Your source in Atlanta for amazing and memorable weekend organized adventures!
I had already planned a 3 day hiking trip with 2 good friends, Steven & Greg. It was set. 3 day hiking trip into the Cohutta Wilderness and it just happens to be the weekend I finish as a technology consultant. PERFECT!!!!!
After I finished my 3 month adventure on the Appalachian Trail, I had come to some new realizations for my life moving forward. It was now September 2001, and I decided not to go back to my old life as a technical recruiter working for someone else. I learned on my adventure that life is short and creating experiences for myself was what I thought made life fun and exciting. There was an entrepreneur inside me that I hadn’t let come out yet and although I was fearful, I decided I wanted to take control of my future. I took the leap of faith into entrepreneurship……this was my new adventure.
Long story, short. I knew I would need to start a business in something I had a passion for. I wanted to start an adventure company right then but the idea wasn’t mature enough and I didn’t have the business management experience to make it happen at that point. I ended up teaching myself about computers and technology and started Indigo Technologies in Jan 2004. With the help of some great business partners, we grew Indigo to approximately a $1 million a year business and sold it at the end of 2009.
Even during the Indigo years, I never stopped thinking about how I could channel my passion for adventure I had developed on the trail. One thing was certain; I wanted to box up the “sense of adventure” I experienced and be the person who helped people experience new adventures in their own life and provide a new form of entertainment for those people who are ready for something new. I knew when I sold Indigo a little over a year ago that it was only a matter of time before I was ready to turn my passion for adventure into my life’s next adventure. The adventure entertainment seed that was planted in me in 2001 now had 9 years of nurturing and was ready to blossom.
My last day as a technology consultant is today, April 15th, 2011. On April 16th, the Eventures begin.
Where it all began:
Summer 2001, hiking the Appalachian Trail. I was approximately 45 days into a 3 month hike on The Appalachian Trail. I was walking from Ga. to Pa. on a self discovery adventure I had planned for myself and I finally hit my groove. My old corporate world self was now mostly replaced by my emerging true self, a self that was in harmony with its surroundings and that knew it was connected to something bigger. At this point in my adventure, I was so at peace that everything became clearer and the simplicity of life on the trail puts everything into its proper perspective.
It was 10am on a Tuesday and I had already walked 7-8 miles that morning. It was a perfectly sunny day & I had reached one of those mountaintops with a view that is 360 degrees and you can see the horizon in every direction, a spot you can only reach with some hard work and a sense of adventure. As I sat there contemplating the amazing adventure I was on, I realized that almost everyone else I knew was stuck in an office, at their job, or knee deep in whatever life responsibility they currently had to deal with. On that mountain top, I wanted to share the amazing feeling I had with everyone I knew because it was such a profound experience I was going through.
I ended up staying in that spot all day thinking about how most people will never get to experience the profound sense of adventure and excitement that I was going through. Most people are so busy with everyday life and responsibility that they could never let themselves get away for an extended period of time or wouldn’t take the time to plan a great adventure for themselves. It was that day that I knew I wanted to find a way to help people experience a real sense of adventure in their lives and make it easy for them to do so.
The seed of adventure entertainment was planted in my spirit that day.
To be continued….
