I am an Australian Pharmacist, I am 45 years old and together with my wife, Michelle, we have 5 wonderful children. As I write this I am sitting on the “terrazzo” of my leased villa in southern Italy. I sip my
chianti and chew on my bread as I overlook the sun bathed Mediterranean and reflect, “How did I get here?”
It’s a story with a few surprises, and not all them good. If, like me, you vaguely think there has to be more to life than punching out hours, driving kids to school, and paying off your mortgage, then read on.
I have been running and owning small business for 20 years. I was working hard and making decent money, like many in this sector. I was my own boss! Which is actually code for I have to do everything, work like a dog or I get to be homeless! My debts were huge, the hours were never ending, and we had a 7 day a week trading pharmacy so weekends were rare.
I saw my kids when I could and was generally too tired on the weekends (when I had them) to give them much attention. I knew time was running out (little did I know!) but I was stuck in a job I could not quit. The banks are not know for forgiving loans. I was trapped.
And then in 2012 I read Tim Ferris’ New York Times Best selling book “4 Hour Work Week”. I was seized with the idea that I could find a business that would pay me a decent wage from ANYWHERE in the world. Was it possible to work when you wanted, and from where you wanted and still have enough money for a large family to eat?
Like many people gripped with this fever, I thought “Yeah - I would love to do that” but actually take it no further. And then, a dear friend, also thinking of the same pipe dreams, took action and purchased a course for me without even asking me. It was about on selling things on Amazon! It was quite a few thousand dollars so I was spurred into action.
Sure I was skeptical. Sure I thought “what a scam!” but the money was spent so I figured I might as well see where it led. Maybe it would enable me to live my dream? “Yeah right - dream on!” I thought.
I started the course and to my surprise it seemed pretty “legit” and so I placed a small order, getting taught every step by the course teachers. Sure enough I sold out! Wow. What a shock. Ha! Little did we know what “shock” was all about. I was getting ready to do another order and I had a phone call from my wife that sank me to my knees. My 13 year old son had been diagnosed with a life threatening aggressive brain tumor. No warning, I mean he was running triathlons the previous week!
Needless to say this lit a fire under me and I knew I needed to get this “Amazon business” going so I could live my dream of travelling the world with my family for 1 year. Was it already too late? I followed the course to the letter and went from knowing nothing about Amazon, or selling online, to selling about $100,000 per month in just over a year and a half. That profit is great so that pretty much replaces every cent I was earning from 70-80 hours a week in a pharmacy. It’s hard to believe it’s grown that quickly but it’s true. And I am doing all that from anywhere in the world, and now that its stable I just do a few hours per week of actual work. I will never go back to small business again.
I am pleased to say my son is still in remission after 9 months of horrible, aggressive treatment, and we started our travelling digital nomad dream in Feb 2017. We have travelled to USA, China, Canada, UK, France, Switzerland and now the kids are in School in Italy trying to learn Italian. Lets just say they are way better at language than I am. But I am still trying.
Things I have leant to be true in the last few years.
-Every cloud has a silver lining
-If nothing changes then nothing changes
-Talk and education are cheap, taking action will cost you something
-Everything is actually a lot easier than you think.
-You really can work just 4 hours per week.
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