Who am I and what are my escape plans?

My name is Andrew and I am a mechanical engineer working on the west coast of Canada.  Wright is not my last name, it is a pen name to prevent this blog from being confused with my current professional career.  I’m sure that you can appreciate that.  Yes I do have a job still, and this blog is my way of sharing my escape plans.

I’ve been in my current engineering management position for about five years now.  At least I was lucky enough for it to be located in the beautiful city of Vancouver, BC.

Problem is, two years ago I read the Four-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss, a book which profoundly changed my outlook on life.  Some of the ideas were completely new to me, and many solidified thoughts that were floating randomly in my head.  The end effect is that  I can no longer accept spending my entire career, and most of my life, in debt and working for others.  Some may now call me chronically unemployable.
Your homework this week is to somehow find a copy of this book.  This isn’t something you read, no it’s something you inhale!

I can no longer stand the idea of spending my time – my life – on making others’ dreams and business goals come true; while my own goals in life go unfulfilled.

What’s taken me so long

Here I am talking about my unemployable mindset that was caused by a book that I read two years ago.  But I’m still in a job.  Ya ya, I know, not impressive.

The problem is the insidious nature of this engineering job: it’s well payed, has good benefits, let’s me afford a nice apartment, a great car, and binge vacations twice per year. On top of that I get marginal raises every year, recognition, and responsibility for the owner of my company.  These are all things that distract me of the real goal of location independence, not just money in the bank.  Most importantly I am definitely NOT interested in the standard middle-class lifestyle.

Thankfully I keep coming to my senses.  The clincher that always brings me back to this escape mindset is “This company and job are NOT worth my life”.

One powerful quote I heard “How you spend you days IS how you spend your life”.

Ask yourself if you are happy with how you are spending your life?

Oh, and pressures and norms from family and society are very powerful factors in many people staying in their lacklustre jobs.  I will definitely rant about that more on this blog, since they are the reason so many dreams go unfulfilled.

My Escape Plans

Follow my journey through my escape plans and I promise to help you find the tools, ideas, or motivation that you need to make your own escape.

I have a planned Independence Day of April 1st, 2013.  That gives me one full year from now, to build enough online income to cover my expenses.  I will be exploring all kinds of ways to make money, but I have to be location independent by that time. I’m not against all forms of employment income, and will attempt to arrange a remote work or consulting agreement with my current employer.  But it has to be on my own schedule and I have to be location independent.  I have started a couple of weak blogs on topics that I am interested in, and I own a couple of AdSense niche websites.  In February I made about $30 from the web.  So far in March I am at $30, and the month is only half done.  I plan to present income reports from my various ventures as I build them.

Since I’ve been learning and experimenting for almost two years now, I understand many aspects of internet business.  I will be experimenting with all the different ways of making money online.  All will be shared with you – success or failure.

Why Specifically for Engineers?

Why would I write a blog to share my escape plans specifically with engineers.

Two reasons.  First, there is a lot of information out there already regarding lifestyle design and location independence.  Yes they have great information, but are mostly geared towards those already in the fields of design, sales, programming, or marketing.  All are traditionally less glued to a single location.  But engineers are typically chained to offices or cubicles with their only escape being to trade shows.

The second reason I am speaking mostly to engineers is actually your first lesson along your own journey: You have to niche down!  You can’t try to speak to everybody or try to please everybody.  You have to find an underserved market.  Location independence for marketers or designers is a market that is already served well.  However I have found very little material from an engineer’s perspective on running an online business, outsourcing, negotiating remote work agreements, and internet marketing.  So this is my niche in blogging.

How about you?
What are your plans and your reasons to escape?

So you have any comments about my escape plans?

Since you obviously want more information like this AND you want your own copy of my Engineering Escape Beginner’s Guide, please join my mailing list.

Tags: Freedom, My Journey