Growing your business and pursuing your family

We planned to start trying for a baby on our 2-year anniversary.  Earlier that year, Buddy and a couple partners started strategizing about launching a company in the renewable space. Wouldn't you know it, we secured our first contract and ended up starting World Wind & Solar the same month that our anniversary fell. Money was tight, so we went camping for our honeymoon. We planned and saved for our "real" honeymoon, to be on our 2-year anniversary, in Italy. Life was crazy, but we followed through with our trip plans, upgraded Buddy's cell phone with international calling and spent countless middle-of-the-night hours on the phone with the team back home at WWS.  As luck would have it, Italy was good to us, and our little Capri was born exactly 9 months later! Talk about overachievers!  Dang, we're good!   

From the beginning the business was on a rapid upward trajectory. Like a new baby, it demanded much of our time, and ultimately required us to live on the road in the early years. We quickly adopted the philosophy, the family that travels together, stays together. Our careers have required a great amount of focus, commitment, and travel at times. And, because we are always chasing a vision and growing a business, we've intentionally incorporated our family life, with our businesses and our adventures. Our children have been part of our business pursuits their whole lives. We have embraced the motto: Work Hard, Play Hard in everything we do.  

When we needed to connect with our team members, we planned a cross-country RV road trip and visited projects and hosted team dinners along the way. When a construction project wasn't hitting margins, we'd pack up the motorhome, or rent a local apartment, move to the nearest town and get to work. When we needed to attend a conference, and our babies were small, they went with us! Heck, we should have had them on payroll. When the kiddos started school and travel got a little more difficult, we'd divide and conquer as required. And, when we both needed to travel, and the kids couldn't join us, we've been blessed with an amazing support team who love our kids! More often than not, we've loaded them up and gone on tour! They're like our little roadies! They even have their own desks in our offices to do homework. We've lived in Hawaii multiple times, Utah twice, Vermont, Indiana, North Dakota, California and probably a state or two I'm forgetting.

We have a second home in Mammoth Lakes, Ca and escape to the Eastern Sierra every chance we get! Thanks to internet and Skype, we're able to work remotely, attend meetings and screen-share spreadsheets as needed. We get up, conduct business and then hit the slopes, go for a hike, or get into some trout to serve up for dinner. Our kids have occasionally asked, "Why do you have to work on our trip?" My answer is always the same, "Kiddos, we are blessed to be here, and to conduct our business from the top of a chair lift in Mammoth. Lots of other parents have to go to an office or facility for work and don't get to be places like this with their families. We consider ourselves fortunate."  With the change in perspective, the kiddos easily shift to a place of gratitude.     

Not gonna lie, there are also rare occasions when we straight up get away for a couple days! Unless we're on a plane, or some wildly remote local (which isn't often) we're available via cell phone and respond to emails at least twice a day.  Other than that, we are fully immersed in the day's adventure with our babes.

Whether we're at our casa, incorporating pleasure into a business trip, working remotely, or on the occasional vacay, one thing is for certain, we are living life to THE FULL!!! We are giving our all to our family and our teams, playing full out, and exhausted when our heads hit the pillows at the end of each day.  
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It's not a "one size fits all life," but who's is? I cannot wait to see how the exposure to this life, extreme entrepreneurship and hard work will impact and hopefully inspire our children in pursuing their futures.  It's and unconventional life indeed, but it's a supernatural one and we make it work.  And, so far, I think it's working out pretty great!