About Lee

***SYSTEM RESET***

***With major happenings afoot, I felt the need to update this page, and add the video below. Especially as what was originally here [see below], was written way back when, at the start of this stage of my journey***

Following three years in the wilderness…

figuring out what the hell I’m doing…

chasing the money,

following what this person was doing and what that person was saying…

studying…learning…self educating…

I feel like I’m finally on the right path.

My path.

An authentic one.

The one that deep inside my soul…I ‘know’ I’m meant to follow.

How do I know? Because it ‘feels’ right.

[see 'The Thrive Project' page for more insight]

 

 

You see, none of this is about the monetary wealth, and if you think it is then I hate to be the bearer of bad news….but it ain’t.

If you chase money for money’s sake, chances are, it will elude you.

Don’t get me wrong, creating wealth is to be encouraged, but we’re talking about ‘true wealth’ here…

wealth for…

the experiences it will bring…

the things that it will help you do…

and become…

and the difference it will help you make while you’re on this ‘ere rock!

Your legacy…

your ‘why.’

 

We’re talking about purpose & passion. What you were born to do….what you are passionate about!

 

I’m passionate about freedom.

Being free to do what I want, where I want, whenever I want, with whoever I want.

***how about you?***

Being a family guy, that translates to spending as much time as possible with my kids….

now…

before they grow up.

Not fitting them in around a J.O.B.

 

I’m on a mission to make this the greatest year ever, for myself and my family.

Instead of waiting to do what we want to do, when we retire…

or looking forward to the weekend, or a couple of weeks of vacation a year…

my wife and I have decided to do it now!

 

So…

at the end of June 2013,  we’re taking off…

hitting the road!

We’re heading off on an open ended family road trip across the United States…

2 adults, 4 kids (12, 10, 2 & 1yrs) and 2 dogs!

 

Living the location independent…digital nomad…21st Century vagabond lifestyle!

 

 

Check back for updates!

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“Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing”  - Helen Keller

 

Owning My Life

Hello,  if you’re here reading this, then chances are we have a few things in common already.  Good stuff.

You see, I’m absolutely passionate about owning my life.  Being free to do what I want to do, when I want to do it. Having complete time and financial freedom.  Designing my life instead of it being dictated by external factors such as a job, a boss, a certain company, the government, or even the system that we’re all programmed to follow (go to school, work hard, get good grades, get a good job, work hard, save for your retirement!).

I’d prefer to be in complete control of every minute that’s available to me, to suck the marrow from every single day!!! Not spending 40+ years of my life working 40+ hours a day, so maybe one day I can retire and enjoy life a little.  What the hell is that all about!?!  We’re not still stuck in the industrial age any more are we? Not the last time I checked any way.  We’re in the 21^st Century, the Information Age.  We don’t have to cling to the industrial age mentality, and besides which, the factories have gone and there aren’t enough bloody jobs to go around any more anyway!

Which brings me to my next point…..the system’s broken!  The financial catastrophy that has come about of late, is no accident.  Our whole economic system has been built on debt…..and now the bubble’s burst & we’re all feeling it. However here’s the real kicker, the tough times haven’t even started yet.  The poor are going to get poorer, the middle class is going to become non-existent  as the gap between rich and poor widens. The question is…..what are you going to do about it?

Are you going to follow the crowd, play it safe and struggle like you’ve never struggled before? Or are you going to step up, take ownership, and fight for your right to live an incredible life? I know which path I’m taking….the one less travelled by.

And that, in a nut shell, is what this is all about….taking the road less travelled, in order to achieve complete time & financial freedom for myself and my family.  While inspiring others to think bigger about what’s possible with their lives, to dream big, kick ass dreams…..creating a positive shift in the World!

This really is a revolution my friends.  A revolution in thinking, as well as in what we expect from and how we live our lives.

Are you ready for the fight?

My story so far…

From the industrial North of England, to the Pacific & back again

I grew up in an industrial city in the North of England, where the old industries are now dead & unemployment is at around 20%. Not good.  Having scraped through my formal education & made it to university by virtue of my desire for more from life, I was spat out the other end wondering ‘what next?’

 

With my undying thirst for adventure & not being able to settle for a ‘normal’ life, I fell in love with the summer camp industry in the U.S., and following a number of endless summers spent during my student years, at ‘my’ camp in Pennsylvania, I ended up as an assistant director of the place. This is where I met my wonderful wife, Katie & our eldest Ian, who was 7 at the time.

 

 

What brought us together was our thirst for adventure & the dream life.  From the very start we talked about how we’d love to build our own log home one day on a plot of land in the woods, next to a lake somewhere. In fact, Katie still has the designs that she cut from a ‘build your own home log home’ magazine, that very Summer!

 

Once married, we decided to up sticks from our ‘safe’ life in the ‘burbs outside of Baltimore, Maryland and head for California (Katie’s home state) & the Pacific. The log home by the lake could wait for now….as the beach life was a calling!  Having sent all of our belongings ahead of us on the back of a truck, and being adventurous kinda people, we couldn’t resist the opportunity to take an extended road trip…coast to coast! Ahh, the call of the open road!

We ended up living up in the Santa Cruz Mountains, smack bang on the San Andreas fault line!  In fact, the house that we lived in was re-built, having been destroyed in the quake of ’89 as it was just down the road from the epicentre, on the Loma Prieta peak!  The Pacific was to the West & Silicon Valley to the East, life was great! I would drive 25 minutes down the mountain towards Santa Cruz in my beloved Jeep, and hit the beach every morning before work. Good times!

Fast forward a few years now and we find ourselves back in the industrial North of England.  Maybe I’ll fill you in, over a beer some day, on the circumstances & the decisions that led to us spending the last seven years raising our family (4 kids now!) here in the UK, as opposed to Northern California, but for now let’s just say… shit happens!

Now herein lies the problem.  Raising your family in a safe, comfortable way, can lead to a lot of unfulfilled dreams. Log cabin by a lake in the woods I hear you ask?  Nope. Not just yet!

One Life Live

However, if there’s one piece of advice I would give to anyone…..it is to never lose sight of your dreams!!!

This and this alone is what took me, on a whim, to an event in London on the 14th March 2009, called One Life Live. I refused to let go of my dreams & spend the rest of my days living out a comfortable but mediocre life.  So off I went, in search of my dreams again!

The decision to jump on the train and head down to London that day, is one that has changed our lives forever. And it came about because I refused to give up on my dreams & aspirations.  I suggest you don’t either.

The couple of years or so that followed have changed the trajectory of our lives beyond all recognition, and I now dream again. Not just about the log cabin by the lake in the woods (we’ll be there soon enough!), but big, huge kick ass dreams.  The kind that go along with living a purposeful, extraordinary life, as opposed to a directionless life of mediocrity.

 

Freedom

I don’t work a job these days. You could say I’m unemployable.  As the journey….nay adventure I’ve taken over the past couple of years has equipped me with the inner belief, the knowledge, the skills, the mentors, the systems & tools to create complete time & financial freedom.  To live life on my terms, to see my kids grow up, to simply do what I want to do, when I want to do it.  To Live Full Time.

My mission now is to inspire and empower others to strive for the extraordinary, to chase dreams, to take ownership of their lives and to truly thrive…..while living life as a daring adventure!  Thus creating a community of empowered individuals, adding value  to the lives of others and creating a positive shift in our World.

Long live the revolution & let the adventure continue!!!

Lee