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- 🐧 The Secret Formula to Fulfilling Your Dreams
🐧 The Secret Formula to Fulfilling Your Dreams
34-Year-Old Ex-Amazonian Quits for Pastry School, Ex-Software Engineer Sails World With Family, Ex-McKinsey Self-Publishes a Book
Dexter Zhuang
June 23, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 12 minutes
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Today, in 10 minutes or less, you’ll learn:
🧰 The Dreams Formula
🎂 Case Study #1: 34-year old 6-figure tech worker goes to pastry school in France
⛵️ Case Study #2: 47-year-old ex-software engineer sails the world with his wife and daughter
📘 Case Study #3: Ex-McKinsey consultant self-publishes a book
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🔢 The Secret Formula to Fulfilling Your Dreams
“To a (wo)man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”
In 2019, I quit my cushy tech job in San Francisco and traveled the world for a year.
Was this a smart financial decision?
Depends on who you ask.
Based on the numbers, definitely not.
I spent ~$35k while earning a low 5-figure income as a part-time career coach.
Even accounting for higher cost of living and taxes in SF, I forwent over $100k in potential savings and investment.
Based on the life experience, absolutely priceless.
On this trip, I:
Met my wife
Volunteered on tea farms
Experienced tremendous personal growth
Did Mandarin & Spanish language immersion
Created fond memories I will cherish for the rest of my life
Pivoted my career, moving to Singapore to grow my tech career internationally
In personal finance, money is a tool.
Numbers are important, but don’t let them define your choices.
In this newsletter, I’m going to share three case studies of other people on the internet who leveraged money to fulfill unconventional life goals.
The Dreams Formula
Do you have life dreams you’ve been dying to pull the trigger on?
Perhaps, as a kid, you dreamed of starting a sports business, traveling across Asia, or going to culinary school in Paris.
Fast forward to now. You’re in your late 20’s or 30’s.
But these dreams have sat there untouched. Collecting dust.
Meanwhile, you’ve built up a solid nest egg.
Perhaps, it’s $50k, $500k, or more.
This is an admirable feat.
But if you’re reading this newsletter, then your vision of a successful life is not achieving a net worth (or FIRE) number itself.
It’s gaining unique life experiences.
Hence, I use this simple formula:
Dream + Tools + Action = Fulfilled Dream
How I break this down:
Dream = Starting a sports business, backpacking across Asia, going to culinary school in Paris
Tools = Money, time, network, and health/energy
Action = How you use the tools at your disposal to execute your life goal
Now, I’ll share a few case studies that puts this formula into practice:
Case Study #1: 34-year old 6-figure tech worker goes to pastry school in France
Valerie Valcourt worked a 6-figure job at Amazon, but she felt unfulfilled.
She had always dreamed of going to culinary school abroad.
In 2020, she finally pulled the trigger. She spontaneously applied to a French school, got accepted, and resigned.
But this attempt backfired. She did not have enough saved (~$10,000) and was not mentally prepared for such a big career change.
In 2022, she made a second attempt.
This time, she played her hands differently.
How did she do it?
She planned her finances in advances. She had doubled her savings to $20,000 and stayed with family to accelerate her savings.
She also researched schools that would help her learn French and with internship placement. Finally she landed on Gastronomicom in the south of France.
In January 2023, she officially moved to France.
She kicked off a 3-month program of intensive pastry courses and French lessons, then a 4-month internship.
In total, she paid:
~10,000 euros ($10,850) for tuition
~1,800 euros ($1,953) for housing
Some amount for other expenses
After graduating, she got hired to work full time as a pastry assistant at Maison Chabran in Pont-de-l’Isere, France—where she continues her new career path today.
What are the downsides?
Takes time to plan and build up confidence - This career change took Valeria 3 years, two attempts, and careful planning to execute successfully.
Consider the post-schooling options - If you pursue an alternative schooling abroad, run through the scenarios. What if you decide to become a full-time chef? What if you don’t and want to move back to the US? Plan for the contingencies.
Case Study #2: 47-year-old ex-software engineer sails the world with his wife and daughter
Brian Trautman worked 60 hour weeks as a software engineer at Microsoft.
But he harbored a secret.
He wanted to sail the world.
In May 2008, he decided to finally put his plan into action.
How did he do it?