The New Way To Work Now

Numbers to Words to the World

I used to be an accountant then found some effective pills and a good counsellor and got over it. During those 23 years I used to look out my window and dream about what I’d really like to do. The dream never changed – it was to travel, to meet interesting people and to experience different ways of living and relating. However, from behind my window, in my uncomfortable suit, I believed I was trapped in the treadmill that so many other people were – the pay was good, the prestige was good but I was bored and losing my mind ... or wondering if I even had one!

I should have been careful of my wishes! I was made redundant for the third time and then my marriage sacked me too! It was time for a complete mental overhaul. I’d started meditation and, after a month of that, I started being woken up at 5.00 am (no one is awake at 5.00 am!) with words in my head – words that wouldn’t go away till I wrote them down. Despite the stupid hour, I began to enjoy the experience, the process, of writing. It was very ... well, meditative. Beautiful. Serene. I felt in line and in the flow of the universe. There have been gaps in my writing but I’ve kept at it for most of the last 15 years. So, to the dream of travelling was added the writing ingredient – I now dreamed of writing and travelling.

I knew that if I was to realise any dream, I needed to deal with my problem. My severe shyness and fear of people. In  a blinding flash I saw the solution. The next day I went into the local polytechnic and asked if they needed an accounting/business lecturer. The incumbent had just been given the sack, as it happened, and I started lecturing several days later ... with no experience, help or training. I was terrified for the next six months but the shyness was exorcised from my soul and I continued to do that for another 11 years – I loved it! I loved helping people see how much more they were than they thought. I enjoyed giving people business skills and I began to see that if I had enough money while travelling, I could help poorer people create businesses for themselves. The microfinance idea stirred me.

But still I dreamed of writing and travelling. Somewhere in those 11 years, I nagged editors and ended up writing regular columns for magazines in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. I ran personal development workshops in those places, as a result of my writing. My dream was beginning to happen. I became an editor. I got the sack. I met an amazing woman, Anna, with whom I bought a newsletter and we turned it into a national magazine.

The magazine flopped but we didn’t – we got married and she sits next to me right now. Her dream was to travel, see the world and do all the things I wanted to. So how were we to do that? In our minds New Zealand, our homeland, is the most beautiful country in the world but it is so remote. We felt we needed to find a base in England (where they let us live for five years) and we could see most of the world from there. So we moved to England and, partly out of fear, I got an accounting job. The credit crunch was not kind and, three redundancies later, we were back to seriously reviewing why we got ourselves across the globe – to write and to travel. Well, I love writing and she’s good at it but prefers editing/proofing.

The problem was that I’d read about successful freelance writers and they have to continually knock on doors to get the work. We’re not comfortable with that. “How then do we get the work?” we asked ourselves. A friend, Riana, to the rescue – she told us about Elance. We registered and, suddenly, nothing happened! It hasn’t been an immediate takeoff but we’ve both got some work. In fact, I’ve come all the way from New Zealand to England to write for an Australian accountant’s website ... and Anna did some Elance work for a New Zealander!

The work is growing and we’re not giving up! Through Elance, who do our marketing and door-knocking for us, we’re able to live overseas, to travel overseas – we’ve seen half of England as well as bits of Ireland, Wales, France, Spain and Portugal and we’ll be in Prague just after Christmas. As the work grows, so will the income and so will our ability to travel and work in any country ... and help other people get up and grow.

Thank you, Elance, from two grateful New Zealanders!