7 Things I've Learnt After Quitting My Job... and starting again.

Who knew how wild the ride would be when we gave up our careers, sold our house and hit the road with 3 kids and our caravan a little over 9 months ago.

I had reached a stage in my career where I was no longer passionate about what I was doing, not in the day-to-day grind anyway. After over 18 years in the industry across various roles in marketing, sales and brand management with private, public and start up businesses, we pulled the pin and went cold turkey. (You can read my parting letter to the industry here)

Letting go of the job was ok, but the selling up of our newly renovated home of nearly 10 years was more challenging. Thinking back now, it was more the fear of the unknown that slowed us down, like many of life’s challenges, it’s often the one thing that holds us back. 

In many ways getting to the point of making the decision is harder than the decision itself. 

It’s the thinking, analyzing and scenario role-plays that are exhausting and if you let them get too big on you, they can cripple.

Fortunately for us we pushed through the angst and the fear and rode out the process to get to a decision. For us it was about stripping it all back – our finances, our material possessions, our complications – and taking a leap of faith into the unknown, in the hope of a liberating outcome. We wanted to break the shackles of routine and simplify our life. We wanted to experience the thrill of travel with no agenda or time frame – the kind you dream about when sitting behind a desk – and we wanted to re-set all areas of our lives. We wanted to grow in our Christian faith, we wanted to explore our passions, we wanted to grow closer as a family and we didn’t want to wake up in 10 years with a huge regret, wishing we had followed our dreams.

And so we set off in our 90's Windsor Wind Cheater caravan, total rookies without any clue. The whole adventure almost didn’t happen either, with an almost critical blunder by yours truly 5 minutes before we were about to drive off into the sunset. We had only picked up the caravan a day prior; we had emptied our house, put our life’s possessions in storage, jammed the rest into the caravan and all we had to do was hitch the van onto the car and take off. For some reason, still unbeknown to me, I thought I remembered the previous owner of the van saying to loosen the jockey wheel before hitching it onto the car. Now obviously that is not a good idea when you have a 2-ton caravan packed with surfboards, bikes, barbeques, baby toy’s and in hindsight, far too much weight for the type of car we had! A few seconds after starting to unscrew the bracket that attached the jockey wheel to the axel, the entire van collapsed onto the bitumen with a giant thud, narrowly missing my leg in the process.

To cut a long story short, with the help of a 70-year-old man on crutches, the neighbors 2 car jacks (I broke the first one) and a bunch of wooden planks, we managed to get the van back on the car – and off we went!

We travelled the East Coast exploring nooks and cranny’s we’d never been to and ended up down the New South Wales south coast, where we spent an extended time immersed in the incredible nature and wave-filled area. The Ulladulla region was by far our favourite place of the trip, after which we slowly wound our way back via the Hunter Valley and spent 2 weeks in a house in Angourie, our favorite seaside village we’d spent 10 years holidaying at.

 The next leg of our travels took us to the North Shore of Oahu for the 2016 winter season. This was another bucket list item for my wife and I. After surfing for over 30 years, I had still never done a full winter in Hawaii, so we locked in a 2-month trip to make sure we could really immerse ourselves in the culture. We stayed with an incredible Hawaiian community at the Sunset Beach Christian Church, across the road from the infamous Kei’ki beach shore break. It was a dream trip that forged many new friendships and served to indelibly embed the island and its community in our hearts and minds for a long time to come.

When we returned we had many people say to us – ‘welcome back to the real world’ or passed comments like, ‘back to reality’ and while that was true in some ways, we were still determined to create a new reality, to shape what our ‘real world’ was actually going to look like. It would have been so easy to slip back into comfort, to get a job that our resume said we were good for, get the house and the mortgage and go back to the life that we knew before. We’d had no idea what our future looked like, but what we did know was that we were called to do something different, so we took the narrower path.  

One of my favorite quotes I read over the last 12 months was by Paulo Coelho; “You think adventure is dangerous? You should try routine, it’s deadly!”

I’m not against routine per se, I’m just against routines that form ruts, that turn into deep holes you cant get out of, and that’s what I was fighting for.

After we returned from Hawaii, we had some struggles finding a place to live, and we ended up back in Angourie. It was a place we’d always dreamt of trying to live one day – we just never knew how to make it work, but after a fortuitous message from a friend that owned a holiday house here, we found ourselves living in the country close to the ocean. We had a bit of money left over – and our thoughts were to start something early in 2017 or at least have a few streams of income that meant we didn’t need to touch our nest egg. I started a small freelance writing agency and did some work for some great people, but it wasn’t enough to live off. After a few hard months, the savings become our lifeline, and the nest egg soon started disappearing. Something had to happen as we started to feel the squeeze started again. Our faith was being stretched as we went back to those agonizing scenario role-plays, the exhausting ones… the ones that cripple.

Then on a trip to WA where I had the opportunity to coach fellow South African, Bianca Buitendag in the World Championship Tour event, I got a call from a couple of friends while driving to Margaret River from Perth. They encouraged me to start a digital, subscription based business insights platform for the action sports industry, covering the Australia/Pacific region. 

There was precedent in the US market for a successful similar platform and it seemed from the outset to be the perfect link between my passion and my experience.

A seed was planted that day on the Kwinana Freeway… and it never let me go. 65 days later, we launched The Business of Surf.

Looking back over the last 9 months, I’m filled with mixed emotions. We experienced the high highs of ticking off bucket lists and certainly lived the dream for while. Then there were the weeks where we struggled with our situation, our finances, and our lack of clarity for the future. We questioned our decisions and we wrestled with new challenges that came with the new seasons of life one goes through as parents. But today, as I pause and take a step back, I’m so grateful for it all. 

Our business has received incredible support from the industry and people who believe in what we are trying to achieve. We live in a place a stone’s throw from the ocean, I work from home or anywhere our yearnings take us and it’s in these moments I need to pinch myself, because despite the up’s and down’s that come with life - I am still truly blessed. 

If I told you all the details of how this idea came together, you’d have to agree that some higher power was at play. From the last minute provision of finances to start it off, to freakish events around artwork and logo creation, to that sense of peace one gets amongst the chaos when you just know it's right. And when that happens, you just have to trust, jump in and stay on the path. So we have (jumped in) with both feet. This is it for my growing young family and I. We’ve got the vision and are committed to following it through, and if there’s anything we’ve learnt through the process it’s this:

Stick to your path. Never let fear take you off it. Despite what’s happening around you – keep your eyes up.

Maintain your integrity. Always. Truth wins every time.

Take the high road. Sometimes that means biting your tongue when every ounce of you wants to speak out. It may be the road less travelled, but there is a reason why that is so.

Enjoy the process. Oftentimes that’s where the gold is. We all chase the prize as the destination, but the real prize is often in the lessons we learn along the way.

Simplify. It keeps things simple; it’s not rocket science.

Be thankful in all situations. No matter what you're up against, there is always something to be thankful for. Dwell on those.

It always seems impossible, until it’s done. A favourite quote from one of the greatest leaders the world has ever seen. Nelson Mandela.

We left our jobs and sold our house to find a new life, and here we are 9 months later, living out the next chapter that's been written for us. It can be done.

Momentum demands movement, you just need to take the first step.

A big thank you to all those who have provided support and encouragement, those who have given guidance, those who have donated their time and those who have already bought into the vision (our members, sponsors and contributors) – we have just started this new chapter of our lives, but your support shows we are truly on the right path. 

If you haven’t seen the platform, you can take a look at https://thebusinessofsurf.com - we are a growing digital community, committed to adding value to our members, sponsors and the broader action sports industry. 

Become a member and join the #distributorofknowledge community here:

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