I currently live on the island of Cozumel off of mainland Mexico together with my family. We have a nice house that’s walking distance to the Caribbean Sea. I run a lifestyle business that funds all of this.
Life is pretty awesome.
But this really isn’t about me.
It’s about you.
And helping you to do exactly what you want to do. And I’ll get to that in just a moment. Let me first share some background to set the stage.
Check out this video!
2000 - Have a heart-to-heart with my grandmother and she tells me that while in college, I’ll be poor and to not think about making lots of money. “Just wait until you graduate” she tells me. But something inside me doesn’t like that.
2000 (a day later) - I go to the local bookstore and start reading all of the books I can on making money and entrepreneurship. The first one I picked up was “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki. That was the start of embracing my own (then) latent entrepreneurship tendencies. But sadly, while I dabble in some stuff, nothing ever really takes off.
2004 - I get married to Heidi – the biggest blessing of my life
2006 - Our first daughter is born and I get a better job to pay for it all
2007 - I read Tim Ferriss’s “Four Hour Workweek”. It scares the crap out of me because it strikes a nerve on every level – liberation, automation, travel, money making, all of it. I become infatuated with the concept of “Lifestyle Design” but am too chicken to abandon having a “real job” and I think that dream life must not be for me.
2008 - I learn about internet marketing and first see how I could apply it to achieve my dream life. At this same time, we also start to make drastic changes. We stop trying to keep up with the Jones’s and get out of debt (more than $10,000 of credit card debt). At this time, our second daughter is born and the pressure builds to create a good life.
2009 - Start listening to “Four Hour Workweek” while commuting to a job. The fire is still burning but So Cal life and two kids scares me into yielding to a “normal life”.
2009 – Start the Family Rocketship blog (even though it had a different name) to start logging some of my thoughts.
2010 - Start listening to “Crush It” by Gary Vaynerchuk while still commuting to a job. The lifestyle design poison is starting to take hold but we regress into buying stuff to furnish a new home in Orange County – paid for with credit.
2010 (Fall) – Laid off from job.
We decide a job isn’t getting us any closer to our goals and certainly not making us any happier. With skills acquired from job history, start a lifestyle business to pay for bills, food, shelter, all that. We determine once and for all that having things is way less important than doing things. We sell everything we own and hit the road for a start to a long term adventure.
First stop - Seattle, Washington. We’ve always been curious about living there and if it might be a good place to come back to once we “settle down”.
2011 (Fall) – After a fun-filled year in Seattle, we try out the San Francisco Bay Area. Just like Seattle, to see if it’s a good place for raising a family and also to scale up and automate the business. We get out of credit card debt for the 2nd time. (almost $10,000 again)
2012 - Third daughter is born. Desire to free up time increases big time!
2012 (Fall) – Leave San Francisco to live in Cozumel, Mexico. We have complete detachment to most common stuff. All remaining property (photos, wedding albums, sentimental stuff) left behind in 5 x 5 storage unit. Exploring passions of free diving, SCUBA, learning a new language, and learning a new culture all become part of our everyday life.
In other words, life is exactly how we want it now.
Real Talk
I consider myself a pretty average guy. I’m nothing special. I’ve just made some key decisions that helped me get where I now am – living exactly where I want, doing exactly the things I want to, with exactly the people I want – mainly, my family.
So what I’m really saying is, if I can do it, so can you. Really.
Think about what I just shared.
We got out of over $10,000 of credit card debt …twice! I’ve been stuck at a job not able to see a way out. We’ve been in situations where we didn’t have enough money to even cover our basic bills.
In other words, I’ve been there.
Please don’t take this is any way as bragging. I’m not. Nor am I saying that selling all your stuff and traveling to foreign locations is the only way. It’s not.
I’m really sharing all of this with you in the hopes that you might see something similar in your own story. AND that you’ll be motivated to escape the “average life”.
Oh, and by the way, you can do it with your family AND you can make a difference in the world all at the same time.
So, the Family Rocketship is all about Lifestyle Design – setting up and living your ideal life.
It’s real. It’s not just a book or what some trendy bloggers are talking about.
You can decide exactly what you want your life to look like and then do it.
I wish you the best of luck!
Stick around. Hopefully you’ll find some good stuff here on the Family Rocketship that will help you out.
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Questions? Comments? Rants? Shoot me an email at Sean(at)FamilyRocketship.com.
Happy Trails!
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Lifestyle Design? Yeah, it’s what Sean is all about. No fluff, down to earth tips about money, family, travel, personal development, and other generally cool stuff. It’s the real deal if you want to make your life rock and help others along the way.
Sean, you are so right. in todays day and age if you can dream a lifestyle than you can do it. Especially with the easy access to the Internet for business, for learning etc, anyone can do anything. at least here in the western world and some other cultures too.
It takes perseverance, a dream and the drive.
Cheerio and congrats on your recent move. Is Rob far behind?
You’re so right Annie. They key, like you said, is drive and just plain being brave enough to actually do it! We knew we wanted to take off and explore – we just didn’t know how. But that doesn’t matter right? Once we set our minds to it, we figured it out!
We have six kids, so I’ll be interested in seeing your work. For us, lifestyle design (also a long-time Ferris fan) includes freedom, but not freedom from place. We WANTED to have a home and the accouterments of a neighborhood and community.
It’s all about finding what works for you and moving toward it.
Exactly Alison! One of my friends doesn’t really even care to travel, yet he has crafted his perfect life living right where he is. That’s the most important I think – a very conscious living.