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In the late 1990s, at the onset of the internet revolution, I started a personal process of transformation that took me from a corporate career to a freedom lifestyle. It was a time when my career was in clear ascension but was running in direct conflict with the family life I was aspiring to.
Colleagues, friends, and family warned me about the danger of sacrificing a promising future for the uncertainty of a new life, especially with two small kids to take care of.
After some years of hesitation, I reached a point where the appeal of these aspirations overcame any perceived risks. In the year 2000, I submitted my resignation and embarked on a different path.
Over the years, I have often shared my transformation with executives curious about life after corporate. To my surprise, these competent and analytical people always seem to find some inspiration from the rationale of my experience.
Recently, I consulted with an executive facing his first entrepreneurial venture, and he challenged me to share my journey with a broader public. He found that the exchange we had on the topic significantly helped him frame his own professional progression. He suggested that formalizing the logical process of the transformation from corporate executive to entrepreneur, digital nomad, and minimalist could provide a useful example at a time when the nature of work is drastically changing and resulting in the marginalization of so many people.
I have accepted the challenge mostly to articulate and pass on my experience to my children and a few followers who may be looking for a new perspective. As I do so, I want to stress three considerations underlying this story:
Your life is yours to live. My journey is just one example. There are no moral judgments in this whole account. The path I chose is not right or wrong, or better or worse than any other. It is just mine. I am not suggesting how you should live your life (note to my kids: ignore the last sentence 😂).
As a result, I suggest you do not automatically take any information I, or anybody else, share at face value. Read, listen, analyze critically, and reach your own conclusions. Keep what works for you, make it your own, and leave aside what does not resonate with you.
Realize that there are no revolutionary insights in this narrative that you cannot already find somewhere else. Most of what you’ll read is common sense. Some things may appear new by the way they are presented or because you never focused on them or were not ready to assimilate them at the time. My story is based on personal perceptions and understanding of some events and their consequences. It should not be mistaken for any implied truth.
To make the narration more relevant and fun, I will embark on a physical and mental challenge that will serve as a metaphor for my transformation. In February 2023, I will cross the width of Portugal walking on a trail called Via Algarviana that goes from the border between Portugal and Spain to Portugal's most Southern point on the Atlantic Ocean. It is a hike of 308 km with 11 km of cumulative elevation that I plan to do in 14 days, each day representing a stage or insight into the transformation from my corporate life to a freedom lifestyle.
I hope that you will accompany me virtually (or physically if you’re up for it) on this path. To track the journey and its daily insights, come back to this website regularly, follow @Franckly.Speaking on Instagram, or leave your email at the bottom of the page.
My only hope in this exercise, besides losing a couple of kilograms, is that it may lead a few of you to an ‘aha’ moment that may open up new perspectives.