Free Chile Pages & Chile List ads for all registered users!       Log In
From the American Dream to the Entrepreneur’s Dream

From the American Dream to the Entrepreneur’s Dream

It’s hard to believe that just a year ago, I was working in the spacious office of a Fortune 500 company overlooking downtown St. Louis and the Mississippi River. Boasting a promising career, friends and a lot of nice “stuff”, most of the people around me thought I was “happy.”

Few of them knew that I had been relentlessly looking for my ticket out of the US to seek an adventure. It was a borderline obsessive pursuit to find the perfect opportunity in a place I defined as “anywhere but here.”

It’s not that I didn’t love my friends and family, or that I didn’t enjoy the life I had. I just knew deep down in my soul there was something more for me.

Ever since I can remember, I wanted to be an international entrepreneur. What my life had become was the opposite of what I envisioned for my life when I graduated high school. I felt like I was living the same week over and over, and I refused to sit idle and let life happen.

At the time, my career was in financial brokerage. My original plan was to continue on that path in another country for a chance to travel and to explore more of what the world had to offer. I was basically just dipping my toe into the water to see how cold it was. Rather than just taking the plunge, I continued to seek stability in a volatile world.

It soon became clear that it was going to be much more difficult than originally thought to find employment at a financial firm in a traditional money center like Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai, or Switzerland.

Still I plugged away, sending nearly 30 emails each week to various job boards, employment sites, classified ads, in addition to pursuing numerous other leads. Occasionally I heard back, but rarely – and even more rarely in English.

However, through this process of always talking to warm leads – and constantly asking for help – I was introduced to amazing people around the world. I developed quality friendships with people in places of which I had previously never heard.

What an important lesson to learn! The world is full of potential new friends.

IMG_20140328_104156

Growing up, I had heard the message that you should never go anywhere other than the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia. Although I knew a lot of that advice was garbage, when I was able to see for myself that people from other corners of the globe were willing to go out of their way to introduce me to a business contact or send my CV to someone, the severity of the lie that is accepted in the US when stereotyping people from other cultures became ever more evident.

As I was approaching 18 months of searching without a real solution, I must admit I was becoming discouraged. It got to the point that I really started to question why I was continuing to do this. The only thing that kept me going was the fact that every email I sent could have led me to another important relationship.

You ever have one of those moments that stands out as a turning point? Mine happened last August. In a private Facebook group I saw a small post with a link about a new company that offered boot camps for aspiring entrepreneurs. It was a program that required participants to move to Santiago, Chile for twelve weeks to learn a new way of thinking about entrepreneurship and life in general.

After reading through the site, it didn’t take more than a few hours before I decided to apply to the first Exosphere Boot Camp.

A few days after a great Skype call with one of the founders, I was notified that I was accepted into the program.

Another memorable moment occurred as I thought to myself, “Is this really happening?”

The next day, I told my boss that I would be resigning in 3 weeks. Immediately offering the majority of my possessions for sale, I plotted how best to break the news to my friends and family. It felt like no other day of my life in the last 10 years. It was a mix of anxiety, excitement, uncertainty, happiness, and fear.

The boot camp took place from late September to December 18, 2013. I can honestly say that it was the most significant and beneficial decision I have made in my adult life.

During those twelve weeks, I had to relearn everything about the idea of entrepreneurship. I realized that if I followed the path that my university taught me, I would most likely get stuck in a mouse wheel, eventually tiring myself out, and returning to Corporate America feeling exhausted and defeated.

One of the unique value propositions of Exosphere is that it offers people a chance to start their expat or entrepreneurial journey with other people seeking alternatives to traditional paths. If I would have just packed up my bags and moved to a foreign country without having a significant network on the ground, I would have fallen on my face and probably gone home within 3 months with my tail between my legs.

Exosphere was an ideal balance. It provided me with controlled uncertainty so I could grow and expand how I perceived the world around me.

IMG_20140327_173931 (1)

My time at Exosphere taught me vital mindsets and principles that are not only prevalent in business, but also how to interact with people and life in general. I realized that each day is just a series of problems and the sooner I am willing to accept that, and wake up every single day, expecting and willing to solve those problems, the sooner I could get my life back on track and start to have a meaningful life. I had always been delaying the pain of dealing with those problems. Exosphere gave me the tools and support to stop delaying that pain.

Fast forward to today. I am living in beautiful Viña del Mar, Chile. I am working with Exosphere on the current boot camp and working on other projects with two people I met during the first boot camp.

Gone is the confining repetition of my old life. Now, I wake up every morning expecting to work hard and do what needs to be done in order to solve that day’s problems. Every morning I have a smile on my face knowing that I have only begun my journey and yet I am already having such an amazing time.

One year ago today, this would have seemed like a dream. Luckily, because I was willing to take control of my life and I found an awesome support like Exosphere, I am back on track and looking forward to the future.

 

Screen Shot 2014-04-25 at 12.23.02 PM

Good things to come,

Luke Blackburn

*The next boot camp starts September 29th.

exosphere G+ – https://plus.google.com/+ExosphereHome/

facebook – https://www.facebook.com/exospherical/ 

The post From the American Dream to the Entrepreneur’s Dream appeared first on EscapeArtist Chile.

Leave a Reply