Escapades - 2

playlist for writing this post:
The Strokes, their complete "First Impressions of Earth" album (2006). Start with the first song, "You only live once"...
as I was messing around at the same time, I had to use a bit of :
Shakira's "MTV Unplugged" (2000) towards the second part :)

Today's "Escapade" is not mine. I heard two life stories, and they both started exactly the same: a bright young graduate worked as a consultant/auditor for a global, world-renowned firm, in a glass-and-steel sky-rise in La Défense. Namely, the main Central business District in the area of Paris.
Then one day they felt like doing something else. Resigned from their jobs, from one day to the next (or almost). And started their own adventure.

1. The first one set out to create a firm selling natural, waterless car-cleaning solutions. He thought we should stop using so much water to wash car, and also he found that the existing products for washing cars without water were not so efficient.
Going back to his family home in the North of France, he started his own company. His family was soooo skeptical. SOooooooooooo skeptical! He knew nothing about the car-washing business, and had little idea about what organic components should be included.
He just carried on. After 3 years, most of his relatives are actually working in the company he founded. His mother, who was most worried about his future, is the most active and enthousiastic employees.
He offers professional washing services, his main customers are companies that manage fleets of vehicles (private industry, but also public institutions, or car rental companies). he washes a car in a couple of hours, with products using only natural ingredients and without any water addition.
Talk about a sustainable business!
It looks like he wants to focus on developing this business a bit more, but who know what he can come up with next?

2. Amaury Bironneau was also a successful, as we say, French young graduate. He had started a career in one of those big multinational firms offering lots of benefits, and interesting jobs, of course.

Still, one fine day, he got in touch with Patrice Franceschi, captain of the exploration sailship "La Boudeuse". The ship, bearing a french flag and stationned in Paris, on the river Seine, is usually at large somewhere halfway to the other side of the planet.
The boat brings its crew to meet and exchange with peoples and cultures.
So Amaury met the captain, something "clicked" and he knew that he was ready to embark on a year-trip to the other side of the world, only a few weeks later, with 20 or so people that he had never met before.
So many things happen on those kind of experiences, it is all about "expect the unexpected"... In 'developing' countries, things do not work as they are supposed to, and coastguards will ask for bribes, medicine wont be available, people wont speak your language...
Amaury was born in a "farmer" environment, his family coming from the ground, he had no pre-set mind to go sailing. He just went, because it felt like something right for him to do, and he couldnt picture himself making a career, putting his suit on & shaving every morning, going into an air-conditionned office.

The ability to make a risky decision, a committing life-choice, in order to get closer to one's true self and personal path. Now, that is what I call a leadership behavior.

I feel the same sometimes. We all want different things at different stages of our lives. At the moment, i dont want so much change that I'll go to Papua New Guinea. What happens when I do? How much time will I allow myself to prepare?
The future is gonna be such a great time! Incidentally, it is also the place where we are going to spend most of our remaining lifetime, so it better be great!!