Monday, December 4, 2017

Review: Take Risks: One Couple’s Journey to Quit Their Jobs and Hit the Open Road by Joe Russo


Genre: Travel Memoir/Motivational/Self-Help

Description:

“What if you could walk away from the pressures and stresses of corporate life, and live outside of the routines and restrictions? What if you could choose where you live on a daily basis, have a beach view on Monday and a view of the mountains on Friday? What if, instead of trading your days and weeks and years for a life deferred, you just went and lived that life right now?
These were the questions Joe and Kait Russo asked themselves as they faced endless corporate meetings, inconvenient business trips, and the crushing stress of ‘making it.’ It all changed when Kait asked Joe, ‘What if we sold our house and got an RV?’”

Author:

“In 2015 Joe Russo and his wife Kait quit their jobs, got rid of most of their possessions to live their dream – travel and work for themselves.”
“Joe Russo grew up in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. He's had an eclectic career starting in video game design, TV production and finally a 10 year career in Product Development before he decided to quit it all.”

For more from Joe and his wife Kait, visit their website or check outtheir Youtube channel.

Appraisal:

I’d heard of the Russos, Joe and Kait, a year or two ago. I had liked their Facebook page and then forgot about them. Then a few weeks ago I noticed a Facebook post which led to binge watching a bunch of their videos on YouTube, some of which mentioned the book Joe had written that had just been released. Getting a copy of the book was the obvious next step. I’m glad I did.

As you’ll read in the book (or even reading the full book description on retail sites), the title of the book comes from advice Joe’s father gave him on his deathbed, to “take risks, and have lots of children.” The point Joe’s father was making, at least as I see it, is that the best things in life come from taking an intelligent risk. Investigate, prepare as best as you can, and then jump. The Russos did exactly that and this book takes us from their initial idea of selling their house, buying an RV, and hitting the road, up to taking the jump which I’ll define as pulling out on the highway in their new home on wheels. The book chronicles this process well.

I can see this appealing to three distinct groups, from least to most important. The first, readers of travel memoirs. While not much travel happens in this book, this is billed as book one in a series and logically the future volumes are going to chronicle the traveling The Russos have done since hitting the road. Travel book readers should start with this first volume as the foundation of understanding the history for future installments. The second group are those who have dreamed of doing exactly what The Russos have done. While everyone’s situation is different and therefore their decision making process would be different, the specifics of the research, thinking process, and decisions The Russos made would be good as a blueprint and to trigger ideas. But the most important is as inspiration. If you’re considering taking a risk, making that jump, the story of others who did that with good results may be just the inspiration you need. It was for me.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

Format/Typo Issues:

A small number of minor proofing issues.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 70-75,000 words

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