Intro Yo.
Hey Steemers.
I just found this community by listening to Trace Mayers Bitcoin Knowledge Podcast episode with Chris Coney.
Hopefully I can bring you all some value and get a chance to connect with as many Steemers as possible.
My website is www.princesoffthegrid.weebly.com please feel free to meet the family there.
3 years ago we quit the rat race and took our 4 kids out of formal education to take them around the world. We leveraged the sharing economy and home swapped our way across 4 continents and into over 15 countries, all for free accommodation.
I hope to inspire many more families who are stuck on the hamster wheel to find the courage to step off and take control of their own lives. I am currently writing a book chronicling how we made the decision providing practical advice, tools and tricks to help people find the validation they seek to make the leap.
In fact, perhaps I should test the first few chapters here to get some honest feedback.
You guys can be the advanced alpha reading team!
I will post the intro to the book below.
Have fun guys, stay safe and enjoy the weekend.
Dan
Facebook Princesoffthegrid
Twitter Princey1976
“It's almost impossible for a piece of writing to change someone. It's definitely impossible for it to change everyone. So... who is this designed to reach?”
Seth Godin
I know what you’re thinking: Is this book for me?
This powerful question from Seth is one I took the time to fully digest. In fact, go back, read it again for yourself right now.
I considered that question long and hard, before, during and after I wrote this book. I pictured you in my mind’s eye and wondered about who you are, what you believe and why you are here, with my book in your hands, contemplating whether or not it’s worth your time to read what I have worked so hard to put into words.
You’re at a point in your life where something simply feels ‘off’ with your life balance. You may even be contemplating the possibility of escaping your 9-to-5 routine (more like 8-to-8) and taking back the reigns to your own life.
But you don’t know where to start.
You’ve got responsibilities, including a spouse and kids to care for. You’re wrestling with what seem to be two opposing forces: the duty to bring home the bacon and your desire for greater freedom from a soul-sucking job. You want to provide for your family, but you’ve realized that your current path to achieve that goal has made you nothing more than a weekend lodger in your own home.
And so you’ve begun searching for a different path. Maybe you’ve talked to friends about your frustrations at work, found a blog article or two about family travel, or even joined a forum online to discuss establishing a source of location independent income. But you’re still not sure how to put all the pieces of the puzzle together. And now you’re here, with my book in your hand, and you’re wondering, “Is this book for me?”
Well, let’s get to the crux of it right now.
This book is for you, the life-balance-seeker, the 9-to-5 escapist, and the family provider who actually wants to spend time with your family instead of working your life away for somebody else.
But you just need that social proof, that validation of knowing that somebody else has already taken that huge leap of faith into the unknown before you and kindly trodden a slightly beaten path for you to explore.
Now, take a deep breath and get ready for what you never thought you would find: a book that does just that.
But first, let me point out that by buying this book you are further down the path to your freedom than you ever thought possible. This likely isn’t the first stage of your planning. You have already done much of the work already over countless conversations about saying goodbye to the 9-to-5 life and taking off to travel the world with your family. Plus, your subconscious has already run wild with the endless hurdles, outcomes and possibilities to make it all happen, probably keeping you awake at night and daydreaming in the office!
You’ve realized what 95% of the population has yet to discover: there could be a different path, another choice. That’s a phenomenal first step, but if you’re anything like I was, you’re probably thinking, “Okay, now what? How do I go from wanting something different to actually achieving it?”
When my wife and I made the big realization that we needed to change our lives we didn’t have much else to go on to guide us toward that lifestyle. In an effort to make the process a little easier for those who are following in our footsteps, I have written the book that I wish my wife and I had at our disposal when we were making the biggest decision of our lives.
This book is the final piece of your puzzle.
Come the end of it, you won’t be daydreaming anymore. There will be no more time for procrastination. You will clear your head by killing the inner demons and will silence your doubters by knowing the answers to all their “what ifs” and “how-to’s” for every step of the journey. Your plans will be put into massive action mode, propelling you and your family headfirst into the life you want to lead!
If that sounds like exactly what you need, then this book is for you.
“This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.”
- Morpheus
Now, if you’ve read this far, you are most likely starting to wonder Who the hell is Daniel Prince?
In a nutshell, I am a husband and father of four young children who quit my career and what is commonly conceived to be ‘life’ to travel the world with my young family.
My family’s story comes with a personal message for you about how life doesn’t have to be what it has randomly shaped out to be. As you read on, I will tell you how we — a family of six — shaped our lives, bent the rules and hacked ourselves into a different way of living. We decided that we wanted to travel the world, and we did that all via the sharing economy.
And guess what, you can do it too!
You have the power to change your life, and it is so much easier than you ever thought possible.
If you have a nagging doubt in your mind that life should be better than it currently is, read on. If you want to spend more time with your family, read on. If you want to get off the treadmill, travel and experience a totally different lifestyle, then read on dear friend!
Throughout our family’s journey, we have all flourished in more ways than we could have ever imagined. We have disproved many of our own fears (as well as those of other people),. We have and have especially debunked those fears centred around our kid’s education with regards to homeschooling while traveling — also known as world schooling.
We have explored temples in Cambodia, watched whales from a private plane in New Zealand, zip lined from the highest peak in Switzerland, privately toured Googleplex in San Francisco, home swapped over 60 times (even with a rock star) and visited over 15 countries across four different continents.
And now I’ve turned those experiences into the words on these pages and I guarantee they will open up doors you probably thought could never be opened.
With this book in your hands, you now have an invaluable tool at your disposal to achieve a similar experience for your family. If we did it with four young kids in tow, you can do it too. Don’t for one second doubt that.
If all that happens from you reading this book is that a seed is planted in your mind that helps you see that there is another way to live your life, I would have already succeeded in my goal.
However, what excites me the most is the thought that some of you might actually take action and leave what you know behind you to find another way. If you do, I am convinced that the action you take will affect you, your loved ones and your children (or future children) in the most incredibly positive way.
Nothing is more important than gifting our children the opportunity to view life in an unbiased and experiential manner. Opening brilliant young minds that can carry hope and fresh ideas into the next 100 years is of paramount importance to our world and human existence! By choosing to read and act on the ideas in this book, you can not only change your own life, but also pave the path for the generations that will follow you.
Kites rise highest against the wind - not with it.
- Winston Churchill.
Just imagine that we’re two long lost friends who ran into each other at the bar and I’m telling you about a different way of living my family has embraced since we said goodbye to day-to-day life and hello to adventure. We’ll certainly have some laughs and you will undoubtedly question my thinking and some of the actions and decision we have made, but you would also walk away from the conversation questioning certain areas of your own life.
The benefit of having this conversation in a book instead of over drinks, however, is that I will be able to supply you with links to TED talks and other tools that inspired us to look at life differently and helped us along the way to homeschool, travel long term, homeswap around the world, leverage the sharing economy, write articles for travel magazines, appear as guests on podcasts, feature in newspapers, build a blog, write a book and much more.
You can read any chapter in any order. This isn’t a novel that flows from one chapter to the next. Earmark the book, underline it, follow links, circle paragraphs and quotes, use it, abuse it, and dive into the message head on.
Above all, I hope you have fun reading it and I hope it helps you in some way.
Your life is your legacy. Choose today to make every moment of that life a reflection of your highest aspirations.
Most importantly, enjoy the ride!
Daniel Prince
The Dordogne Region, France 2017
“Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.”
Mark Twain