Here is a lengthy reply to a short question which may help you see ways to live better and prosper in this rapidly changing world.
Here I am working at our North Carolina home. I love flowers and working amidst them… during the awakening of the day.
Dawn rises early on summer days in the Blue Ridge. After rising in the dusk… meditating, I grab a cup of French press, French roast and head to the front porch.
The horses come down from the barn to accompany the sunrise and…
surrounded by the sun flowers and roses I get to work.
I love flowers because they remind me to follow the sweet aromas of life rather than to rush from the daily malodorous scents that so often blow our way.
This rose colored glass series is aimed at examining shifts that affect privacy and protection in our lives…I hope that it helps you to see ways to avoid any upcoming pitfalls and gaining from opportunities created by the change.
If you have missed the first four posts in this series you can read them at the links below.
#1: Beating illusions from the rose colored glass
#2: Beating the Rose Colored Glass in Canada
#3: Beating the Rose Colored Glass in Mexico
#4: Beating the Rose Colored Glass in the UK
A reader wrote this short but simple question: Gary, if Ecuador is so great… why did you move back to North Carolina?
This is a good question that has been answered numerous times at our site, but since our websites have over 6,000 pages spanning a decade and a half, many new readers who have read only current messages get just a narrow glimpse at the broad picture we have been painting for these 15 years not to mention what was said in our newsletters for another 25 years or so before.
First, let me clarify that we have not moved backed to North Carolina. We never left. We have always maintained residences in North Carolina, Florida and England as well as Ecuador for decades. We were in North Carolina long before we moved to Ecuador.
We have always spent our summers in the Blue Ridge conducting courses at our seminar center here at the farm.
Since the release of my first book “Passport to International Profit” written in the 1970s, I have preached and practiced being beyond any one system by being a One Man Multinational.
The core message in “Passport to International Profit” is become a one man multinational with a six point command posture which is to:
Live in one country
Bank in a second country
Invest in many countries
Earn in two or more countries
Use a company incorporated in a fifth country
Take a second residence
This concept later evolved one step further.
Have a fulfilling six point lifestyle posture:
Live in one country you love.
Bank in a second country that is safe and that you really enjoy.
Invest in many countries you would like to explore or feel good about.
Earn in two or more countries you would like to explore or feel good about.
Use a company incorporated in a fifth country that best fits your circumstances.
Take a second residence in a place where you love and want to be at times.
Having lived in and out of the USA for 44 years, Merri and I believe that being global is vital from an investing and business point of view as well as enlivening one’s lifestyle.
If you are interested in Ecuador… you do not have to limit your dreams to that one nation.
The key to a six point lifestyle is the ability to earn globally through service. The ultimate asset is the ability to produce a product or service that others are willing to pay for wherever you are.
Service is timeless. Nations can come and go. Eras have come and gone. Businesses, industries and new technologies arrive, boom and bust… rise and fall. Service, however, is always in the space through which the arrow of time flies… a weave in the fabric of reality that never frays. Service is the lift that allows the Phoenix to rise.
We have had a home in the North Carolina mountains for more than two decades and have never missed a summer here.
What we have done for the farm and what it has done for us reveals a bigger picture about change and the technology.
Modern technology reduces our privacy but at the same time offers great opportunity.
Before we moved here, this farm was good for one thing… subsistence farming. Modern technology… low cost travel, the internet and broadband changed all that. These tools allowed us to alter the utility of this land from a low value property to a high earning, deep woods seminar center.
We started fixing our 252 acre Merrily Farms about 16 years ago and this shows how small business inspiration comes in all forms… how we can spot opportunity anywhere… every day.
The farm is on Little Horse Creek… where it is…
always quiet and cell phones do not work. Yet this month the telephone company is installing fiber optics so we can have a 50Mbps service.
In times that many perceive as tumultuous, inspiration becomes even more valuable and important in business. The news on the internet, in the papers and on TV are so filled with negativity that it can be catching. In such eras, those who see positive realities gain an extra edge.
Your own small business can help you enjoy a lifestyle of freedom…such as Merri and I have so you can think beyond just one country. We don’t believe in putting all our eggs in one basket… even a country as great as Ecuador.
Our international micro business has allowed us to live part time at our remote North Carolina farm in the summer and Florida and Ecuador in the winter.
Here is the creek…
deep in the forest…
isolated and with many waterfalls.
The creek becomes a bit swollen in the spring time. Changing from this to…
this! The creek starts on our land… fed by dozens of pure water springs. It feeds the pond below our main house and…
fills our…
deep woods…
Japanese soaking tub that is heated with a wood burning stove and refilled after each soak… so the water never requires chemicals but is always clean.
The creek provides some great trout meals also. Here is a brookie our daughter Eleanor caught.
The water refreshes in summer. Here is…
our son Jake soaking in one of the pools on a hot summer day.
We have a…
creekside…
forest seminar center where…
we can feed everyone on the deck looking over the waters.
This beauty and solitude here provide many positive inspirations. There is plenty of space to hike. We have put in over…
eight miles of road (the blue lines). Each leads…
to a place… like our…
isolated glen labyrinth which has a great view. Vistas are…
everywhere. The paths themselves are places of great solitude and beauty.
We grow bold sunflowers and a lot of our own vegetables in the summer.
We have…
a flock of chickens who give us farm fresh…
eggs.
Here is my office and…
my sunrise view on…
crisp mountain morns.
In the summer we get to watch the horses being…
lethargic.
We invite delegates at our North Carolina courses to come up for an afternoon tea to…
our house. The horses like to visit also.
Here is Thomas Fischer of Copenhagen’s Jyske Bank speaking at our seminar with roses we imported from Ecuador to North Carolina.
Merri gets busy in our teaching kitchen…
and cooks up the treats when…
we have seminars.
Autumn arrives. A blaze of color surrounds us.
We converted this…
falling down tobacco shed into a great guest barn… with all amenities including a pillow top king size bed. This is very comfortable and quite glorious in the finery of fall.
Autumn brings the bite of frost and invites…
its colder cousins in the winter. The meandering stream becomes part of the wonderland.
I can do shamanic exercises when our son visits us in North Carolina even in the winter.
Here I am chasing our horses past the primitive cabin during a snow storm.
But when it gets too cold so Merri and I head south.
This is why Merri and I like having our own international micro business. North Carolina farm… Danish bankers… Ecuador flowers, Florida oranges! The best of every world.
Technology that is frightening in some ways also gives us freedom.
Technology is a boon and a burden. Satellites let anyone who chooses to see us. Here is our house, pond, cottages and seminar center at Google Map. Should someone care to do so they can really zero in on our lives.
The same technology allows delegates to get to our isolated place with their GPS.
There are benefits as well as the bad side of technology. The changes we face help us have a business that provides freedom and allows those who choose to use new technology to live and work wherever they find inspiration. We can all get away from the gray humdrum… and go where our horizons expand.
Inspiration is everywhere. Seek it. There has never been a better time for a micro business and an upbeat outlook on life.
One kind reader once sent me two coffee mugs, that said “Ille Gitimati Noli Carborundum.”
The translation is “Don’t let those who are illegitimate wear you down”.
Do not let the negative part of life’s changes wear you down.
Look for inspiration in your passions. They may lead you to strange places… in the minds of the humdrum herds. Yet success is waiting for you in the nooks and crannies where others do not go.
We continue to own over 1000 acres of farm land, a hotel and numerous rental units and conduct an active business in Ecuador as we do in the US, Canada and USA… plus we are getting ready to expand into Cuba… and have recently been offering courses in Spain, Uruguay, Panama and Costa Rica.
The reader’s correct question could have been… why Florida? Tomorrow’s message explains.
Gary
Our next North Carolina course is our Writer’s Camp. We just had a cancellation so have two spaces. See the dates below.
