IWU Grad Clark Vandeventer ’02 is proof that lifestyle design is possible. He came from nothing, didn’t go to an Ivy League school, and never made a million dollars. By the time he was in his late 20s, though, he’d achieved a pretty amazing life for himself and his family. Then, at the age of 30, he put it all on the line and mounted a campaign for Congress. He lost, and two months later he found himself living in his in-laws garage. Rather than dusting himself off and getting back in the game, Clark used his time in the garage to re-think everything, exit the rat race, and build an epic life on his own terms. unWorking is a guide to lifestyle design in the emerging already here world. It’s also a darn good story, one of epic proportions, just like yours can be.
Check out his new book, Unworking: Prologue.
Introduction: I handed in my resignation letter the first week of 2008, just as the early birth pangs of the Great Recession were being felt. A year later, not much had gone as planned. I had quit my job to buy a cafe in Santa Barbara, California, where we were living, but after months of negotiations, the cafe was sold to a different buyer.
I didn’t have a backup plan in the event the cafe didn’t work out. I scrambled and began trying to build a consulting business. In six months, we were out of money and for a few months my in-laws kept us afloat. Within about eight months, though, things were coming together and I was making pretty good money as a consultant.