I am not a guru. I learned the hard way.

A simple plan

In 2010, my wife and I moved to Australia with a simple plan. A good job. A good income. A home of our own. Kids. An easy life.

I worked hard, and I travelled a lot for work. Looking back, I lost a lot of time with my first child.

The question

One day I was in my home office, under a lot of work stress. My eldest daughter, seven years old at the time, asked if I could play with her.

I said no. I told her I was busy. I had to work. We had bills to pay, school fees, rent. If I did not work, I did not get paid.

She asked me how much I make for one hour of work. I was on a contract at the time, so I told her, about seventy dollars.

Then she asked if she could take seventy dollars out of her piggy bank, so I could stop working and play with her for an hour.

I cried. She asked me why, and I told her everything would be okay. Then I went and played with her.

That day I made myself a promise. I would build a life where I had the freedom to choose time with my family.

Keeping the promise

Keeping that promise was not easy. I started businesses that failed. COVID hit. We moved to another state so I could find work. I tried different products and projects, and many of them did not work.

I kept going. Today I run my own independent cloud and technology consulting practice, create productivity courses, and build businesses like OneStepAway, Fortoco and UmiCard.

Every failure taught me something about time. Not how to manage it. How to own it, protect it and invest it in what matters most. That is what I teach today: not more productivity, but better decisions with the time you already have.

I share what I learned so you do not have to learn it the hard way.