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.
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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