On dreams
Life is too short to be living someone else’s dream.
- Hugh Hefner
My life is filled with little quotes that I get back to on a regular basis. I love languages (programming or not), I love witty puns, word plays, and the likes.
I found the above one years ago, I don’t even remember in which context. Its author, the late Hugh Hefner, founder of infamous magazine Playboy, is not someone I’m particularly familiar with. But this line, though, has been resonating with me since I first heard it.
I’ve come to add to it, a little extra that helps me with taking action, instead of just reporting on the status of life.
Life is too short to be living someone else’s dream. Start dreaming.
- Hugh Hefner + me
A few days ago, I was having diner with newly encountered kitesurfing friends. As we talk, something becomes obvious to me: we are on various steps of the same journey.
One was still employed, seemingly very happy with his situation, with the freedom to work and travel, and appreciating the comfort of having paid sick leave, should he get sick. He was sometimes wondering how to get a bit more freedom, but felt happy with his current situation.
The other one had resigned from a lucrative software engineer job in the US eight months ago, packed his stuff and hit the road. Nowadays, he’s wondering what he wants to do while on the move, how to generate passive income, how to get started with some form of freelancing.
And me, well, I’ve been travelling the world at my own pace for the last ten years, trying first to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, then executing upon that while refining my dream and keeping executing.
Nowadays, I have a pretty clear couple of dreams I’m working and living towards:
1. Great geographic freedom: no client or employer should be a reason to be located somewhere more than a few weeks at a time. I love face-to-face work, but my ideal rhythm is no more than two weeks every three months located in an office space. This does not mean I change places every few weeks, but work is not the reason why I decide to live somewhere. That usually is a function of curiosity, friends, family, and last but not least weather and natural conditions for the various sports that rhythm my life. Namely, riding a mountain bike, snowboard and kitesurf.
2. Retiring at age fifty. This is also something I’m planning to dive deeper in its own post another time, but for now, let’s summarize what it’s about, and what it’s not. It’s not about stopping work. It’s about not having to work anymore. Ultimately, I love what I do and I want to keep doing it for quite a while, but I’m targeting a time where my lifestyle is self sustained by savings, passive income, investments, and most important of all low cost-of-living.
3. Doing something with leadership. This one is very much a work in progress. I don’t precisely know what I want there. But what I do know is that each and every time, over twenty five years now, I’ve had a chance to organize something with people, teach a skill , enable a group to focus on what they do best, I’ve come out wiser, happier, and greatly satisfied. I’ve come out nurtured by the group’s energy. I’ve come out humbled by the grateful comments. And times, and times, and times again, I’ve been slapped in the face by this little sentence:
What you do has inspired me.
- countless people
I keep being surprised by this one. I’m just trying to figure out what I love, get better at it, and when someone asks me, I enjoy sharing my journey, candidly, with kinks and all. The vast majority of times, said journey involves interacting with a bunch of much more inspiring people I’ve crossed path with, who’ve been kind enough to share some of their wisdom.
One thing I know, though, is that I’m living my own dream. It’s built out of years of interacting with awesome humans, for sure. And if a beer and a chat is what it takes to help others find their dream, then the first round is on me.