so I made sure I would dedicate each Monday, Tuesday and Sunday evenings to writing the novel. I would turn my mobile and television off, making sure I gave the novel my sole attention. Trying to write whilst watching Homeland doesn’t work but I do recommend lots of coffee!

It is very important to get others’ thoughts on your novel after each chapter. What you think is funny, may not be, to ninety percent of other people. I would advise against giving draft chapters to close friends, as they can tend to say it’s great, just to please you. If you do, perhaps ask them what they think is wrong with the chapter, rather than what is right.

Writers’ block

There will be days when you feel like you can’t put any words to paper. This happens and I would advise you to stop, even if it is one of your designated days. It is much better writing on another day than feeling you have to write a few thousand words on your designated day, which will more than likely be of a lower quality, as you are writing for the sake of writing.

I also felt like giving up a few times but I always told myself that writing a novel is marathon not a sprint and looked at the novel in terms of chapters, not the fact that it had to be thousands of words. If you make sure each chapter is thorough, the word count will take care of itself.

When the book is published

This is when you must really start your marketing drive. If you haven’t already got a website, twitter or Facebook page, now is the time to get one. Tell all your friends about your novel, organise a book launch party, send copies to magazines and journalists asking them to send a tweet or give your novel a review if they liked it. I also sent a few copies to footballers asking them to send a tweet if they liked the novel, just tweeting celebrities can appear lazy and it’s doubtful they will respond. The more you promote your book the more copies you will sell.

Don’t give up – it’s worth it in the end

As mentioned there will be days when you want to give up but don’t worry this happens to everyone. Persevere, stay disciplined and listen to your editor. When you finally have the novel in your hands with your friends saying how much they liked it, coupled witha few good reviews you will feel it has all been worth it! Good luck.

If you are interested in finding a writing coach or someone to keep you on track as you attempt your own novel, we’ve met a few high-quality published editors – for more details, please contact adele@escapethecity.org.

Honest thoughts about living in denial

Guest — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 07:01:31 +0000

Rookie escapee Anna describes her plans to leave her job to spend a year cycling across the United States on a ride called the Big Five-O, a 13,000 mile journey across all fifty states.

I thought everyone in my office felt the same. That sitting at a desk all day, tap-tap-tapping away, all the while wishing you were elsewhere, was a rite of passage. That we’re all unfulfilled and frustrated, but we just get on with it, because, well, that’s the way the world is, right? Turns out I was being taken for a royal ride by my colleagues.

The fact of the matter is, there’s a difference between those who say they want to be doing something else, and those that actually do. I mean, it’s easy enough to be fooled by water cooler ‘get me out of here’ chit chat after all, but offer these office-haters a route out, and they’ll back away. “Uh, no…. um… thanks. I’m alright where I am actually, very much”. “But you just said you hated being here?” “Yeah yeah, but, you know, I like it really”. Confused? Me too. I can only conclude its Stockholm syndrome. People must have fallen in love with their captors, and can’t fathom life beyond the regime.

To put an honest spin on it, I think 80% are happy with an office job and corporate life. And that their ambition and life path lies within those walls. I envy them in certain ways, not wanting for anything else and having a defined direction might be easier. And, other than indulging in false peer-to-peer exchanges on how they’d like to break free, they’ve committed no crime. So how about that remaining 20%? Well, these ones really do want out. It just took me a while to realise that I was one of them.

The early warning signs

In my early twenties, I was seeing a guy who lived in Birmingham. One June, I’d taken a few days holiday to spend time with him up in the midlands. On a Sunday night in London, whilst perusing train tickets for the following morning, I had a brain wave. I decided that rather than opt for a 2 hour rail journey with him, I’d instead hop on my trusty Cyclocross and cycle the length of the Grand Union canal, meeting him at the other end. Upon revealing my master plan, he looked at me like I was mental. Didn’t this just have the makings of the most wonderful adventure, I thought? It was certainly far more exciting than sitting on a stuffy train for 2 hours. He begged to differ.

I had no idea what the canal path was like, only that it was there – a watery corridor, with the potential to catapult me from Brentford, West London, right into the heart of Birmingham. So at 3.30 am on the Monday morning, I woke him up as I left, and gleefully whispered in his ear “I’m going on an adventure!” He groaned and went back to sleep. 217km, 4 punctures, 4 rounds of honey sandwiches and 11 hours later I skidded, muddy faced and grinning from ear to ear, into Birmingham. Turns out that a lot of the canal path is grass, and very uneven. Who knew?

I didn’t see it at the time, but looking back it’s obvious how often I desperately sought adventure in everyday life. I still do. I’ll always jump in the puddle rather than step over it, dive in the mud instead of walking around it and take a swim in a sea or river over a pool any day. I’ve heard many a seasoned adventurer remark “Why walk, when you can run?” On this occasion that translated into “Why sit on a train, when you can cycle up the canal?”

The Escape plan

I’ve finally admitted to myself that the time has come to stop treating adventure like a side line. So here I am, standing at the foot of my first adventure mountain, letting it take centre stage. In June I’ll leave the UK to embark on a 13,000 mile cycle through all 50 states of the US. I’ve broken the news to work, am 4 months into the planning and 5 months away from boarding that plane. I’m a little scared, a lot of the time, but I’ve never felt so fulfilled and happy in all my life.

Why sit in the office when you can cycle round America?

7 steps to quit your life and reboot

Guest — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 17:16:37 +0000

Priya Parker is the founder of Thrive Labs, a company that helps leaders and organizations connect with their vision and purpose. She combines the tools of business and conflict resolution to help create products, services and cultures that reflect the things that people care more about. Follow her @PriyaParker.

I recently had the crazy experience of giving a TED talk in the middle of Flanders. What did I talk about? How to quit your life (and reboot). I spent my 18 allotted minutes talking about why it’s important for young people with lots of talent to step out and address problems they’re passionate about, and why it’s a public problem (and not just a private failing) when we don’t. I also share 7 ways to help you get there.

I run a company called Thrive Labs that works with individuals and companies to define and integrate their sense of purpose into their work. With individuals, one of the biggest things that prevent us from “escaping” is fear. In the talk, I share 7 examples of tools I find effective at helping people connect with their own sense of purpose and get up the nerve to do something about it. Here are two of the most popular ones:

The Obituary Test

TOOL #1: Take the obituary test and make sure you pass. This first exercise is to actually write down your own 600-word obituary in the style of your favorite newspaper.

In a recent interview in the New York Times, a guy named Jonathan Butler who used to be a banker and now runs a very popular flea market in Brooklyn, put it this way:

“I am ambitious about making a lot of money, but none of that stuff passed the obituary test. I didn’t want [my obituary] to read that I had been a vice president of Merrill Lynch for 40 years.”

If you want to figure out what to do with your life, work back from your death.

Rather than building your life around the career you want to get, work backwards and start with asking what kind of life do I want to have lived?

The Backward Elevator Test

TOOL #2: Get comfortable with discomfort. Quitting your life and rebooting is not only incredibly scary, it can also be extremely awkward, for you and for those around you. As you get ready to quit your life and reboot, build your discomfort muscles.

You can build your discomfort muscles in all sorts of ways:

• Sing when you’re waiting in line at the grocery store. It can be quiet, but make it slightly audible.
• Go out to a restaurant by yourself and order dinner for one, without your phone or any reading material.
• Or one of my personal favorites, borrowed from Olivia Fox Cabane: walk into an elevator and, rather than turning back around to face the door as is typically expected, stay facing the back of the elevator.

In my experience, the people who have been able to quit their life and reboot, don’t get rid of their anxiety or their fears, they learn to build a tolerance for them.

You can check out the 5 other tools here:

I am running a series of Public Visioning Lab in New York this coming January 16 & 23rd and March 4 & 11 to allow folks to test some of these tools out themselves and see what exploring a “life sentence” might look like. You can sign up here. I’d love to have you there!

From a corporation to conservation

Guest — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 07:01:28 +0000

Escapee Lola has put her escape plan into action this year and handed in her notice in November. She is leaving the UK for Netherlands and hopes to apply her marketing skills in sustainability sector. Working her notice period, she came across an org announcement for a colleague in Brasil, Elisa, who escaped the same corporate job to a job in conservation. Inspired by this example, Lola felt compelled to reach out and talk to Elisa about her escape journey.

Before the escape

Throughout my career I always worked in business development and marketing, but I have been in many different industries, nothing was really planned, but opportunities came and one thing lead to another.

I started my career in new business development in a consumer electronic company in Brazil that had joint ventures with major global players like Nokia, JVC, LG. One new business we were prospecting was Internet TV, so I ended up being hired by AOL, as they were entering the Brazilian market at the time. I spent 6 years with them working in Latin America and then moved to their headquarters in US.

After the first Internet bubble burst, I had an opportunity in the entertainment/ hospitality business working with a chain of high end boutique hotels. For personal reasons I decided to move back to Brazil, my home country, and I started my own business, a publishing company focused on yoga and well being products, which had a great start, but I invested all of my savings and needed a source of income while my business was getting traction. This is when I went back to the corporate America.

My moment of truth

In general, my observation is that, with few exceptions, people in the corporate world are there for the wrong reasons. They normally don’t enjoy or believe in the work they are doing, the majority is there for a paycheck and feeling of safety that having a job brings, believing that happiness comes from climbing the corporate ladder.

After a while, I felt so empty inside, and depressed. I did not enjoy my life anymore. I went on a long self discovery journey, looking for what would motivate me to wake up every morning, a sense of purpose, get my mojo and my priorities back on track.

So I did not have a moment per se, rather a long process of self discovery, asking some tough questions, searching for what is really important to me, what motivates me, what makes me happy and what I believe in. I did everything from coaching, anthroposophy based activities, family constellations, traditional and untraditional therapy.

My escape

I am leaving my corporate job for a marketing role with The Nature Conservancy where I will be focused on corporate partnerships to promote their brand and create corporate source of revenue to advance their conservation mission.

I have been looking, more or less, for the last 4 years, however the right opportunity never seemed to appear. Then there was this ad on LinkedIn, the role felt right and everything just fell into place after I applied. The rest is history.

Planning for it

I am not making the same salary I used to. And I am fine with it. I had to adjust my lifestyle. I went back to basics. I learned to value things that are truly important in life. I focused on cutting down my costs, eg started looking out for deals, etc. Anyone can do it.

Change is never without adaptations. However the thing is after you find your path, you have this absolute best feeling in the world of knowing that you are putting your energy into something you really believe in, that you are moving towards your life’s goal. And this overshadows any concerns.

The toughest part is finding out what your beliefs are, what you want from life, defining the goal. They say you have to “follow your bliss” to be happy, but figuring out what your bliss is actually is the hardest part, at least it was for me. Once you do find the right direction, you will know it because it will feel like you’ve got the whole universe on your side and things just fall into place. And then there is no better place in the world to be in! You are happy.

How to find ‘your bliss’

For me, it was never just about the career development. I always wondered about my life direction in general. So finding my bliss was not a straightforward exercise. I tried everything – therapy, coaching, I did a course at Artemisia, an NGO focused on promotion of social business, and I tried non traditional therapy and meditation.

It’s all very individual, for me there was no silver bullet, different methods, approaches contributed something which led me to a deeper understanding of how things are connected and what direction to pursue.

What’s next

This is of course not the end of my journey. I think the search never ends. But I am on the right track, I know what it is I am after and what I want, and so I am relaxed, having fun and enjoying the ride.

Dine your way out of the City

Guest — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 07:02:09 +0000

Kate Jackson is an ex-City lawyer who left the suits, books and courtroom behind to launch party dating website ClickTonight. She has since launched TableCrowd, a real life social network where you can meet people over food. She lives and breathes dating, eating out, and cycling.

I escaped the City back in 2007 but I now seem to be delving back into it. Let me explain… I co-founded and am CEO of TableCrowd – a real life social network to meet people over food. We run tables daily for our members to meet at UK restaurants. Prior to TableCrowd, I co-founded ClickTonight, a website that helps people meet quickly through its online community and off line events.

I use TableCrowd primarily for networking with other startups. It is a great platform for meeting other people on the same entrepreneurial journey as me to share connections and experiences. However, I decided, as an ex-commercial lawyer myself, to host a dinner for people wanting to leave the law. I thought it would be a good forum for people wanting to share ideas, vent frustrations about their current roles and explore other options informally and socially with others who would totally ‘get it’. The first dinner was at the end of last year and it was a great success. It was a baby step for people who didn’t necessarily know what their escape plan was and who weren’t ready to commit to any formal training or direction, but just knew change was brewing for them. The people that came along were a mix of ages and at different stages in the process, one had just escaped a few days previous and for others, the penny had only just dropped that law wasn’t for them long term.

We dined at a quiet restaurant, so people could operate undercover, and everyone shared their predicaments, told horror stories of their current roles and why they wanted to move on. Details were exchanged where help could be offered between diners and I was (and am) more than happy to make introductions and help people interested in the tech world with advice.

An interesting revelation for me was that the lawyers that attended perceived that their skill set was not seen as particularly transferable when applying for non-law positions. I have always held the opposite view and have in fact targeted lawyers particularly when looking for people to join our team. I was set straight that this was due to me personally having a law background and a deep understanding of the industry. This was a surprise to me and I think that non-law employers need to be better informed on this matter – the campaign starts here!

For 2013, TableCrowd is running a series of dinners for people wanting to escape the City – not just the legal profession – to provide a social outlet for the dramas that go with this big and bold decision – the objective being to meet other people in the same boat. The dinners will be listed here.

Also relevant are the weekly startup dinners for people that have already escaped and want to meet others heading out on the rocky entrepreneurial road. The startup dinners are listed here.

I hope to meet some of you at a TableCrowd dinner soon or you can reach me here if I can help you out in any way: kate@tablecrowd.com.

Escape the city now – because the next generation is avoiding it altogether

Guest — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 07:01:40 +0000

Jack Graham is the social entrepreneur behind Year Here, a social leadership programme for ambitious recent graduates and school leavers. Here, he explores the career choices of the next generation of ambitious professionals and offers added impetus to readers’ potential escape plans.

I predict that the tide is turning: corporate experience is no longer a pre-requisite for a high-impact social sector career. And the next generation knows it.

In the past few decades the received wisdom has been that savvy purpose-driven grads should spend a few years in the private sector developing their skills before making the shift over to the non-profit sector (where, it’s assumed, all professional development ceases abruptly). And programmes like On Purpose have made the transition ever-smoother. And the strategy seems to work for many: the founders of some of the top social ventures in Britain all started their professional lives in the private sector. Take Teach First, The Challenge and Entrepreneur First – their founders are all ex-McKinsey.

But it seems that things are changing. Programmes like the one I run for ambitious recent grads and school leavers, Year Here, are providing the kind of professional development opportunities that people could, traditionally, only benefit from on corporate grad schemes. And more and more social entrepreneurs are drawing inspiration from the high-speed startup-to-IPO story of tech entrepreneurship and setting our sites much higher, with competitions like the Dell Social Innovation Competition and the Big Venture Challenge looking for seriously ambitious teams and ideas to change the world.

And it isn’t just the supply of social leadership development opportunities that is on the up. Demand is rising too. This year,Teach First – the two-year leadership programme that puts top grads into challenging schools – is predicted to become the UK’s largest graduate employer.

Over the summer we met an inspiring chap called Fred. He’s 18 years old – although his maturity and eloquence might fool you into thinking he is older – and spending his gap year in Britain, teaching students at a challenging school in Kent. It’s Fred’s generation that knows that you needn’t compromise your ambition, professional development and career success if you want to apply yourself to improving the conditions of the most disadvantaged and marginalised in society.

Meet Fred from Year Here on Vimeo.

So, if things really are changing, what does this mean for those who want a career with purpose and are considering their initial entry into the job market?

Well, any graduates who are still thinking that a corporate job is the only way to develop business acumen should drop that misconception immediately. You do need business acumen but now there’s a plethora of opportunities to grow that in the social sector, while developing a deeper understanding of the social issues that you might seek to solve. And don’t stay in your comfort zone by remaining in academia, enrolling for a Masters’ in anthropology or international development – get out there and experience poverty and injustice first hand.

And for those stuck in unfulfilling corporate careers, there’s now an added urgency to make the leap. A new generation, raised in a world where globalisation and digital technology have fuelled a blurring of the traditional ‘sectors’, are hungry for success and social impact. They’re right behind you, so jump now before you’re left behind.

What’s it like never to have a proper job?

Guest — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 07:06:51 +0000

Duncan Milligan runs Tour de Force, specialising in Adventure Logistics (www.tourdeforceuk.com) He has spent more than 10 years getting involved in ridiculous travel projects and events. He has no illusions about being a rufty, tufty rugged explorer, instead rather someone who makes a living from travelling the world.

I always pause whenever anyone asks me what I do for a living, I take a deep breath and very quickly have to decide which answer I am going to give.

-The quick one- “I work in travel and events.”

-The facetious one -” Whatever anyone will pay me to do”

-The honest one-” I have no idea and I just make it up as I go along”

I have spent my entire professional life avoiding the 9 to 5 like the plague. Whenever I have been stuck in an office, the urge to get out is almost overpowering, this plus the hell of a commute has proved too much -on occasion, when stuck on a crowded train, I have to fight the urge to shout “What are you all doing??”

Smug?

Maybe.

So, how have I managed to avoid this fate worse than death? No idea really, it’s been totally organic. However, there are certain ‘rules’ to the game.

Reduce your costs to a minimum

• If you don’t spend much, you don’t need to earn much.
• Because you don’t need to earn much, you are not forever caught in the vicious cycle of doing a job ‘just for the money’
• Pare down your life to the bare essentials. I went through this process about 10 years ago when I started working as a tour leader for an adventure travel company. The feeling of freedom when I chucked my rucksack over my shoulder, knowing I had no flat / mortgage / council tax / phone bill / to deal with was awesome.

This is then when the possibilities arise… take a job that doesn’t pay well-the travel industry is a great example of this! It relies on the knowledge that you will travel for free, have some incredible experiences and meet amazing people, this in itself is the best renumeration.

Therefore look for an industry poor in finances, but rich in experiences.

Be willing to not have a clue what you will be doing next week / month / year

• This can be tough, especially if you have been used to a paycheck at the end of ever month and paid holidays.
• There will be many ‘dark nights of the soul’ as you worry about where the next job is coming from but, to quote a certain G. Michael, “you gotta have faith”.
• Look for any and every opportunity that arises (again, remember money ain’t important) and seize it.
• Contact the companies you want to work for and tell them what you are good at and why you should work for them. If they are the right company, they’ll give you a job, even if they didn’t have one available.
• Put lots of fingers in lots of pies, one of them will happen.

Enjoy the “how did I get here” moments

• I have had few of these, most memorably sitting on the roof of a mobile carnival float in Cameroon, trying to stop a group of drunken pygmies from falling off as they danced around the lurching vehicle as we paraded around town- it’s a long story…
• In the past 12 months I have driven from London to Cape Town and Buenos Aires to Ushuaia, helped organized the Mototaxi Junket for The Adventurists in Peru, taken 20 students from Rotherham to work with a remote mountain community in Lesotho and toured with a circus around Europe.
• If you find yourself in one of these weird and wonderful moments, wondering how on earth you ended up in this situation, chances are you are doing the right thing.

Be prepared to be the odd one out

• Friends, family and work-mates may well think you’re mad- after all they have no desire to do it themselves.
• Therefore gravitate towards the people who have the same lifestyle and values that you are drawn towards, then you won’t feel so ‘weird’- let’s face it, that’s how Escape the City started!

It’s not easy–if it was everyone would be doing it

A common response when I tell people what I do is “I wish I could do that”.

Sometimes, I wonder what they mean. Do they mean they want my job? My lifestyle? Or is it more about what they think I represent-often a romanticized version of a ‘carefree and happy’ life, which of course it isn’t all the time.

Sometimes my job is shit, sometimes I don’t have much money, or I can’t see where the next gig is coming from. But it’s my choice to live this way and, by surrounding myself with other people who share the same lifestyle, makes me realize I wouldn’t have it any other way.

But, here is the best kept secret out there. (It’s a cliché I know, but as with all clichés, they are based upon a truth)

Anyone can do it.

Lame Excuses for Why It’s Not the Right Time to Take Your Leap

Guest — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 07:01:20 +0000

Alexis Grant is an entrepreneurial writer and digital strategist who left her day job to pursue her own business full time. She writes about how to make your own luck in her weekly newsletter.

You know you want to make a change — no, need to make a change. But you keep putting it off.

And while the BIG reason you put it off is probably because making a life or career change can be scary, most of us come up with more practical excuses, ones that sound reasonable when we say them out loud.

Here are three excuses you shouldn’t let hold you back, plus tips for overcoming them:

1. You’ve got too much going on

Often, that means feeling weighed down, maybe by responsibilities, maybe just by stuff. So ask yourself this: How can you simplify your life to make room for your priorities?

Don’t feel like you have to accomplish this in one weekend. Take baby steps: get rid of belongings you don’t need, cut out friends who stress you out, and look for ways to streamline and even outsource chores that take up too much of your time.

Soon, when the weight of all those responsibilities lifts — and you realize that most of those obligations are actually choices — you’ll find the guts to make a bigger change, the one you’ve been waiting on.

2. You haven’t saved enough money

If this is your lame excuse, you likely fall into one of two camps: always feeling like you don’t have enough money no matter how much you’ve saved, or truly falling into the red financially but lacking a plan for how to get out.

In either case, figure out exactly how much money you need to make your transition. Once you put a real number on it, you’ll have a concrete goal to work toward.

Then create a plan to get there. Conscious and frugal spending helps, but figuring out how to make more money is far more effective. Can you launch a side hustle? Ask for a raise at work? Use your skills to help others reach their own goals (and charge for it)?

In addition to coming up with a financial goal, set a time goal for yourself, too. When will you have as much savings as you need? What’s your self-imposed deadline?

3. You’ve put too much time and effort into the career you have now

It might feel difficult to leave if it’s taken you this long to get where you are, but the truth is, all that sweat doesn’t mean a thing if you’re not happy.

Plus, no matter what you do next, the time and effort you’ve put in so far will not go to waste. Why? Because it’s gotten you where you are now. Even if you don’t directly apply the skills that make you money now in your next job, something you’ve learned will help you succeed going forward.

Sometimes the big thing you take with you is an understanding of what you want in life. And just think, if you hadn’t toiled away at a job you didn’t like, you might never have figured that out.

One last tip for moving forward

With all this in mind, remember: It will NEVER feel like the right time. NEVER. The pieces will never ALL fall into place at once. So you’ve got to do what you can to prepare financially and emotionally, and then somehow make the rest of it work. Push through that fear to achieve your goal.

One hack that will help you get there is surrounding yourself with go-getters. Because if the people around you are taking their own leaps, that will rub off on you. It will make living the life you want feel normal, rather than a crazy stretch. You’ll begin to feel like doing awesome things with your life is the status quo, rather than being stuck in a job and city you don’t like.

So look around for the people who will help you move toward your goal, and don’t let yourself make any of these lame excuses. And soon we’ll be hearing from YOU about your escape.

6 Things I Learned Since Escaping Big Law

Guest — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 07:01:41 +0000

Amber, a recovering tax attorney, escaped her career to travel the world, with her husband in tow. After 5 months in, she talks about what she has learned so far. She blogs at www.WithHusbandInTow.com and www.EscapeThePredictableLife.com.

About 5 months ago, I quit my job, my career, my old life. I left my job as a practicing tax attorney. I stepped off my career path, where I was just shy of making partner at the largest law firm in the world. I escaped my old life, where I lived in a faux-urban suburb of Washington, D.C. I wanted to experience the world. Since then, I have learned several things about myself and my new life.

In 5 months I have traveled to 23 countries on two continents, backpacking with my husband in tow. We have had good times and bad and experienced highs and lows, but not a day goes by that I regret the decision I made.

This is what I have learned along the way:

1. I’m Not Going to Quit This Life.

I recently had a bad week, in fact, an awful week. My legs and feet were covered in Guatemalan and Salvadoran mosquito bites, from fresh to scabbed. At night I was plagued by fits of scratching. I had to sleep with socks on so I would not scratch my feet. They were so itchy it felt like they were burning. Add to this that we were unable to get money out of the ATMs in El Salvador, and were burning through our emergency cash. Things were not going well.

We traveled from Guatemala, to El Salvador, with a stop over at a roach motel in Honduras, before landing in Nicaragua. About 15 chicken buses and microbuses were required to make our way from Guatemala to Nicaragua in five days. We crossed dusty border crossings, traversed bumpy roads on old American school buses with no shocks, battled touts, black market money-changers, and even more pesky bugs. During one ride tears welled up in my eyes.

I wondered what the heck am I doing here? Why did I escape my predictable life in DC, with fewer bugs, reliable plumbing, clean sheets, temperature-controlled rooms, and my beloved Mini Cooper?

Somewhere in Honduras I thought that maybe Central America was not working for us. What next? Should we fly to India, or Bali? See friends in Argentina or Brazil, Doha or Malaysia? We could certainly fly from Managua or San Jose to some place that connected us to anywhere other than Central America.
The one thing that never crossed my mind was going home. I would not even consider heading back to family in the US for a few weeks to get our heads straight. It simply was not an option.

Things improved in Nicaragua. I am happy we did not jump online to book the next flight out. We are continuing south. This was a bad spell, a real low, but I never regretted my decision to escape the predictable life I left behind.

2. I’m Not Alone in What I Want From Life.

Staying in hostels we have met some interesting travelers from around the world. We met a Swiss construction worker and his German architect girlfriend, who were traveling through Central and South America for 5 months on career breaks; a guy motorcycling from Santa Barbara to Argentina; an American who landed a job at an international school in Antigua, Guatemala.

Robert was a French Canadian living for a while in Guatemala, who led mediation sessions twice a day on the beach. Marcia was an 80-year-old New Yorker traveling the world by herself, which she has been doing for decades. Greta was a young woman from a small town in Germany who was taking time off from work and school just to travel. Becky, a fellow expat from Virginia, fell in love with a Guatemalan, opened a hostel and restaurant on the beach, and started a family.

Each of these fellow travelers or expats or transplants had their own story to tell. Many were similar to ours, regardless of whether they were just out of school, just into retirement, or somewhere in the middle. We felt a connection because they want something different from their life, even if just for a short period of time. Meeting all of these people almost validated my decision to escape, even if that validation was not truly needed.

3. Relationships Change.

I expected that the geographical distance that separated us from our friends and family would be a hurdle. But, it is more than just geography. We are living a life that is hard for them to understand. While many of them continue in their current lives, either happy and content, or miserable and misguided, we are challenged with new experiences every day.

Although we don’t talk as much as we used to, I hope that with many of my closest friends, when we see them again, we will pick up where we left off. As if no time has passed. With others, this may not be so easy.

Often we find we have more in common with the travelers we meet on the road than with some of our friends back home, who just don’t understand or appreciate what we are doing. Sometimes, we don’t understand how they can be happy in their lives either.

All this leads to the stark reality that relationships change, particularly when you are willing to go your own path, do your own thing, or follow your dreams.

4. I Actually Enjoy Spending Time With My Husband.

Eric and I have been joined at the hip for over 15 years, and married for over 11. This is our second RTW escape. Although I knew we enjoy spending time together, I am often struck at how we still do not run out of conversation.

Sitting on a balcony on an island off the coast of Croatia, with a little wine and no Wi-Fi, we found ourselves listening to music and talking about our lives. We wondered what we were doing, where we were going, and where we will ultimately end up. When things were rough in Central America, we took time to talk about what we want to do. We agreed to continue to move south until it was no longer fun, whenever that was. If that happened, we would figure out a next step. We can go anywhere and do anything.

Most importantly, we want the same things out of life. We are in it together.

5. I Prefer the Unexpected Life Versus Monotony.

In my old tax attorney life, things were fairly predictable. I might not have set my own schedule, as clients and partners controlled it, but overall I knew how a day, a week, a month would pass. There would be billable hours, deadlines, conference calls, Tuesday Tax Chat, drafting and editing, commuting on the Metro. Often I would fly someplace exotic, usually to Palo Alto, California, for a stay at the Westin, where the night manager knew me by name.

My evenings and weekends were filled with yoga and visits to our regular restaurants in Arlington, Virginia. I would get together with friends on occasion, when I had the energy. We watched our regularly scheduled television shows on our always-filled DVR. We frequented CVS, Safeway, and Trader Joe’s. It was my life. It was predictable. It was monotonous.

It was not for me. As fretful and stressful our week traveling through El Salvador was, it certainly was not boring. It certainly was not predictable. Perhaps it was the uncertainty that made me stress out, but I welcomed it nonetheless.

I love that each day is unique. Even when we stay someplace long enough to get into a routine, something different always happens. We meet new people, or see something new on the street we had never seen before. I prefer my life this way. I prefer the unpredictable.

6. There is More to Life than 9 to 5.

A lot of experiences have come our way in the last 5 months, on our second RTW trip.

I traveled through Eastern Europe, from the Baltics to the Balkans. I saw the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland. I gazed at towering Soviet-era statues, including images of Lenin and Stalin. I witnessed the remnants of war in the former Yugoslavia and found shell casings while exploring a sniper tower in Mostar, Bosnia.

I ate periwinkles, walrus, pig knuckle, roasted bone marrow, and fois gras. A Czech mother made us homemade apple strudel from the apple tree in her backyard. I ate whole, fried fresh fish on the beach almost every day for 10 days.

I sipped a pint or two of Guinness with family in Ireland. I partied in a traditional Bosnian beer hall in Sarajevo and hung out a bar dedicated to the band Depeche Mode in Estonia. I drank caipirinhas at a Brazilian party in Hungary and visited a Croatian winery during harvest. I tried bison grass vodka, Romanian palinka, and Balkan raki.

I climbed through a cave in Bulgaria to relieve myself of my sins and toured Transylvania just before Halloween. I fought off a con man on a train in Poland and plunged into below freezing water at the Budapest baths.

I smoked sheesha in Sarajevo. I took Spanish lessons in Antigua, Guatemala, practiced yoga near the pool in Monterrico, and spent a day never leaving a hammock on the beach.

And, I survived those Central American chicken buses and dusty border crossings.

I would never have experienced any of this, or met the wonderful people we have on this trip thus far, if I stayed behind my desk, under the fluorescent lights, in my old 9 to 5 world.

5 Startup Lessons Learned Traveling

Guest — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 07:01:00 +0000

Anthony Marnell escaped the city and continues his indefinite traveling. He’ll eventually stop somewhere long enough to continue with his startup plans or contribute to building companies.

Four months ago, I left on a global trip of indefinite destination and duration. I had just completed my MBA and quit my job of six years at a global investment company when the opportunity to travel paused my startup plans. As with all my travels, I learn new things and, if I’m lucky, change for the better. Though, I had not expected some of the lessons learned to resonate so strongly with my plans to eventually get back to starting a business. Here are a few things that my travels have reinforced and I hope I keep in mind when launching a business in the future.

1. Consider My Audience

It’s a chilly second night on a trek to Everest Base Camp in Nepal and I’m sitting in a bar with a stereo blasting typical backpacker fare. Other than a couple other trekkers, it was only the employees in the pub. As someone who admittedly might be a music snob, I thought we could be listening to something better. So, I put together a quick playlist, ask the bartender if we can play it, and he plugs it into his stereo. Two songs later, U2 is playing and I look back to see the bartender handing me my iPad. I thought maybe they would want to hear some new music, something fresh. They didn’t want that though – they loved the hits and wanted to jam to their favorites. When talking to future customers or partners, I can’t just assume I know what they want, I need to ask and understand.

2. Build My Network

Couchsurfing may be a great tool for getting a free place to crash while traveling but its real value is insight into a local resident’s life. Isn’t that one of the things we look for when we travel, a local experience? In Pondicherry, India, I connected with a group of expats working at a consulting company and spoke to them about their experiences working and living abroad. Just a few of many people I’ve met while traveling. Now a few months later and I’m still chatting, emailing, and facebooking with people I’ve met on the road. Some will hopefully be valuable advisors when starting my business and one is even trying to recruit me for a position with their firm. People we meet have the possibility to aid us in the future and us them. I’ll continue to try and maintain these connections and will be much savvier in growing my network in the future.

3. Face Fears

I’ve always known I am not built to grow a beard. In fact, I thought I’d look pretty terrible with one and while working would never risk the personal and professional embarrassment of actually starting one. Though, I decided for the first time in my life I would let it continue growing while traveling. I learned a couple of things through that. I confirmed that, yes, a ‘beard’ looks silly on me. But I also learned how important it was for me to continue to do things that I’m afraid of. It’s through that I learn more about myself, and potentially the world, and taking risks is critical to growth. When starting a business, I want to continue to do things that I may be a bit afraid to do, not avoid them.

4. Taking Advice

When travelling extensively one meets people on various types of global journeys. Inevitably, people have recently traveled to where you’re headed and you seek their advice as they’re happy to share. I had a number younger travelers wastedly tell me how I couldn’t miss one of the incredible full moon parties in Thailand. I decided to explore Northern Thailand instead. Just like travel, advice that I’ll receive when starting my company needs to be put into context of who delivers it and the question they’re answering. Everyone has a different story so learn to recognize valuable information and take others for what it’s worth.

5. Spending Cash

At a train station in Sri Lanka, I’m faced with the choice of two classes – a VIP car with air conditioning, wifi, and comfortable chairs or a third-class car with lightly padded bench seats, open windows, and that’s really it. The train ride is a couple hours through hill country – VIP costs $10, the third-class $1. Now, VIP is affordable for me but I choose the third-class ticket. Riding VIP doesn’t get me to my destination any faster and an additional $9 will easily pay for that night’s hotel room. In starting my business, remembering the importance of cash is something that will be always on my mind. I’m willing to spend more when it will deliver me to my goals faster but I won’t throw money. I’m no VIP, yet.

Small Steps to Big Leaps: 4 Things You Can Do Now to Start the Escape

Guest — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 20:11:20 +0000

Elizabeth Sheeran recently left a career in IT consultancy to work in coffee. Here she talks about the small changes you can make prior to leaving to prepare for your big escape.

I have been an Escape the City reader since it started and attended one of their events back in August. It convinced me that my decision to leave my job in September was the right path. I had been working in IT consulting for five years but I couldn’t shake my long held dream of working in coffee.

However, such a big change seemed overwhelming and I didn’t know where to start. After a couple of years of being unhappy in my job, I decided to take control of my career path and make small changes to prepare me for a career change when the time was right.

It is always going to be scary to leave the security of your big city job, however, there are ways to mitigate your determined risks and prepare for the new life you dream of. Here are some of the actions I took to get ready for the big jump!

Define your priorities

It’s not always possible to know exactly what career you want to move into but it is possible to define the things you want to prioritise in your ideal life. I knew I could survive without the little luxuries in life but I wanted enough savings to start a business or invest in property if needs be. This gave me something to work towards whilst still in my consulting job.

Sometimes friends and family can actually be unhelpful when you are going through this process, so if you are getting a lot of unwanted opinions, I suggest keeping quiet about your escape plans! My parents lived through two recessions and the thought of their oldest daughter jumping ship for a minimum wage job actually brought my mother to tears. Now that I’ve left, she is supportive but if you are scared it’s likely the people that love you are doubly scared for you!

Skill Up

I spent almost three years living in hotels. The shine of having your bed made soon wore off when I was working 12 hour days and fending off the advances of the adolescent porter over my dinner tray of microwaved curry. Living like a warped Alan Partridge made it difficult to appreciate the value of working in the corporate job.

Your saving powers are strong, the opportunity to attend courses on subject matter close, and sometimes quite distant, from your day to day job are easily attainable (often paid for!) and finally, the rigorous training of city jobs gives you a discipline far better than your student days of watching marathon runs of Deal Or No Deal at university. If you can hold on a little, you can get what you need from your city career to help you in the next career turn you take.

Just before I left work, I completed the City & Guilds Barista certification. It is not necessary in order to be a good barista but it did help me get on top of the subject and meet useful contacts in my next stage of getting a job in the industry.

Clean Up

The London city scene can be one of debauched boozing and corporate credit card one-upmanship (tell me who hasn’t flashed that AMEX in their first six months of a graduate job?). But if you don’t like your job, avoid buying into the lifestyle. If you do manage to escape the job, it’s unlikely you will be able to maintain those frequent trips to your local Hawksmoor for that burger.

I started cleaning out my life about six months before I left my job. I sold a lot of thoughtless purchases on Ebay, reviewed my spending habits and went on a shopping diet. I tracked my expenditure and started maintaining a personal profit and loss sheet. It was a real eye opener and helped me reach my saving goal prior to leaving.

What now? I’m earning 20% of my previous salary and it’s not hurting quite as much as it could have.

Keep the Faith

Finally, as my dad says, keep the faith. Not everyone yearns for adventure in their career. That drive for something more is a gift that will drive you forward to success. Although I have not finished my plan yet, I do feel a sense of freedom and self-control I didn’t have in my old career. I’m determining my own fate and it feels good. What’s the worst that can happen?

Everyone will have a different way of finding a job they love. For me, it was the small steps over a couple of years that allowed me to finally take the leap! I started working as a barista in a tiny West London café in November. Eventually, I want to open my coffee shop but for now I’m happy and excited to finally work in my dream job.

What I Learned Moving from Derivatives to the Vineyard

Guest — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 07:01:35 +0000

Anika worked at a financial consultancy firm in The City before setting up Flavours of France, a cooking and wine holiday company, last year. She shares a few things she has learnt along the way…

1) Imposter Syndrome can knock your confidence

Desperate to get a job after uni I applied for everything and anything including a financial consultancy position at a derivatives firm in The City. A couple of weeks after my application, I found out I got the job.

Within six months I was on £30,000 and I was pretty chuffed. But even after being at the company for a year I still had imposter syndrome. I didn’t feel qualified for the projects I was doing and received little training on derivatives, learning what I could from books and on the job. Being out of my depth in a job I had very little interest in was very demoralising.

Since starting up a business I earn less but I am doing something that is more rewarding. I deal with everything from PR and marketing to organising and taking bookings for the cooking holidays.
Overcoming setbacks along the way has increased my confidence – I have learnt things I would never have known if I was still working in The City and I no longer feel like an imposter.

2) It’s ok to quit without a plan

I quit my job without a plan. Being in the corporate environment I could not think creatively. Besides, I wasn’t simply looking for another job I was looking for another lifestyle altogether.

What I did next:
I moved out of my East London flat to live back at home with my mum. I went to start up shows in London and attended workshops where I met lots of entrepreneurs. Being away from the corporate environment changed my thinking and I began looking at everything as a potential business.

It took 6 months for me to research ideas and during this time I did some odd jobs such working at Selfridges. On one shift, I got talking to a guy about his recent internship at a cooking holiday company in Italy. I really liked the concept and naively thought ‘how hard can that be’?

Getting Started:
I liked the idea of going on a cooking and wine tasting holiday and was confident that people would be willing to pay for this, plus I had lived in France as a student and love the cuisine. I booked a cheap flight to La Rochelle in February last year, and so began the journey to setting up Flavours of France. With savings and a loan, I started the business. In the summer I set up more holidays in Lyon with a girl I met at my first exhibition.

If I had waited for the multimillion pound idea I would still be working in The City. You don’t need the most unique idea, just enough confidence, drive and passion to keep positive when there are setbacks.

3) Good Things come to those who Wait

Inspiring Story:
When I visited the Poitou Charentes region to look into organising wine tours, I met Christian Chabirand. Christian, along with his wife, left his City job to follow his dream of owning a vineyard and producing 100% organic wine. They bought some land and undertook the mammoth task of creating a vineyard from scratch on virgin soil, pretty much unheard of in the wine industry. That was in 1997. With no pre-existing vine, it took 6 years of faith and hard work until they were able to harvest the first grapes and produce their first vintage in 2003.

The gamble paid off and they now sell their organic wines all over the world. Hearing their story made me realise that success is not instant. At times I get frustrated when things are progressing slowly or when there is a setback.

But then I remember Christian’s story. I have only been doing this for 18 months, who knows what the next 6 years will bring?

Conclusion

It is up to you to decide what it is you want to learn. Knowing about setting up and running a business is more valuable to me than knowing about derivatives.
Sometimes you need a change of environment to discover other ways of living and working.
Be patient, as success comes with hard work and time.

Why You Should Escape to Southall not South Africa.

Guest — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 07:07:23 +0000

Jack Graham used to work in international development before he discovered home-grown social entrepreneurship and launched Year Here, a gap year programme based in Britain. Here, he encourages potential escapees to consider their own backyard as a destination.

I have spent my whole career working to make society better. From running development NGOs in Africa to investing in social start-ups at home, I’ve been lucky enough to do the kinds of thing that many Escape the City members daydream about from their corporate desk jobs.

I now run Year Here, a new type of gap year that challenges ambitious and entrepreneurial young people to a year of tackling social issues in their own backyard. I want to give great young people a grounded understanding of poverty and inequality in Britain – as well as the confidence and vision to do something about it. Think of it as the anti-gap yah!

Here are three lessons I’ve learnt along the way:

It’s pretty easy to kid yourself you’re having an impact… when you’re not.

While working as the Head of Operations of a Zambian NGO, I became disconcerted by practices in the development field.

Three moments stick out:
While recruiting a new accountant, I noticed that lots of the applicants were entrepreneurs, prepared to abandon their market stall, restaurant or workshop to work for our small outfit. I discovered that the salary we our NGO was offering, which was low compared to government or international NGOs, was 5-10 times bigger than that of a small-scale commercial entrepreneur.

I remember having to put an extra line in a budget for t-shirts, that we absolutely did not need, in order to beef up our ‘delivery costs’ to more than 90% of the total budget, as per our European funder’s dictation. Seriously, there must be millions of NGO t-shirts in Africa for this very reason.

The head of an AIDS NGO in our town once casually introduced me to his girlfriend. Nothing strange about that, apart from the fact that he had introduced me to a different woman, his wife, the week before.

A business model that makes entrepreneurialism (surely the lifeblood of most developing economies) look like a mug’s game, well-meaning philanthropy so paranoid about ‘efficiency’ that it leads to criminal levels of wastage, and the shocking hypocrisy of local NGO leaders… I didn’t want to acknowledge what this all seemed to add up to: the NGO-led development model didn’t work and I was not saving the world. I was wasting my time.

Sometimes the biggest discoveries are in your own backyard

After falling out of love with international development, I did a bit of soul-searching and a healthy dose of unemployment before The Young Foundation offered me a job, running a project for unemployed East Londoners based on the 90s TV series Faking It.

I remember planning a focus group that I was due to facilitate with some young people in a welfare-to-work centre when I had a sudden attack of nerves: would I be able to relate to them? It’s embarrassing to admit that was how I was feeling. I had already worked with people dying of AIDS, gay kids and disabled people from Asia and Africa – and yet I was worried about whether I could have a normal conversation with unemployed kids from a poor part of town. In my own country.

Happily, I got over my worries and developed real friendships with people from entirely different backgrounds to my own – enriching my own life and teaching me lessons I would never have learnt in Africa. And the project worked. Every single one of the participants got into training or employment within 3 months of completing the 2-week project.

The social sector needs talent!

In 2011, I co-wrote Growing Social Ventures, a report looking at the growing field of organisations that invest in, incubate and accelerate social ventures. The field, consisting of hundreds of smart professionals and millions of pounds of investment, was willing the next generation of social ventures to succeed. But where were the big success stories?

The promise of social entrepreneurship is far from being fulfilled in Britain. We need a new generation of talent to take advantage of the huge investment that government is making in social enterprise (in both money and business support).

So, my advice to budding escapees is this: stay here and get stuck in. We need you! You’ll be much better equipped to make a real difference and there will be some profound self-discovery along the way. And if you couple your existing skills with deep insight into social issues, your input will meet a genuine need for tackling in solving Britain’s toughest social problems.

What’s the Best Way to Escape Your Job?

Guest — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 07:01:54 +0000

Esc member Tom offers guidance on the best way to get out of your job. When looking to escape, you do have a few options.

I was lucky, I found myself in a place which was seriously intolerable, and after some failed shenanigans where I tried to work out a redundancy package- I jumped. My direct manager was both extremely incompetent, machine like, and the job was like being in a computer too. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m big into the tech world. BUT working, having to look at one computer, sitting next to another (my boss) and working inside another (my job), felt like overkill. I only quite liked one of them, the one that didn’t speak, and offered a view into the outside world with beautiful morsels of hope and inspiration, such as Seth Godin’s blog, or ESC’s Monday email.

Doing the Deed

I resigned on Tuesday November 6th. The dynamite had been laid through heavy and persistent whining to family, and friends, I was just a day late. I had lunch with the old man beforehand and even Mr Keep Your Reputable Steady Job backed me on this one. This, I should add, was slightly disappointing, but illustrates how the consistent whining can make the decision easier. Then it was a calm conversation with the human machine and no questions asked. This was the first benefit I had seen of having a boss who can only work in binary!

You have a number of options.

1. Maverick – Getting yourself fired

The great thing about getting fired is that you don’t have to work out your notice, and as long as you do something so grossly awful that there is no choice but to fire you, you should be able to work out the timing to the minute.
• Reference: no
• Ability to return to corporate life: small
• Pay off: none
• Sense of adventure: very high
This is not for the light hearted, comes with a severe health warning and shows real style.

2. The Gentleman – Resignation

Resignation allows you to keep your reputation and get a reference. It’s less fun than Maverick and offers a way back, should you need or want it.
• Reference: yes
• Ability to return to corporate life: ok
• Pay off: none (if you are lucky you may get paid for your notice but not have to work it…)
• Sense of adventure: medium high
The gentleman sacrifices style for reputation.

3. Redundancy – Dell Boy

This is for the opportunistic, and it’s not always available. Take it if you can, and read up on the definitions! This was my preferred option, as it meant I would get a buffer from a Sharesave scheme and that nice little pay off to set you on your way.
• Reference: no
• Ability to return to corporate life: ok
• Pay off: yes
• Sense of adventure: medium
A tricky business, and you may find yourself unintentionally becoming a Maverick if you go slightly too far, but pull it off and you can sit in the pub being paid.

4. Sabbatical – Walter the Softy (reference Beano)

The measured option, and in my opinion a slight cop out; A sabbatical allows you to come back to the job you have hated, so it does seem incongruous but it works as an insurance policy. Or for those part-time Escapees who just need an adventure. In which case it makes a lot of sense.
• Reference: yes
• Ability to return to corporate life: yes
• Pay off: sometimes (unlikely if younger)
• Sense of adventure: low/ medium
More Walter than Dennis the Menace/ Maverick, but by no means a poor choice.

Next Steps

I write this on my last day of work, my resignation, and my failed redundancy attempt (I was hoping to establish via a compromise agreement) all behind me and while I am leaving today I will be paid until December 16th due to holiday and someone sensible realising the firm should be gentlemanly too.

My plans are woolly but I have some projects in the pipeline including a small online business. I will be moving to India to live with my sister to reduce costs, enjoy the warmth of the sub-continent and understand more about the eastern way of life. One step forwards, two steps backwards, down in a Babylon!

Escaping to Valencia: 320 Days of Sun, Doing the Work We Love

Guest — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 07:01:49 +0000

Vlad is an escape entrepreneur sharing his lessons learned in a complementary course for all Escape the City readers: Do What You Love and Earn your Financial Freedom.

We took the plunge. I quit my job and put my apartment on the market. In approximately 200 days, my wife and I will be moving to Valencia, Spain.

There is no job waiting for me there, and I don’t intend to seek one.

Instead, I am working on creating a location-independent income that will give us the freedom to build the life that we want. Doing the work that I am passionate about.

Are you thinking about something similar?

Let me share with you some obstacles I faced and lessons learned so far.

You Already Have What it Takes

My dream of the Escape started five years ago.

And for most of those 5 years, I felt stuck.

I felt I didn’t have what it takes. I thought: there is still so much to learn about the business side of things. I searched for a job opportunity to build commercial experience. I started consuming business books and online articles.

As it turns out, I was right about one, but wrong about two things.

I was right about the need to learn. I still do, and am learning every day. At the same time, I was wrong about the approach to learning. Yes, reading will help. But the real learning starts when you take action. You will learn 5-10 times more each hour trying to do something than just consuming information.

I was also wrong about why I felt stuck. In retrospect, I wasn’t stuck because I lacked knowledge, I was simply feeling insecure. I didn’t trust myself. Before anything else, I needed to change my mindset.

Fear of Uncertainty

This is a big one. When you are starting something new, there is little certainty. No guaranteed salary, paid vacation and sick days, and no severance pay.

I remember waking up in the middle of the night feeling paralyzed by worries about future.

Over time, I have come to realize:

For the most part, the feeling of security a job provides is false. 2 out of 3 companies I worked for have fired all of my ex colleagues. It’s in the news almost every day. I believe the economy is fundamentally changing. We increasingly have to rely on small and nimble businesses more than on big corporations. Better start getting ready now.
When I make choices out of fear, I become its slave. The fear keeps me stuck spinning in the mouse wheel. The fear stands between me and my happiness. Is this really how I want to live my life?
I looked back at challenging situations in my life, and how I dealt with them. Back when I had much less experience. Certainly I can trust myself to figure out a way out of a tough spot in future. Especially when working towards something I care so deeply about.
Finally, what’s the worst case scenario? That we’ll have to pack our bags and come back looking for a job. Hey, wait a minute! Doesn’t that mean that I am already living the worst case scenario?

Of Course Money is Important

We all have to pay our bills.

Deciding to take the plunge doesn’t mean jumping in blindly. It will take time to build enough independent income to support your lifestyle. I started building my first business a year ago. We gave ourselves another 8 months to prepare.

Here’s what we’ve done so far.

Reduce spending:

Because now we know our priorities, it’s easier to make more responsible financial decisions. Reducing your spending will help you save up, and prepare you for a lower burn rate you’ll need before your new income builds up
Don’t give up on nice things. We spent some time talking about we really enjoy doing. It turns out, it’s simple things that bring us most satisfaction. Catching up with people we care about, walking, soaking up the sun, reading, swimming, cooking simple food using fresh products. None of these things has to cost a lot of money
Moving to Valencia will help a lot. No need for a vacation next year, reduced cost of living, and more chance to do stuff we love for free, because of the great weather

Start earning on the side:

Don’t quit your job right away. Here are good businesses to start on the side while you are still employed
Try switching to a part time employment before quitting completely. Or negotiate with your boss to become your first freelancing customer. I did both. First, I worked 3 day per week during a year, and then switched to freelancing. Now I get paid more AND have more time to build my new business.

Conclusion

Almost everyone I know dreams about becoming independent, taking their life in their own hands. Unfortunately, most feel stuck. They are waiting for a great idea, or a better moment. But the right moment may never come.

The most important thing is to start taking small steps. Instead of waiting, start creating the right conditions for yourself.

I made it my mission to help you with this. And not just with general advice. I want to help you with the challenges you struggle with. So, if you still have two seconds, I would love for you to hit “add comment” below and tell me: what is stopping you from creating the work you love? What is your biggest frustration or fear?

Photo credit: Port Saplaya, Valencia, Spain. Xavi GM

10 Important Escape Lessons Learned at the World Domination Summit

Adele — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 07:38:41 +0000

Esc Member Rob Young headed to the World Domination Summit in Portland this year. His post explains what it is, what he learned and why you should go next year.

The World Domination Summit? Is that some kind of conference for G20 leaders? One for Bond villains? Not exactly. It’s the creation of Chris Guillebeau, author of the hugely popular Art of Non Conformity blog.

It’s a gathering of 1000 diverse, amazing, unconventional people, which aims to explore “How to live a remarkable life in a conventional world”. It would be underselling to merely call it a conference, although doing so would have saved me a very suspicious grilling on my trip there – seems US border control take world domination rather seriously!

The weekend consisted of keynote speakers, group workshops, chances to meet people, and a huge closing party. Oh and Chris gave away $100,000.

I immersed myself in the experience and came away with a notebook full of thoughts, messages and truths about myself and the world. I’ve collected 10 things I found most useful as a guide for myself. I’d love to share them with you.

1 – Be uncool and vulnerable

Being cool stifles interaction and relationships, which is what life is all about. Put simply, who you are trumps what you think people want you to be. Being vulnerable means opening yourself up to the possibility of bad things happening to you, but this is the only way to allow good things to happen. Watch Brené speak about it here.

2 – Define your own success

Escape readers are a successful bunch, who’ve taken achieving success into their own hands. Go one step further and define your own version of what success actually is. If you’ve followed a route from good school grades to university to graduate job to promotion, then success has been mapped out for you until now. Is it really your own success? Refuse to let others define what your goal should be.

3 – Happiness is unrelated to what you possess

Society has made chasing material things the norm. The relationship between these and your happiness is tenuous at best, inverse at worst. Living consciously and buying what you need will show that you require less than you think. Needing less opens up options for how you earn a living and what you do with your time.

4 – Comparison is a waste of energy

If you’ve defined your own success, who cares how you measure up to anyone else? Keep your eyes on your own prize.

5 – Connect and engage

Everything is easier with a support team. Find yours. Use them. Support others. Be generous. Listen. You can learn something from everyone, and equally your experience can give a unique perspective.

6 – The opposite of fear is inaction

The only way to go through life without experiencing some level of fear and trepidation is to do nothing. If you don’t feel uncomfortable, you’re probably not progressing. Your escape is unlikely to be completely smooth sailing, and that’s a good thing.

7 – Action is the key to change

You can’t think your way to achieving something. Take action, however small. Planning is better than dreaming, but in turn, action beats planning. Feels uncomfortable? See #6

8 – You don’t need to know anything if you’re confident

This doesn’t mean you should be all mouth and no backup. It means if you get started, you’ll figure things out along the way. Be confident that you will find a way. Value tenacity over skills.

9 – Say “Hell Yeah”

Don’t just yes. Yes is a powerful answer, but “Hell Yeah” means you’ll love it. Do what excites you. Say no the “meh” stuff.

10 – Success and courage are not always glamorous

There will be times when it’s difficult, monotonous, thankless, mind numbing, impossible. Everyone feels this, they just don’t tell you about it. Hang in there, it will be worth it.

Since the summit was about being unconventional, here’s number 11 on my list of 10. If I could give just one piece of advice to follow for your escape it would be:

11 – Take action and you will be rewarded

Make something happen. Put things into the world as soon as you can. Before they’re finished, before you’re comfortable with them. Accept feedback from those that matter and ignore everyone else. What’s the worst that could happen?

See you there next year?

Photo Credit: Armosa Studios

Aquaite Founder Talks Career Changes

Guest — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 07:15:52 +0000

David is a Management Consultant at Accenture. He is the founder of Aquaite, a natural lifestyle brand that takes inspiration from life on the water. He is also part of the construction team on the most sustainable private island development in the Caribbean. Here, he talks about his decision to take a sabbatical, how it enabled him to set up a new business, and land a placement in his dream job.

“Taking a sabbatical is a big step.”
“Why would you take a sabbatical now – you’ve only just started work! If you stay for 2 more years, you will be promoted again”
“A year long holiday – that will look great on your CV…”
“Do it – it will be the best decision you’ll ever make”

I only listened to one of these bits of advice before heading off on a sabbatical at the beginning of this year. Luckily, that’s the one that has proven to be true. I decided to write this blog post to try and encourage more people to take a ‘risk’ – especially if your company offers a sabbatical as an option.

About Me:

To give you a bit of background, I grew up on the water. I used to compete on the UK and European windsurfing tour, and my older brother, Robby, is a world-champion, professional windsurfer. I spent months of the year in the sea, on lakes, and travelling around the world competing in a sport that I loved. So a life as a Management Consultant travelling to the least glamorous parts of the country were a bit of a shock. I worked hard at Accenture, getting promoted into a very small and very competitive part of the company that I really enjoyed. Getting promoted in the top group at Accenture meant that I qualified to take a ‘Leave of Absence’ – or sabbatical – from the company for up to a year.

I have always wanted to try something entrepreneurial to test some of these skills I was learning at my job. I think most people will also agree that they sometimes wonder what it would be like to try a different career whilst still young. So, this seemed like a great opportunity. I decided to take a sabbatical from Accenture, unpaid, for a year. My plan? 1) Do something entrepreneurial, 2) Get experience in something I love 3) Hope for the best.

Here’s how it went:

1) Do Something Entrepreneurial – Aquaite | A Natural Lifestyle

As I said in my introduction, my passion in life is Watersports. While at work, I would always talk to my colleagues about my weekend adventures to the coast to surf, SUP or windsurf, and I used to get the same responses: “I didn’t know you could do that in England”, “How do you learn?”, “What made you get into those sports?”. Every time I told people how easy it was to actually get out of the city and spend weekends by the water, it felt great to know they were inspired to give it a go. This led me to start a blog to share inspirational stories, pictures and videos that shared this sense of adventure, freedom, and fun.

This blog was the foundation of Aquaite (pronounced ack.wait – www.aquaite.com) – a brand that makes luxury products from natural and sustainable materials, and stands to inspire people to live a natural lifestyle. We currently make iPhone and iPad cases from natural walnut and bamboo. These solid wood cases are very much a statement against the plastic, leather or rubber you typically see the status quo using. We have had so many great comments from people who love the natural aspects of these covers – people who all share the same passion for the natural environment and the sports and activities associated with it.

Within the year, we launched the brand, sold out of our initial orders, designed a new case for the iPhone 5, and shipped to 4 countries around the world. We were approached by a very like-minded import partner in Europe who distributes the brand in Austria, Switzerland and Germany, and are now looking to start a small range of clothing from organic cotton or bamboo fibre. Check out our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/TheNaturalLifestyle, or on our mailing list on www.aquaite.com to follow our progress). If you have any ideas or inspiration to share, it would be great to hear from you – I have met some truly inspirational people that way – so don’t be shy!

It is still early days, but I hope to continue the sales and growth from wherever I am in the world.

Which brings me to…

2) Get experience in something I love – Building one of the world’s most sustainable private islands

My second passion in life is architecture and design. The biggest reason for taking the sabbatical was to try and experience a career in this field. So, far before taking my year off I must have sent a thousand emails to prospective companies looking for work in this area. This opened a number of doors, and I ended up meeting and being interviewed by some truly inspirational people. However, on the back of a recession based on the housing market crash, it soon became clear that the UK wasn’t going to be an option. At this point, I can’t stress enough that you go through some serious highs and lows when you are trying to work in a completely new field – especially when you want it so badly! While you might take a battering by being told ‘no’, the golden rule (cliché I know) is never give up.

It wasn’t until I was a month into my sabbatical (quickly running out of money) that I went for an interview for a once in a lifetime opportunity – to work on the development of the most sustainable private island in the Caribbean. Unfortunately, I can’t say for which company or where because of confidentiality clauses, but you can imagine what an exciting and inspirational project it is.

I still smile when I think that had I not have taken my sabbatical, this opportunity would have never opened up to me –it was a risk that has really paid off.

3) Hope for the best

There’s nothing much more to it. Once you decide to take time off, it’s up to you – and luck – to make the most of your time off.

I can only hope that even a small part of the excitement and adventure that I have experienced during this year will come across in this post. Go for it. And please, get in touch with me via the contact form on Aquaite.com if you want to hear any more.

If you got bored of me blabbing on, here is a brief summary of a sabbatical based on my experience…

Points to think about before you take a sabbatical:

1) Save, save, save. None of this has been possible without cutting back on going out and sidelining as high a % of your salary as possible to savings before your pay hits your bank account

2) Have a plan, but don’t let the ‘un-known’ scare you. I had no guarantee that I would land a job – I just spent months and months trying to meet as many people as possible who may be able to help. In the end it was putting myself out there that helped.

3) Don’t be proud. To work in a new area, you are going to have to start at the very bottom. It’s never nice to feel you are taking a step backwards, but if it will help you towards something you want, bite your tongue and work twice as hard!

Why stay at your current job:

1) Money. Simple as that. Don’t feel bad about it – you need money to get going, and no one else is going to give it to you

2) Skills. Accenture was, and is, a fantastic place to start as a graduate. I would recommend it to anybody. It is so easy to forget that when you are working very hard for a big company, but when you work for somewhere smaller, these skills will really show.

3) People. The people you meet with the great variety of skills and contacts will open up a world of (otherwise very expensive) advice to help you

Why take a risk:

1) You never know what’s going to happen. And that’s exciting. The people you meet, the experiences you have. It is only a year of your life, and something to do when you have as few responsibilities as possible.

2) You learn. Not skills, not MBAs, but real life. Knowing that your salary will stop is a big motivator to make things work. The thrill of throwing two month’s budget at a new idea, knowing that if it doesn’t work out, you will have to go back to work 8 months earlier than planned certainly makes you think!

3) Life is too short not to. I hate to get a bit dark, but I had the very sad experience of losing a number of friends before they had even reached their twenties. This has made me determined never to waste a day. Nat, Jack, Andy, Tosto, John – this year is dedicated to you.

Inspirational books I recommend to fire you up:

1) A Book About Innocent, and some things we learned along the way – Innocent

2) Making Ideas Happen – Scott Belsky

3) Richard Branson’s Autobiographies and business books – All of them

And please get in touch via info@aquaite.com if you want any more. Good luck!

From Lawyering to Surfing Via Escape the City

Guest — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 07:01:38 +0000

A long-time Escape the City reader named Kathleen finally decided to take a shot along with her boyfriend by responding to a job advertisement. She wrote this from the Pacific coast of Nicaragua.

Five years ago I was buzzing with excitement about starting my solicitor training contract at a big city law firm. I had worked so hard to get here and I was hoping my career choice lived up to my expectations… intresting work, international travel, great people. Two weeks into my training contract, I felt trapped. I told myself that life beyond a trainee must be better but the more I saw, the less I liked and the more I realised that it wasn’t for me.

After qualification I made the move inhouse in order to figure out if life was better outside of a firm. My work/life balance improved as my hours were relatively normal. However, I was bored, tired, stressed and unhealthy. I made the decision three years ago that I needed to plot my escape and to do this I needed to give myself options.Three years ago I decided to qualify as a personal trainer. Health and fitness has always been a passion of mine and I loved the course. I felt inspired by the people I met and I loved taking personal training clients on the weekend. I started writing my own blog on health and wellbeing as well as contributing to several magazines and blogs. I was so happy to be involved in an industry I loved and I constantly felt inspired by those around me. However, without any stable job opportunity I felt too nervous to completely leave the law behind. I continued doing too much and failing to escape the feeling that I was a hamster on a corporate wheel.

I had signed up to Escape the City nearly two years ago on the recommendation of a friend. I used to read the website daily but I could never bring myself to make that application. Everything changed in March of this year when my boyfriend and I decided to go for it and respond to an advert on Escape the City. He has always been a keen sportsman and he was equally frustrated with his corporate job. The job advertisement was posted by an eco-lodge on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua and they were looking for a couple to help manage the lodge as well as teach yoga and surfing. So one night after work we sent off our application. The owners responded several weeks later after we had convinced ourselves that we hadn’t got the job. We had several more sleepless weeks and two Skype interviews with the owners of the lodge. At the end of April, we found out we had got the job. The next day I resigned and I felt a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I no longer felt trapped.

We had never been to Nicaragua before and knew nobody there, so moving was a risk. I am writing this blog from the bar of the Buena Vista Surf Club in Nicaragua (www.buenavistasurfclub.com). I feel like a different person and I am so happy we took that risk. We sleep well, we eat well and we feel amazingly happy and healthy. Several mornings a week I teach yoga on the deck which looks out to the Pacific Ocean. My boyfriend teaches surfing and I am learning to surf. We cook for the guests and I have learnt to cook delicious meals from scratch with locally sourced ingredients. There is an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables and little processed food available so our diet is super healthy.

Apart from the delicious food and active lifestyle, the lodge is a friendly and social place. We have made some lovely friends and had so many laughs with our guests. The more time we spend here, the more I realise how unfulfilled I was as a solicitor. Life is good and we are planning on staying in Nicaragua long term. I am so grateful to Escape the City for helping us to escape!

Letter From an Escape Fan Who Found a Dream Job

Guest — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 07:00:54 +0000

Kathryn, a freelance photographer, describes how Escape the City helped her find a dream job opportunity in New York City in this letter.

Hello, Team Escape the City!

I’m a freelance creative from the NYC area, and I just had to let you know how your website helped me find an incredible job opportunity. Here’s how it happened:

Because I’ve never been good at sitting in front of a computer all day as with most traditional jobs, I’ve instead freelanced in the U.S. and around the world doing writing, photography, television, nonprofit projects, videos, teaching, and more. I like to think I’ve escaped the city (in the corporate sense), but I’m always hungering for the next exciting opportunity—especially one in which I can create at least a little bit of positive change. In 2011 I moved to India for a fellowship, and followed that with several small projects around Asia. I was in northern Thailand this past summer when I decided I ought to hunt for a new job before my excursion ended, so I searched Google under “unique job sites.” Though I’d never heard of Escape the City, I clicked on your site, watched the video, and decided that signing up couldn’t hurt.

I’m serious when I tell you what happened next: I clicked on “Professional Opportunities,” and the very first listing that came up was a perfect match. The gig? A two-month position as a travel journalist in Malta, working as a writer, photographer, and videographer to create a scuba diving guide. As someone who loves diving and has experience in documenting my travel experiences with words, photos, and videos, I jumped at the opportunity, posted by Gregor Botlik of Unlogged (a U.K.-based company). I ended up hearing back from him, and then had two interviews: one in Thailand and one when I arrived back in America. A few weeks later, I ended up getting the job!

Right now I am in Malta until December with Gregor and his family. A typical day involves visiting a new dive center on the island, interviewing the owners, going on a dive with them (often to an old wreck or an underwater cave!), taking photos, and writing a review by the next morning. I also write articles each day on activities and points of interest around the island, which means I get to document my experiences rock climbing, eating at festivals, visiting museums, hiking, and more.

I never would have found this job without Escape the City. Though it’s quite a lot of work, my friends and family can’t believe I’m paid to go scuba diving and exploring each day. What a dream gig! Now that this job is coming to a close, I look forward to finding more unique opportunities—perhaps involving travel, photography, writing, adventure, or food—from your website. Thanks again!

Cheers,
Kathryn Cooper