THIS IS TERRIFYING

Today Friday 11th December 2020 I have sold my stake in a business that I co-founded and helped nurture for many years. I’ve sold not because I wanted to but because in order to pursue a long held goal, I had to. There was a clear choice, pursue my dream which involved giving up The Creative or help to continue to grow the business and give up my dream.

To sell up was not an easy choice. It was certainly not a financially sensible choice in the short term. It’s been a choice that I’ve been deliberating for many months. It’s a choice that I didn’t really want to make. I tried every which way to find a way to pursue this goal whilst maintaining a stake in the business.. My business partner and co-founder was clear from the start. He wanted no part in this next project. He wanted complete clarity and focus on building our business. Ultimately I had to respect that position and make a choice.

I’ve chosen to believe that I can turn my ambitious goal into a reality. I’ve chosen to put myself into a hugely uncomfortable position and I can’t pretend that I don’t second guess myself and worry that I have put me and my family under unnecessary pressure, but, I have to own the decision. I have no choice but to turn this decision into the best decision of my life and that’s what I’m determined to do.

So….what’s the next project!

I want to explore and ultimately to create a community living project. To understand that you need some insight as to why I think our current Western family model is problematic.

I'm very sceptical about the modern, gated, defensive definition of family. While I believe passionately in the importance of family, I think the two-generational nuclear family – "two up, two down" – is an abnormal sociological departure of the 20th century. It is one of the primary causes of rampant consumption because every little unit of human beings has to buy all the appliances and expensive gadgets and toys, many of which are only used once in a blue moon. As a society I think we’ve slept walked into a family construct that has created an epidemic of depression and stress because there's simply not enough time for two adults to do all the work, to earn the money, to pay for the nanny, to do shopping to feed the children and so on. The modern, narrow definition of the word has turned the family – once a castle of inclusivity – into an excuse for exclusivity. Nowadays the phrase "I've got to think about my family" invariably means "screw you".

There seems to be a strange juxtaposition that has evolved over the course of time. Science and sociology tells us that community is essential to health and happiness yet Western culture often measures success by the size of the gates at the end of our drive. Everyone wants their castle, where we can lock ourselves away from the rest of the world and count our money! Once we get too old and senile to be able to count we then move to another type of castle. A castle full of other rich, old people who get nursed by younger people on minimum wage. And then we die!

So there’s my context. There’s the problem that I think we all need to address and fix. I want to understand whether there is another way. Whether there is a better way. To that end our plan is is to spend an entire year researching and living in communities that by definition and practice think and act differently. From September next year to coincide with a school calendar year we will set off on our year of adventure and discovery. We will live in 6 different communities around the world. We will definitely be spending time in Scandinavia where co housing and community living is an established entity. We will be visiting the USA the home of communes. We will be heading to the Southern Hemisphere and Australia or New Zealand where there are several fascinating projects. Japan is another destination high up on the interest list. Okinawa a long studied island because of the longevity of life is held up as an example of the impact community has on life expectancy. Community, social cohesion and a strong sense of belonging has a direct impact on length and quality of life.

Of course our year away will be documented. My goal between now and the time we leave on our adventure is to convince a broadcaster to commission our story. I want to share our quest with the world. In fact it’s something of a necessity because without a commission we will not have the money for our year of research. Over the next few weeks and months I will be creating content for social channels. I will be creating a website. I will be creating pitch decks. I’ll be doing everything within my power to build an online community to help convince a broadcaster or a Netflix or an Amazon to invest in our story.

The long term goal is to return to the UK armed with a wealth of information, knowledge and hopefully confidence to then embark on the next stage of our adventure. Building and creating our own co-housing/community living/commune project. How that looks is of course yet to be decided. It will very much be informed by our experiences around the world. However I do have a simple goal. I want whatever we do to be repeatable. I want to create a blueprint by which other people (if they so wish) can follow in our footsteps. I see our our adventure not just as a personal quest but as a mission. It’s a mission to change the way we currently think about how we live. It’s a mission to put community first. It’s a mission to create a fabric, system and structure that creates sustainable happiness.