Stop Dreaming, Start Planning

Meet our new community manager: Adele Barlow. Her favourite quote? “Don’t Settle” by Steve Jobs.

Team Esc — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 06:07:08 +0000

Quick note from Rob & Dom: We’re really thrilled that Adele is joining us in our mission to build a platform that helps every corporate professional in the world make exciting career transitions and find work they love.

We joke that Adele is Esc’s first groupie but in all honestly she is the best person in the world for this job and we are so excited to be working with her. Here is her blog: www.adelebarlow.com.

Hey! I’m Adele.

Like a lot of people, I signed up to law school because I had no idea what to do with my life. Three weeks later, I dropped out, because I realised after a few classes that it would end up being a waste of time and money for me.

I was working with a digital media investment and advisory firm at the time, and my gut feeling told me that the digital media world offered much more exciting and relevant opportunities for me.

Falling in love with Escape

It was around this time, in 2009, that I came across Esc on Facebook. I sent Rob a message, introducing myself and declaring my love-at-first-sight status, adding that I’d just moved to London and had run my own startup in New Zealand.

The next thing I knew, I was sitting with Rob and Dom having exciting conversations about jobs, careers and education. Before long I was going to every (EVERY) Escape Wednesday. I even found myself running an Esc Meetup while the guys were out helping Mikey launch the community in New York.

[Send me an email to say hi: adele@escapethecity.org]

My dream job

Two years of borderline stalking finally paid off and the guys have asked me to join the team. I am thrilled to be joining as Esc’s Community Manager. 60,000 members and sign-ups from around the world – I have a feeling I’ll be quite busy!

I passionately believe that there is more to life than doing work that doesn’t matter to you and I am massively excited to be in a position to help build the future of Escape the City.

Escape the City was started to solve a simple but widespread problem – far too many people working in the corporate world aren’t fulfilled by their jobs and they are all facing the same problem: “If not this, then what?”

Esc is a community, a movement, and a business. But without its users (i.e. you) it is nothing. My job is to make sure that we get better and better at giving you what you want.

As Community Manager, I’m here to listen to you, chat with you, learn from you. Our conversations will shape Esc’s direction, because without you, there’d be no Esc.

So let’s chat…

Planning an escape from your corporate job? Been following Escape the City for a while and have lots of ideas for how you’d like to use it? Feeling stuck and just fancy a chat? I want to hear about it.

You can email me any time at adele@escapethecity.org. I’m sitting with an empty inbox and a blank canvas right now, and I’m waiting for you to tell me what you want from Escape the City.

If you’d prefer to speak face-to-face, please do come and say hello – my first ‘office hours’ will be this Thursday evening at 6pm at Adam Street Club just off the Strand in central London.

Just turn up and say hi. Or drop me an email letting me know you’re coming.

Help me help you…

Drop me a note or just come and find me in the main bar area. I really am serious about meeting as many of you as possible to understand how this concept can give you what you are looking for.

The more I’ve gotten to know Esc, the more I’ve fallen even deeper in love with its values. The guys have built something amazing over the past two years… and the most exciting thing? This is just the beginning.

Esc love,

Adele

Find me on Twitter: @adelebarlow

What we learnt from Kicktable about getting startups from idea to launch

Team Esc — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 08:48:34 +0000

A massive thank you to George from Kicktable for an honest, amusing, inspiring and informative talk and Q&A at this week’s Esc Wednesday.

Great buzz in the room and lots of exciting new connections made as well.

Here is what we learnt:

Be useful - If you’re searching for that idea to start a business around, make sure what you’re proposing solves a problem and ideally solve a problem that you’re very familiar with.
Don’t be afraid of bad ideas – George and Mattieu had loads of hopeless ideas before they found the one that they were prepared to leave their jobs for. They met on a weekly basis to discuss them.
Acknowledge what you can’t do – The Kicktable guys probably weren’t the best people to build Flipboard meets Foursquare for authentic urban experiences. They’re not geeks. They were self-aware enough to know they should chase a different business model.
Start with what you’ve got – What they did have was friends, a passion for doing more than sitting in the pub, and the initiative to begin using existing platforms (eventbrite) to just start their business in micro and see what people thought.
On fear – George uses fear as a radar. If he’s scared of something does that mean it’s worth doing? Good reasons for fear should be heeded (i.e. I am scared of this idea because I’m not capable of building the next Facebook) and bad reasons for fear should be rationalised (like standing up in front of 80 people to talk about your new business).

SAVE – We hear this question time and again: ‘what about the money question’. Everyone who ever started a business had to leave the sanctuary of their salary to make it happen. This is the biggest reason people stay in jobs they don’t like / love. It’s a real reason – but often it is used as an excuse.
You have options – beyond saving… don’t underestimate how much you can get done from within your job. Cut down your expenses brutally. Can you avoid paying rent for 6 months (sublet your room, AirBnB it, sleep on your sister’s sofa)? Once you’ve escaped can you do part-time work whilst starting your business (tutoring, contract work, etc)?
No one said it was easy – Starting a business is incredibly hard. There is no silver bullet. There is no easy way around the money question. George said it himself – ‘it’s a massive adventure, it’s really fun, but look… if it doesn’t work out (which it will)… the experience and learning alone will have been worth it’.
Raising money takes a long time – Be prepared that once you have your beta / pilot business out in public and if you need to raise capital to do what you want to do, that you will be temporarily consumed by the VC / Angel pitching process.
We still don’t know if George is funnier than Mattieu – hopefully they’ll both come back to talk to us in a year’s time and we can find out!

The Esc team were massively impressed by George’s passion for his business, his honesty in telling the story so far, his vision for the idea, and generally by how game he was to stand up in front of 80 Londoners (before he has even properly moved to the city) to talk us through how Kicktable got from idea to launch.

We have no doubt that we are going to be seeing a lot more of these guys and their marketplace for passionate people.

‘Do what you like. Share what you love.’

What else?

Check out Kicktable here: http://www.kicktable.com/
Enter the ‘suggest a crazy experience to host on Kicktable’ competition here: http://www.facebook.com/kicktable
The posted of the idea with the most likes / best craziness factor will win a free seat at a Kicktable experience (and perhaps the guys will even help you host your idea).
Read George’s Escape Hero interview here: http://escapethecity.org/heroes/677-george-henry-de-frahan

The next Esc Wednesday (we do one a month) will be announced in the Esc newsletter and on our site in the Events section.

If you’d like to track down anyone from the evening or make new connections with like-minded people in London please do join our Esc Meetup – London group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/esclondon/

Quick overview

Here is what Kicktable is all about: http://www.kicktable.com/

Here is what the evening was all about: February’s Esc Wednesday

Here is what we are all about: http://escapethecity.org/pages/about

Start the idea, start the conversation

Team Esc — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 02:46:52 +0000

I regularly meet with an old school friend to discuss business ideas and I’m sure we’ve come up with some winners. The question is finding the ones we’re really passionate about.

If you have an idea, share it right now as you are reading this. Stop and drop an e-mail to a friend, someone with an imagination and start a conversation. Ideas develop through conversation, not by thinking it over in your own head. If you’ve sent the e-mail, you’ve just started.

No one will steal it, don’t be ridiculous. An idea is worth nothing without the execution. And the execution is bloody difficult. Always. You can guarantee that most overnight successes never happened overnight. You only hear about them after at least a couple years of slavery.

Unless you tell someone who is incredibly passionate about exactly what your idea is about, they have every resource and capability to implement it rapidly at little time and monetary cost, and they’ve planned for this very moment to drop everything for the perfect idea and dedicate two years to the hard grind, then maybe they’ll steal it… or maybe you’ve just found your perfect co-founder. Everyone needs a partner.

If you have no one to talk to, then talk to us. We love ideas, we’re constantly thinking of new ways of trying to help people, and you can guarantee we don’t have the time to start something else right now!

Make today the day you start the conversation.

‘Why we quit our high paying corporate jobs’ – by Phil Bolton author of ‘How to Find Work You Love’

Team Esc — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 00:50:16 +0000

Have you ever done something that makes everyone you know shake their heads in disbelief?

For me the first one that springs to mind was when I put the kettle on the stove and lit the gas.

I only remembered it was an electic kettle made of plastic when it set on fire. Shake shake.

This is closely followed by my decision to quit my job as a senior manager at Deloitte to start my coaching business.

“What on earth are you thinking about, leaving behind all that security?”

“You’re mad, completely bonkers”

“I know you don’t like it, but really?”

One friend simply burst into tears.

If you’re thinking about leaving behind your safe job that makes you miserable you’ll be worried about the same reaction.

It’s a massive brave step to set off on a new path.

The team that wrote the How to Find Work You Love Guide all took this massive leap.

Why we did it…

We all had objectively successful jobs at Deloitte, E&Y, E&Y, Yahoo and the LSE.

Yet we all had something in common – we felt there was more to life than work that didn’t feel fulfilling.

In my case I was a forensic accountant, yet I don’t like numbers and really dislike details. Conversely I love people and helping them to make the most of their potential.

I felt an urge to do work I felt passionate about, that I enjoyed and that served my drive to help others make the most of their lives.

Before I took the leap I spent a lot of time to figure out how to make that happen. I did a lot of self-reflection, made a long term plan and figured out my first steps.

Having this in place helped me overcome my fear, the incredulity of the people around me and take my bold step with confidence.

I was lucky to have a coach to help me structure my thinking, without that guidance I’d probably still be stuck where I was.

Why we wrote How to Find Work You Love

From experience, everyone makes changes their own way.

If you’re contemplating a new career direction, starting your own business or a new direction, you’ll want to do it your way.

How to Find Work You Love is designed to put the power in your hands to make this change. It provides you with the tools and structure to successfully make your change.

We’ve boiled down the important steps you might take into a series of powerful exercises and inspiring ideas.

The guide will:

Support you in figuring out what work will make you tick
Enable you to create a powerful vision of the life and work you want
Embolden you to take your first steps (regardless of what anyone else thinks)
Inspire you by sharing the wisdom of Escapees who have already trodden the path

We’ve all taken this journey and wish that this Guide had existed when we started out. It might have saved us from a lot of head shaking.

———————————————————————————————–

To join the waiting list for the How to Find Work You Love e-book (and get a discount) – please click here.

Please come to our January Meetup on Tue 24th (share your Escape Plan & get help from like-minded people).

Team Esc — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:12:08 +0000

Please come to our next Escape Meetup at the Adam Street Entrepreneurs Club in central London after work on Tuesday 24th January.

To attend please click here.

The first Escape meetup of 2012

If you are reading this the chances are that you’re a professional of some sort. The fact that you’re on Esc means that you are probably interesting in exploring exciting options and alternatives outside of the corporate mainstream. Or you might already have made the leap and you keen to meet like-minded people doing entrepreneurial and adventurous things.

Either way – you’re in the right place! Our last meetup in 2011 was a massive success with almost 200 people cramming into the main bar at Adam Street to discuss escaping the city to start-up, to move to a different industry / job / country, or to go on a big adventure.

There is no set structure to this evening but if you are interested in starting a business, changing career, or going on a big adventure and would like to network, mingle and chat with a bunch of people in a similar boat, please come along.

There are always a wide variety of people at Esc events (career changers, entrepreneurs, wannabe entrepreneurs, and adventurers) and the conversations will be about anything related to living life on your own terms.

Don’t be shy… come along!

To attend please click here.

How do these evenings work?

STRUCTURE: Informal friendly gathering based the concept that there is more to life than doing work that doesn’t matter to you. Escaping the rut is easier and more fun if you can get help, advice and encouragement from people in the same boat.

DATE & TIMINGS: Tuesday 24th January. From 7 pm onwards (bar open till late).

HOST: Rob will be hosting the evening (@escroberto) and various other members of The Esc Team will be there too. We’ll be wearing Esc stash – come and say hi.

LOCATION: Adam Street, 9 Adam Street, The Strand, Charing Cross, London, WC2N 6AA. Nearest Tube/Rail: Charing Cross. Food is available to order from the restaurant menu. Drinks aplenty too.

RSVP: Adam Street is a private members club. To get your name on the list please RSVP via our Meetup page (click here) please drop Rob (rob@escapethecity.org) an email if there is something specific you would like to let us know about.

Other things you can do in advance of attending: On our Meetups page you can add a comment explaining who you are and what you’re looking to get out of the evening - this will enable us to help you make better connections before, during and after the Meetup.

What is an Esc Meetup?

Escape the City Meetups are your opportunity to meet likeminded people in an informal environment - be they corporate professionals looking to do something different or escapees who have already made the big leap away from the corporate world.

Whether you are looking for an exciting job, starting your own business, or going on a big adventure – at our Meetups you’ll meet people in the Esc community who share your enthusiasm for building a career outside the corporate mainstream and who will hopefully be able to help you on your way.

Click here for the global list of all Esc Meetups.

PS. Our Meetups are different from our Esc Wednesdays because they a) are free and b) don’t have a formal speaker. They are your opportunity to meet fellow Esc members in your city in a friendly and relaxed environment.

It is impossible, obviously, to believe that anyone’s life is pre-destined…

Team Esc — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 05:25:15 +0000

“It is impossible, obviously, to believe that anyone’s life is pre-destined – but who knows what is programmed into an individual’s chromosomes, into their DNA? Perhaps each of us, irrespective of class and other variables, is born with a propensity towards a certain kind of living. Each of us has a code which, in the right conditions, will be able to make itself utterly apparent; if an individual’s circumstances are far removed or totally at odds with that initial biological programming, it may hardly be able to make itself felt circumstantially – but all life long that individual will feel the undertow, the tug of a destiny rooted in biology, urging him, only slightly perhaps, away from the life he has. The dissatisfaction and pointlessness that a rich a successful man feels on contemplating all that he has achieved in life is perhaps the faint echo of an initial code that he has thwarted, evaded, but can never quite silence. But a certain way of life will enable you to get closer to that initial blurred blueprint. Perhaps this is what it means to live in truth, even a disappointed truth.”

“Going back to live in England: it was difficult to think of four words more redolent of defeat because what they actually meant was going back to living so deeply within his limitations he would not even be aware that they were limitations: they would pass themselves off as contentment.”

“Paris Trance” by Geoff Dyer

http://www.amazon.com/Paris-Trance-Geoff-Dyer/dp/0374229813

Gingers can inspire too you know. Or 5 lessons from ‘How we built our careers around our passions’.

Team Esc — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 15:56:30 +0000

5 Things Adele Learned from Last Night’s Esc Wednesday: ‘How we built our careers around our passions’

Last night deep underground in London’s Adam Street Club, Ben Keene and Dave Cornthwaite, told us their stories.

One of them rented a Fijian island. The other skateboarded from one coast of Australia to another. As you do.

I doubt I was alone in feeling extremely boring in comparison to last night’s awesomely special guest speakers.

[Scroll to the bottom to see details for how to enter the 'Escape List' Adam Street free evening membership life-changing competition!]

Escape the City, Escape Wednesdays from Step One on Vimeo.

So who are these characters?

Ben founded Tribewanted (Fiji and Sierra Leone) – their mission is to build sustainable communities in amazing places that benefit locals and visiting members; inspiring positive change within and far beyond the village. Ben’s website and his Esc Hero profile.

Dave is a world record-breaking adventurer, author, and motivational speaker. He is four journeys into his £1,000,000 Expedition1000 project: 25 x 1000+ mile journeys, each using a different form of non-motorised transport Dave’s website and his Esc Hero profile.

This is what I learnt:

1. You can’t just stumble upon your passion.

Dave talked about how we all have passions. Often, it’s just difficult to figure out what they are. Remaining in the same environment doesn’t bring you different results – you need exposure to the world in order to figure out your place in it. When Dave was 25, he had a house, girlfriend, cat, steady job – but he could help but feel like there was more to life. He had no idea what he was passionate about, but it was travel that changed him.

2. Comfort kills ambition like nothing else.

Dave had studied Maths, gone to university, and was comfortable in his mortgage and with a steady pay cheque – but he soon realised that he had never asked himself what he wanted out of life, what made him happy. Being happy and being comfortable are not the same thing.

3. These things don’t happen overnight.

We all need money to live. Developing your passion and turning it into sustainable revenue is a process that can take years, not months. Dave had been skateboarding for 18 months, from one end to Australia to the other, but had no idea what to do the day after he finished.

Ben: “You can have cool ideas but not know where they’re going… [taking the leap] is the only way you find out. Just by following something and sticking with it… opportunities arise.”

4. Being brave doesn’t protect you from disaster.

Ben had a crazy story about his first three months with Tribewanted – in summary, there was a fire, cyclone, scam accusation, and coup. However, he and the business made it through – and now the episode is a story that he tells at events like last night’s…

I was marvelling at how he just talked about ‘raising finance’ and renting an island’ as if it was as easy as anything else. Then I realised, a lot of things ARE very easy – they’re practical things and can be broken down into steps that need to be taken. It’s emotional fear that gets in our way or makes us think that things are harder than they actually are.

5. Belonging is a human need.

Ben talked about how Tribewanted created a different ‘scene’ in Fiji, one where evenings were spent sitting around the fire, sharing stories and playing guitar and drinking kava. All tourists who came, he said, fell in love with romanticism of belonging to community.

Community – feel like you really belong somewhere and playing your little part. Can live sustainably because you can see it. Idea of belonging was really strong. Different from scene of western definition of Fiji. Real Fiji.

Massive thank you to Ben and Dave for last night’s talk. The Esc team were gutted to have missed it. Looking forward to plenty more in 2012. And thanks to Adele for a great review. Keep an eye on our Events page for 2012′s calendar of events.

How to enter our Escape List competition.

noun - esc·ape list [esc-ape list, free-dom; Fr. le-escape]

Definition: Product of soul-searching and reflection on personal goals. Separate from ‘bucket list’ concept through the fact that the core objective is to complete tasks on list now, not just before you kick the bucket. An Escape List should be a minimum of ten dreams long, there is no maximum. Thought of each item on list should make list creator smile. Completion of full list should be sufficient to fundamentally shift perspective / make corporate escape a reality.

Each item on list should fall within following categories:

1. Financial: not an amount to earn, but an amount to save to afford item in question. E.g. Ben worked hard and saved enough money to visit a Tribe in Fiji.

2. Physical: opportunity to develop/ continue health and fitness driven by an end goal involving physical challenge. E.g. Dave trained for days in order to skateboard across Australia.

3. Psychological: little to no impact on physical health or financial stability, a psychological item simply offers the list creator a chance to vacate his/her comfort zone. E.g. Seb stayed awake for 72 Hours, just to see if he could.

The rules of the game

UPDATED RULES!! You don’t win by completing your list (although that is the ultimate objective) – post your Escape List below by Friday 9th December and Ben and Dave will decide on the 5 best ones…

Post your Escape List in the comments below.
Publicly commit to completing the list.
Ask for and receive help from the Esc tribe where relevant.
Return when list is completed to glory and applause – proof would be nice.
Dave & Ben will choose 5 lists to win a year’s free evening membership at Adam Street Club.

A fun way to round off the competition would be to write a guest blog post for Escape the City summarising your experiences in taking on this challenge.

Thanks and good luck! Any questions ping @benkeene, @davecorn or @escthecity on Twitter. Or come leave a message on Facebook. Or comment below.

Where do you spend your days working? My Beautiful Cubicle.

Team Esc — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 13:12:08 +0000

Mikey and I went to an awesome talk at General Assemb.ly in New York this week.

Called ‘Building Something People Love’ and given by a hugely impressive, enthusiastic and genuine Alexis Ohanian one of the Reddit founders.

We left buzzing with ideas for how to do things differently, do things that interest people, do things that engage people. A lot of the messages were around having fun with your brand and making the most of the fact that when you’re building a start-up (unlike the big corporate incumbents in your space) you can do whatever the hell you like with your marketing.

So that same evening we came home and Mikey built: My Beautiful Cubicle: http://mybeautifulcubicle.tumblr.com

We want to see where you spend the majority of your waking hours. We want to celebrate (and commiserate) different peoples’ cubicles. And we wanted to see if a random project with no specific motive other than a bit of fun would fly.

So please take 2 minutes to snap a photo of where you’re sitting right now and upload it to My Beautiful Cubicle!

You can do this here: http://mybeautifulcubicle.tumblr.com/submit
Or by emailing the image directly to this address (clever eh?): 21kocer@tumblr.com
Or send it to us and we’ll put it up for you: team@escapethecity.org

Oh and if you like the idea please spread the word!

Thanks. Esc love.

How to use Escape the City

Team Esc — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 15:29:39 +0000

Hello and thanks for clicking through to this post. If you’re reading this you’ve probably just joined Escape the City and registered a basic account.

A basic account gives you access to our Opportunities section and (if you subscribed) will also mean that you receive our weekly ‘Top 10 Opportunities’ email newsletter.

You are currently on our blog (where we share ‘our story and some things we’re learning’). Don’t be confused however, the main site looks rather different and is over here: http://escapethecity.org/feed_items

The objective of this post is to introduce you to Escape the City – our concept and our website – in order for you to get as much benefit as possible.

The top few paragraphs provide you with some background and some reasons why we’re doing this. If you want to move straight to the specifics just scroll down to “An introduction to our main stuff”.

And a final introductory word – if you don’t live in the UK you might not be familiar with the term ‘The City’. This is London’s financial centre and where a lot of our UK members work. So our name represents ‘escaping unfulfilling corporate jobs’ (as opposed to ‘escape the physical city itself and fleeing to the countryside’!).

Our concept and our mission

We believe that life is too short to do work that doesn’t matter to you. We started Escape the City when we were looking to transition away from our corporate management consulting jobs. We wanted to do something different but didn’t know where to start. We also knew we wanted to do something entrepreneurial but we didn’t have a good business idea.

And then, eureka!, we realised that the frustrations and challenges we were experiencing were shared by absolutely masses of our friends, colleagues and peers. Most of these people had done the sensible thing after university and got a safe corporate job (promising ‘I’ll do this for a few years and then go and do something else’) – however the principle is true for all working people: we all want to do work that matters to us.

http://gapingvoid.com/

If you’re anything like these people you’re ambitious, qualified, and hard-working. You don’t want to drop-out. You just want to spend your working hours doing something exciting, something that fulfils you more than your current corporate job. But it’s hard, the eternal challenge…

If not this then what?

We know what this feels like… and we’re building Escape the City to help you.

How do we want to help you?

Well if you’re anything like us we reckon you might be looking for:

Tangible opportunities, like-minded people, and genuinely useful information. As well as support and inspiration. Some people know exactly what they’re looking for and are just using us to hunt for it. But other people don’t have a clue and are really at the beginning of their ‘escape my corporate job’ journey. Fortunately we’re building stuff to help both types (and hopefully everyone in between).

What could you do instead of your corporate job? Well we reckon you could find an exciting new job, you could start your own business or you could go on a big adventure. You could take a course, retrain in your spare time, volunteer, build up new skills, network, attend events, read relevant books, expose yourself to new ideas and environments. You could discover organisations, websites, and resources you never knew existed.

And we want you to use the combination of all of this information (that we’re seeking to provide) to make good your corporate escape…

An introduction to our main stuff

Opportunities: For professionals, for graduates and for volunteers. Globally. Browse here: http://escapethecity.org/opportunities

Escape Heroes: Inspirational stories shared by people who have escaped to new jobs, start-ups and adventures: http://escapethecity.org/heroes

Events: Talks, gatherings and events to help you explore new avenues and learn new things: http://escapethecity.org/events

Resources: We’re building up a database of the most relevant and useful information we’ve found: http://escapethecity.org/resources

Connections: This is a kind of classifieds for our community. Offer support and ask for help: http://escapethecity.org/connections

Coaching: For people looking for hands-on support with their escape. One-on-one coaching: http://escapethecity.org/coaching/index

Esc Wednesdays: These are monthly talks in London and New York. Keep an eye on Events for 2012′s schedule: http://escapethecity.org/events

Meetups: We have bases in London and New York but the concept is truly global. We are introducing new countries soon. To meet like-minded Escapees near you please join your nearest Esc Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/EscapetheCity/ (An invitation to start a meetup: http://bit.ly/pvGGWX).

You can also use Escape the City to:

Post exciting and challenging job opportunities: http://escapethecity.org/pages/employer_zone
Ask the community for help / offer your support: http://escapethecity.org/connections/new
Recommend an inspirational escapee story: http://www.escapethecity.org/heroes/new

If you’re an organisation looking to hire great people or promote your brand, products, services, events or events please just ping us an email – we’d be happy to help: team@escapethecity.org

Coming soon

Currently the site requires you to do a lot of the searching yourself. We’re working on ways of asking you the right questions in order that you can set your preferences and not have to keep returning in order to be exposed to the opportunities, people and information that you’re looking for.

This is a work in progress but we’ve got some really exciting plans so please stick around!

Oh and if you happen to be an awesome Ruby developer drop us a line – team@escapethecity.org

Need a helping hand?

If you have any questions just drop us an email at team@escapethecity.org and you can return to the main site by clicking here: www.escapethecity.org.

Who are we?

You can say hi to the Esc Team in the following places: http://escapethecity.org/pages/team

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/EscapetheCity
Twitter: http://twitter.com/escthecity

Rob Symington: http://twitter.com/escroberto
Dom Jackman: http://twitter.com/domjackman
Mikey Howe: http://twitter.com/escmikey

Our Manifesto: http://escapethecity.org/pages/manifesto
Esc Love: http://escapethecity.org/pages/esc_love

Introducing Esc Tel Aviv!

Team Esc — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 04:44:20 +0000

When we started Escape the City we envisaged creating a community whereby people could self-organise and (without needing our involvement) use the platform to meet each other and do great things together.

So you can imagine our excitement when we heard about the Tel Aviv Meetup last week. This is what it’s all about!! Read on for a summary from Jo – one of the organisers. See the bottom for how to start your own Esc Meetup.

————————————————

Israel has the highest number of start-up companies in the world, despite it’s small size of only 7 million people, and at this start-up nation’s centre is Tel Aviv, a vibrant young city full of young people keen to dive into this entrepreneurial culture. But the start-ups around here are usually technology-based, so there is a demand for a more general Escape the City-type group.

On a Tuesday evening, twenty 20-30-something Tel Avivians met at a cafe to discuss escaping the corporate world.

We each shared our stories of the desire to escape: some are feeling trapped in unfulfilling corporate jobs; one guy had just quit his job and was wanting to get more meaning out of his life; a couple who had just returned from travelling the world are trying to start something exciting; and a photographer, Amit, talked about his small photography business that he is trying to grow (www.flyonthewall.co.il). I shared my story of escaping the corporate world to freelancing as a science communicator.

A networking session followed. There was a great, excited buzz in the room- it appeared that all these people were dealing with the same fears and hopes and just were waiting for the opportunity to share and get inspired.

The next day, one attendee Jessica Taylor launched a facebook page for her rock climbing fashion business, 3rd Rock www.facebook.com/my3rdrock. She decided to launch it following advice from the Escape group to just go for it.

We’ve started a facebook group for our members www.facebook.com/groups/273143229390840/, which is very active, and we plan to hold monthly meetings. The next meeting will feature entrepreneur role models who will tell their stories and answer questions. Then in the 3rd meeting we plan to workshop escape plans.

Here is the Meetup Group: http://www.meetup.com/EscapetheCity/Tel-Aviv-Yafo-IL/

————————————————

Massive thanks to Jo Savill for taking the initiative and helping organise the first Tel Aviv Esc Meetup. Hopefully the first of many! You can contact Jo here - www.peoplerinteresting.wordpress.com - @jobolobo - jo.savill@gmail.com

Our Invitation: Please start an Esc community in your city or town - full details here.

Please come to November’s Esc Wednesday – ‘How we built our careers around our passions’

Team Esc — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 23:42:39 +0000

We’ve got a really exciting evening planned for November’s Esc Wednesday.

Our special guests are Ben Keene and Dave Cornthwaite.

Both are Esc Heroes, both have spoken at previous Esc events and both single-mindedly live their lives on their own terms.

The title of the evening’s talk is: ‘How we built our careers around our passions’

WEDNESDAY 30TH NOVEMBER - ADAM STREET CLUB
Bar opens: 6.30 pm | Talk starts: 7.30 pm
There are 80 tickets up for grabs – please buy one here.

NB: We run two types of events: Esc Wednesdays (talks) and Esc Meetups (informal gatherings). This is an Esc Wednesday!

Introducing our Speakers:

Ben Keene is the founder of Tribewanted (Fiji and Sierra Leone). Their mission? To build sustainable communities in amazing places that benefit locals and visiting members; inspiring positive change within and far beyond the village.

Read more about Ben here: http://benkeene.com/ and here: http://escapethecity.org/heroes/387-ben-keene

Dave Cornthwaite is a world record-breaking adventurer, author, and motivational speaker. He is four journeys into his £1,000,000 Expedition1000 project: 25 x 1000+ mile journeys, each using a different form of non-motorised transport

Read more about Dave here: http://davecornthwaite.com/ and here: http://escapethecity.org/heroes/353-dave-cornthwaite

‘How we built our careers around our passions.’

Together they will be reflecting on what they have learnt from their single-minded determination to build their careers around things they care passionately about.

Without giving too much away, the topics they will to discuss include finding your passion, getting over the start-line, taking-off, learning how to survive, adapting to changes along the way, picking up new opportunities, telling your story and saying yes.

If you are interested, please buy a ticket and come along.

6 good reasons to come…

You would like to know how to rent a tropical island with no budget
You want to know what living on the beach in blood diamond country is like
You want to know why solving the world’s big issues starts in a village
You want some Insight, inspiration and ideas to help you chase a career you’re passionate about
You want to learn how to think positively and understand exactly what makes the ‘working you’ tick
You want to find out how to plan an adventurous expedition and also make it worthwhile for others too

In any case, if two gingers can inspire, anyone can!

Details, details, details

We will be meeting at the Adam Street Club – the private members club for entrepreneurs just off the Strand on the evening of Wednesday 30th November.
Ben and Dave will be giving a talk before we open it up to the room for a Q&A.
The bar opens 6 pm. Please come for a drink and a chat. The talk will start between 7.30 and 7.45 pm.
RSVP: www.eventbrite.com (buy ticket, etc).

About Adam Street:

London is our HQ (the city where Escape the City was born) and we are thrilled that our London events take place at the Adam Street Entrepreneurs Club. Adam Street is a home and support network read more about Adam Street here.

Evening Membership: Adam Street now offers a really exciting evening membership scheme. Adam Street will be very extremely generously offering ongoing incentives to Esc members who want to become evening members.

Watch this space for further details.

6 things Adele learnt about the Esc community at Wednesday’s Meetup

Team Esc — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:45:28 +0000

On Wednesday night Adele Barlow really kindly hosted our first of a new type of Esc event in London – a Meetup at Adam Street.

Over 240 people RSVP’d and by all accounts it was a really useful, inspirational and fun evening.

Our Meetups are different from our Esc Wednesdays in that they don’t have a speaker, are free, and are specifically designed for you to connect with people in a similar boat as you – explanation here.

Quick question: What regularity would you like to see these events take place in London (bearing in mind that we run an Esc Wednesday once a month as well)? Please comment below. Thanks!

So without further ado, 6 things Adele learnt…

1. This is an incredible community and tribe…

This is straight from Adele’s email update to Dom, Mikey and me in New York:

Awesome things: SUCH friendliness. Holy crap. Have never seen anything like it at a networking event. EVERYONE was talking to EVERYONE; people randomly going up to each other and being like, “Hey, I’m X. I do X. What do you do?”

The shy people, confident people, quiet people, EVERYONE – was just randomly introducing themselves, interrupting other conversations… everyone I talked to had met at least 4 or 5 interesting and cool connections.

I’ve honestly never seen a love-in like that without alcohol or drugs involved.

So much mind sex going on in the room – it was like a mind-sex orgy. Everyone was buzzing out on ideas, exchanging cards, arranging to meet up and have coffee at a later date.

You know how buzzing the Meetup board was? Just imagine THAT translated into actual, real-life people situation – such friendliness. Blew my mind.

[Rob: Apart from being disturbed by the mind-sex comment - what an incredible email for us to receive!!]

2. Good networks/tribes are built around a belief or concept

Rob and Dom and Mikey weren’t even in the room, but everyone was self-organising – because meaning was there.

[Rob: From our perspective Esc is all about the tribe / and the belief that we all share. I've said this about 30 times on this blog but read Tribes. Check out our thoughts on making meaning and having a mission.]

3. Your network is what you make it

All about being proactive, introducing yourself to people, making the first move.

4. When building your own network, need to have a mission

… or idea to build that network around.

This also gives you an actual excuse to talk to people – people in room who came with clear ‘mission’ were easy to talk to / connect with others because they knew who they needed / wanted to talk to, what they were trying to build.

5. Having a ‘place’ where people can meet makes a difference

Adam Street Club is a great venue – lots of spin-offs to come, hopefully.

And great to have an off-line ‘home’ for aspiring London-based corporate escapees.

6. You can’t find inspiration in a room, you find it through people

But with right people in the room, you will find it through them!

—————————————-

Massive thank you Adele. If anyone has a missed connection from the Meetup please comment below or on the Meetup thread and we’ll try and get you in touch with the relevant people. Thanks to everyone who attended and helped make it such a fun event.

Watch this space for the next meetups and talks in London – announcing them next week - http://www.meetup.com/EscapetheCity/London-GB/

How to grow your startup using social media – Adele Barlow

Team Esc — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 18:04:27 +0000

My name’s Adele and I run Step One (we make websites for startups), and help organisations with their social media. We blog here.

I’ll be at the Escape the City London Meetup tonight, along with Alex O’Byrne and Chris Mooney – Alex is fantastic to talk to about development, apps, and escaping the city, and Chris is great to talk to about strategy and financing.

I’d love to talk to you about social media and taking an idea to prototype stage using the web (WordPress, Facebook, etc) – below are some things I often find myself talking with clients about.

You want to grow your business, increase your Facebook fans, etc?

Join the club.

When people think about ‘improving how they do social media’, they jump straight to thinking – methods.

Pay per click? SEO? What techniques will lead to growing the fan base?

This is like a high school student asking, “How do I become popular?” Or a guy asking, “How do I get that girl to become my girlfriend?”

The answer is not: wear this, say that, do that – it’s not about changing behavioural techniques.

When you question how to get more blog subscribers or ‘Likes’ on Facebook, what you’re really asking is: how do you change the power dynamic to be more in your favour?

You’re wondering how you get more Net Promoters.

“Promoters” are loyal enthusiasts who keep buying from a company and urge their friends to do the same – the key metric when it comes to gauging the efficiency of a company’s growth engine, as Fred Reichheld talks about in his bestseller published by the Harvard Business School Press.

Improving social media means growing Net Promoters; growing Net Promoters means making your customer’s lives better; making it easy for them to tell their friends about it.

1. Start with Why: ‘the Golden Circle’

Everyone knows what they do. Some know how they do it. Few people know WHY.

Know why you exist as a product or service. You do X.

So, who cares? Why? How are you making peoples’ lives better?

It’s hard to articulate in ten words or less. Simon Sinek’s TED talk on the topic is here.

2. Use that to clarify the brand.

The Brand Gap

Click the link to view the presentation – or here.
View more presentations from coolstuff

3. Translate that into a ladder of engagement.

This means that you segment user interest levels down different engagement pathways (e.g. you might have a Vimeo video that the ‘kinda-interested’ can watch.

This leads to people ‘liking’ it on Facebook if they’re really keen. The super-keen can join your email list or drop you a line).

All the touch points need to be integrated.

4. Underpin every interaction with authenticity…

Underpin every interaction with authenticity, transparency, and a narrative that people want to buy into.

Here are 5 social media disasters – here are some Facebook success stories.

Spot the difference.

It’s not about the tools, it’s about how the tools are being used, according to the culture and leadership of the organisation.

5. Do what you can, outsource what you can’t.

Some entrepreneurs think that they’re saving money by trying to build their own website or social media campaign – this depends on your tech skills, but I think opportunity cost in terms of your time is worth considering.

In summary:

Building a Facebook page or website is a fantastic way to gauge whether your business idea has traction.

I’m a big supporter of the Lean Startup movement – which talks about building a Minimum Viable Product.

Your Facebook page or website can be a pre-prototype to gauge early customer interest.

This quote sums it up: “Marketing in the 80s was all about the product, and then it moved into the “new marketing” era which was about “you deserve this car because you are amazing” and now we are in the era of “us marketing”. It’s not enough to just build a community – it’s like organising a party and you don’t have a plan.”

“Successful companies in social media act more like party planners, aggregators, and content providers than traditional advertiser.”

———————————————

If you want ‘better social media’ – throw a better online party. If you don’t know how, brainstorm with friends. If that doesn’t work, consider asking an expert – if you can’t afford to hire them, try approaching them with a revenue-share agreement of some kind.

Most of all, just keep experimenting until you find the results you’re looking for.

———————————————

[Thanks for a fantastic blog post Adele and for all your work in helping make tonight's Meetup at Adam Street be such a success. Sorry we can't be there but looking forward to many more! Rob, Dom and Mikey in New York]

Introducing Adam Street – Escape the City’s London Base

Team Esc — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 16:23:02 +0000

Escape the City is a global community but London is where we were born.

Although a lot of Esc activity happens online, you really see the community come to life when we meet up offline.

Adam Street are fantastic hosts for our London-based Esc Meetups and Esc Wednesdays and we wanted to use this post to explain a little bit more about them.

Evening Membership: Adam Street now offers a really exciting evening membership scheme. They are extremely offering ongoing incentives to Esc members who want to become evening members. Watch this space for details…

About Adam Street

Adam Street was conceived in the dotcom boom; a phenomenon that dragged people out of their staid corporate jobs to try their hands at being entrepreneurs.

As such it has been designed as a base to work from during the day providing desk space, a comfortable bar and restaurant to meet and work in and meeting rooms as well as a host of support services from our offices upstairs.

Also as important, it was recognised that the budding entrepreneur also needed a social life to replace his (in those days) Bloomberg terminal and water cooler and a friendly culture of like-minded people was created to fill this yawning gap in any city escapee’s life.

This brings us on to the second bit of the club – whilst being a very professional place to work during the day we also have fabulous food, cocktails and even dancing on here until the wee hours of the morning.

There is a number of events ranging from Mike Lynch giving a speech about Autonomy to comedy, live music nights and Last Tuesday masked balls. Over the last 10 years we have helped many successful companies start and grow as well as helping get a huge number of people together on a more social level…..

Contact Details

9 Adam Street
The Strand
Charing Cross
London
WC2N 6AA
Nearest Tube/Rail: Charing Cross

Email: reception@adamstreet.co.uk

An Invitation: Please start an Esc community in your city or town.

Team Esc — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 22:43:59 +0000

Hello everyone,

As you will know if you have spent any time on the Escape the City website…

… or watched our video…

… or read our manifesto…

… or read our About Us…

Esc’s concept is simple:

1. We believe that there is more to life than doing work that doesn’t matter to you in a big corporation

2. We know that finding exciting alternatives is really hard (we’ve been there).

3. We want to help solve this problem by building a global community of like-minded people who want to ‘do something different’.

Escaping the City is a metaphor for rejecting boring corporate jobs in order to do interesting things with your career.

We launched at the beginning of 2010 and we already have a community of +45,000 corporate professionals worldwide who are using Esc to search for the information, people and opportunities that they should all know about but don’t.

And now we are using this blog post to ask for your help and involvement.

Join (or start) your local Esc community - Here

International expansion

Escape the City has bases in London and New York but (as you know if you live somewhere else) the concept is completely global.

Our vision is to build an international community of professionals who want to ‘do something different’ and we would love it if you wanted to be a part of this.

Please help join / start your local community

If you are working in the corporate world and looking to do something different what better way to kick-start your escape!?

How?

Join (or start) your local Esc community – Here
Help organise (or RSVP to) the next Meetup – Here (same link!)

[See below for ‘What is an Esc Meetup?’ - You can also check out London’s upcoming Meetup as an example of what we are inviting you to organise.]

There are already +30 cities registered on our Meetup.com hub and more are being added each day.

Don’t be put off if there aren’t any Escapees yet in your city/country. Get the group started and we’ll make sure we promote it to the right people. They’ll fill up soon enough!

Every month over 2000 people join Escape the City. These people, like you, are based all over the world and we are now in a position to connect them with each other.

Amazing things happen when you get like-minded people together.

Get Involved…

If you would like to organise a Meetup in your area just start the community in Meetup and (if you want some inputs, support or guidance) just email Rob at team@escapethecity.org - he will be happy to help.

We must stress that this isn’t a job opportunity and there is no financial incentive on offer here. It is just an opportunity to organise local gatherings of like-minded people near you – just like all these meetups – there are plenty of non-£$€ based benefits. Trust us!

Thanks so much for your support and we look forward to meeting you (online and hopefully offline!) in due course.

Rob & Dom

Escape the City Co-founders

Find your nearest Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/EscapetheCity/

What is an Esc Meetup?

Esc Meetups are free, they are informal (the antidote to corporate networking events), there is no set structure and no speaker (although there is sometimes a loose theme), they are after work – traditionally on a Wednesday but it doesn’t matter – and they are held in a relaxed environment (bar, museum, cafe) where you can chill out, have a drink, meet new people and generally have exciting conversations about doing something different.

They are democratic, non-hierarchical, and strictly non-judgemental. Anyone can organise one and anyone can attend one.

Escape the City Meetups are your opportunity to meet likeminded people in an informal environment – be they corporate professionals looking to do something different or escapees who have already made the big leap away from the corporate world.

You can check out London’s upcoming Meetup as an example of what we are inviting you to organise – Here.

New country editions on the website

Our website currently has three editions: UK, US, and International.

The number of new members from different countries is growing really quickly (over half of new members are not UK or US based) and we will be adding new editions as soon as we can.

A quick word on jobs / partnerships

We’re really flattered by the amount of people who are interested in working for Escape the City itself and who want to be Esc’s woman/man-on-the-ground in Hamburg / Paris / Hong Kong / Sydney / Insert big city here. We are a small team and we are planing to keep it that way for now. Sorry!

Escape the City – A Manifesto

Team Esc — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 21:12:39 +0000

All our life we jump through hoops.

Often without asking why.

It’s easy to feel stuck – a small cog in a big machine.

It doesn’t have to be like this.

Don’t waste your life living someone else’s.

Don’t wait for permission.

Life is too short to do work that doesn’t matter to you.

Want your memoirs to be worth reading?

Make your choices your own. Be brave. Be inquisitive.

Stop using lack of money or experience as an excuse.

You don’t have to risk it all to explore new options.

You owe it to yourself to find work that makes you tick.

Our world is changing. Careers are changing.

Take advantage or keep your head down. You choose.

The winners are building lives on their own terms.

Take small leaps. Meet people. Ask for help. Save. Plan.

Change jobs. Build businesses. Go on BIG adventures.

Start Something You Love. It’s not easy. Push. Sweat.

No one ever changed the world by toeing the line.

You are capable of more than you realise.

This is no dress rehearsal. Make it count.

There will never be a perfect time.

And the first step is often the hardest.

So Stop Dreaming and Start Planning.

Do Something Different!

————————————

Escape the City

www.escapethecity.org

Your Monday Newsletter: Top 10 Opportunities

Team Esc — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 18:31:44 +0000

Hello everyone. Here is the UK and International version of your Monday newsletter. Below are the Top 10 Opportunities. You can view the full newsletter in your browser by clicking here.

Escape of the Week – Coral Lodge 15.41, Moçambique

SENIOR MANAGEMENT COUPLE - Ilha de Moçambique

Work in paradise: develop a 5-star beach lodge and establish community development projects. We’re particularly looking for Portuguese speakers.
Click here for details.

Top 10 Opportunities to ‘Do Something Different’…

1. Experienced professionals. Sales, commercial & comms skills. Empathy for charities - Here - Partnerships Account Development Manager - JustGiving - London, UK

2. Revolutionize financial services for micro and small business across Latin America - Here - Account Manager, Latin America - Entrepreneurial Finance Lab - Miraflores, Peru

3. Join Our Vibrant Startup & Build A Solid International Proj Mgt & Finance Department - Here - Business Controller - Yacht Week - London, UK

4. Have you worked in Cambodia / Thailand / Vietnam? Seeking Finance Professionals - Here - Finance & Accounting Manager - Central Asia Development Group - Siem Reap, Cambodia

5. All Consultants. Join the world’s leading environmental & social consulting company - Here - Principal Consultant (& other roles) - Environmental Resources Management - London, UK

6. Lively couple to spend 45 weeks of the year living in a private hillside villa in Ibiza - Here - Caretaker Couple - Private Villa - just outside of Santa Eulalia, Ibiza, Spain

7. Work with an Exec who cares! Empower young ppl with Finance & Enterprise Education - Here - Executive Assistant (2.5 days per week) - MyBnK - London, UK

8. Investment Officer for debt in Microfinance, Fair Trade & Sustinable Agiculture Finance - Here - Investment Officer - ResponsAbility Social Investments - Mumbai, India

9. Could you help a football team become financially stable? Seeking volunteers - Here - Football Team Business Consultant - The Collective: Sierra Leone - Makeni, Sierra Leone

10. Entrepreneurial 2nd / final year undergrads/grads with an interest in social change - Here - Paid Summer Internship - Social Finance - London, UK

————————————————————

ARE YOU HIRING? GOT A JOB FOR OUR TOP 10? Visit the Employer Zone or Post A Job.
Did you know it is free to post volunteer opportunities on Escape the City!? Click Here.

“Be different. Think different. Better to be a pirate than to join the navy.”

Steve Jobs

————————————————————

You can view the full newsletter in your browser by clicking here.

Please come to our October London Meetup (Theme: Start-ups & the Internet)

Team Esc — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 23:01:38 +0000

Please come to our next evening Meetup at the Adam Street Entrepreneurs Club in central London after work on Wednesday 26th October.

All Esc members who attend this Meetup on Wed 26^th October will receive a complimentary year’s free evening membership at Adam Street Club. See below.

To attend please click here.

This month’s theme: Start-ups & the Internet

Many people dreaming of leaving the corporate world are considering starting their own businesses, and many of these businesses will be online.

Getting your business idea started online (even if it’s not a web startup) allows you to develop your concept, test your strategy and collect important information about potential customers before leaving the safety of your corporate job.

There is no set structure to this conversation but if you are interested in starting something online and would like to network, mingle and chat with a bunch of people in a similar boat, please come along.

NB: The theme is just a starting point, if you are interested in other Esc areas we actively encourage you to come along. There are always a wide variety of people at Esc events (career changers, entrepreneurs, wannabe entrepreneurs, and adventurers) and the conversations will be about anything Esc-related.

Don’t be shy… come along!

RSVP

Adam Street is a private members club. To get your name on the guest list please RSVP via our Meetup page (click here) and please drop Adele (adele.barlow@gmail.com) an email if there is something specific you would like to let us know about in advance.

Logistics: How do these evenings work?

STRUCTURE: Informal friendly gathering loosely based around a particular topic (but open to all Esc members regardless of interest).

DATE & TIMINGS: Wednesday 26th October. From 6.30 pm onwards (bar open till late).

HOST: Adele Barlow – read her Esc Hero interview here. If you’re nervous about coming alone just ping her an email – adele.barlow@gmail.com – to introduce yourself. She’s incredibly friendly and helpful!

SPECIAL GUESTS:

Alex O’Byrne - ex-Merrill Lynch, co-founder of We Make Websites. Esc Hero interview, LinkedIN profile
Chris Mooney - Ex-Citigroup & IBM. Chris left the corporate world to join one of the UK’s fastest growing technology startups and has never looked back. Senior Business Analyst at QuBit Group. LinkedIN profile.
ADD YOUR NAME – If you know about start-ups and the web and you are in a position to attend and genuinely help Esc members around this topic please drop team@escapethecity.org an email and we’ll happily add you to the list of Special Guests!

LOCATION: Adam Street, 9 Adam Street, The Strand, Charing Cross, London, WC2N 6AA. Nearest Tube/Rail: Charing Cross. Food is available to order from the restaurant menu. Drinks aplenty too.

RSVP: Adam Street is a private members club. To get your name on the guest list please RSVP via our Meetup page (click here) and please drop Adele (adele.barlow@gmail.com) an email if there is something specific you would like to let us know about in advance.

Other things you can do in advance of attending: On our Meetups page you can add a comment explaining who you are and what you’re looking to get out of the evening – this will enable us to help you make better connections before, during and after the Meetup.

Claim a year’s free evening membership at Adam Street

Kick-start your escape by getting a year’s free evening membership at London’s legendary entrepreneurs club: Adam Street.

All Esc members who attend this Meetup on Wed 26^th October will receive a complimentary year’s free evening membership at Adam Street Club. To claim your free membership please just RSVP via Meetup and request your evening membership pack from Adam Street reception on Wednesday 26th October.

NB: This offer is only open for Esc members who have RSVP’d via Meetup and who actually attend the event. It is also only open for the evening of Wed 26th Oct.

About Adam Street:

Evening Membership: Adam Street now offers a really exciting evening membership scheme. Aside from the free offer above, Adam Street will be very extremely generously offering ongoing incentives to Esc members who want to become evening members.

Watch this space for further details.

What is an Esc Meetup?

Click here for the global list of all Esc Meetups.

Photo credit: www.gapingvoid.com

Why (temporarily) moving to New York feels like a reward.

Team Esc — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 20:12:56 +0000

So we’ve now been in New York for a week. It’s pretty surreal and extremely exciting. We’ll be here until Christmas – helping Mikey grow the US escapee community and working our behinds off on the website.

I thought I would write a quick post reflecting on what it feels like to have started a business from our kitchen table that now sees us living in one of the most exciting cities in the world to launch a new arm of our business.

The first thing that struck Dom and me as we waited for a cab at Newark airport (having braved the scary immigration officials) was that when we started Esc we would never have believed someone if they told us that we would be in a position to run Esc from New York within 2 years.

You can do a lot in a year

I think that we often overestimate what we can achieve in any given week but underestimate what we can achieve in a year. When you’re starting your own business the progress that you make on a daily basis often feels painfully slow, and it’s all too easy for the random and minute tasks to absorb your entire focus (and you can easily lose sight of the bigger picture).

Two years ago today Dom was still working as a management consultant, furiously saving as much of his salary for his impending escape. I was just finishing working the wine harvest in Portugal. Escape the City was nothing more than a free blog with a few posts on it. The newsletter was about to be born.

Even one year ago we were in a very different position to where we are now. We had only 16,000 members (compared to almost 45,000 today) and we were still working from our kitchen table (as opposed to the swanky offices we just vacated in Kings Cross). We were still getting to grips with our business model (selling exciting job listings) and wondering whether Esc had legs for the long-term.

Bravery & Rewards

The last thing Dom, Mikey and I ever want to do is sound smug (and the choices that we’ve made to escape the city mean that often it is our friends and ex-colleagues who are better off than us in terms of security and financial stability) but the fact that we have come to work in New York under our own steam is the direct result of a naïve, brave, idealistic and hopeful decision that we made on a park bench in Wimbledon over two years ago.

There are all sorts of cheesy, inspirational quotes about risk vs reward and a ‘just do it’ mentality that often over-simplify complex decision-making processes. However it is true that you’ve got to be in it to win it and the simple fact is that if we hadn’t made the mad/brave/exciting decision to pursue an unrealistic dream – living a life on our own terms whilst building something that helps other people do the same – we wouldn’t be in New York today.

The goon squad - Mikey & Dom outside our local coffee shop

A business is where you design your perfect world.

Like Mikey, I’ve recently really enjoyed reading ‘Anything You Want’ by Derek Sivers and was struck by this line…

When you make a company, you make a utopia. It’s where you design your perfect world.

It’s true. You get to play and work on your own terms. No more booking in a limited amount of holidays with HR far in advance. No more being held to arbitrary deadlines by senior managers. No more seeing your evenings disappear waiting for a busy partner to ask you to make formatting changes to a PowerPoint deck.

Screenshot - Anything You Want - by Derek Sivers

You get to work on what you want, when you want. You get to say no to some projects and yes to others. You can work till 3 am on a Monday night if you want. But equally you can take a random Wednesday morning off with no guilt. You live life on your own terms.

Make no mistakes – it’s tough.

Don’t get me wrong – while this is the dream, the reality of getting to this point is tough. And we’ve got a long way to go before we have properly finished building our business (and the financial stability that hopefully comes with it).

For all our enthusiastic start-up evangelism… building a business is hard. Really hard. Harder than we realised!

The single biggest challenge with starting your own company is that you accept ultimate responsibility for your income – rather than living under the addictive duvet of a monthly salary.

But all the financial anxiety and hard graft of the past two years is worth it for the prize of living life on our own terms. And moving to New York really feels like a reward at this stage in the journey.

——————————————

All 3 Escape the City team members are now based in New York.

If you feel like helping us out in the Big Apple, or even meeting for a beer, just email us – team@escapethecity.org or let us know via this form.

Going to check out the #occupywallstreet movement this week – blog post to follow.

No related posts.

Join the Discussion: Big Corporates & Fulfilling Work

Team Esc — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 10:15:29 +0000

As those of you who follow Esc will know, we want to explore the ideas around the phenomenon of people ‘escaping the city’ with the aim of helping more corporate professionals to make brave and exciting transitions.

There is certainly no single way of understanding all the various strands related to our concept (jobs, money, career, meaning, work, entrepreneurialism, life, fulfilment, etc, etc!) and we want to encourage as much discussion as possible with the aim of learning more and pushing Esc onwards to greater heights.

So, every week from now on, we are planning on introducing a particular idea / concept / thought with the objective of having a discussion in the comments. If you’ve got something to share, please do get involved!

Oh, and if you’ve got an idea for Escape the City please let us know about it via this form.

Introducing this week’s discussion

We resigned from our corporate jobs because of some really strong ‘pull’ factors (i.e. the prospect of starting a business and working for ourselves doing something we love) but we also left because of some pretty persuasive ‘push’ factors as well.

We want to explore the reasons why people find working for big corporates in professional and financial services unfulfilling. We want to understand what it is that people are looking for but not getting in their corporate jobs (i.e. what important ingredients are missing?).

We’ve always been really keen not to knock the corporate world. For starters the skills that we learnt in ‘The City’ have really helped us start Escape the City – we wouldn’t have been able to get this off the ground without them. Additionally, there are masses of people who really enjoy their corporate jobs.

However, for every person who is clear on why they are in their company and what they’re getting out of the experience, there are masses of others who are thinking ‘I’m not sure this is for me, but what on earth do I do instead?’

Esc is for these people.

So why are jobs in big corporates so often unfulfilling?

Lack of control, freedom & independence
Bureaucracy
Office Politics
Hierarchy
Feeling of being institutionalised
Small cog in a big machine
Lack of creativity
Work for work’s sake – too much process!
Lack of positive social impact
Hard to be yourself in the corporate environment
Boring work

We started Esc to help solve a problem. What problem? The fact that thousands of ambitious, passionate, talented graduates and professionals end up feeling frustrated doing work that doesn’t really matter to them. Why? Because the alternative is tough. It is hard to find a really exciting job and even harder to start your own business.

If Escape the City is going to meaningfully contribute to understanding what’s going wrong for so many people… then understanding those ‘push’ factors is really important.

Please share your experiences of working in the corporate world… we would love to have a discussion aimed at getting to the heart of why working in big corporate organisations is often unfulfilling.

Go on, get it off your chest!