I am a regular guy. I bought an island.

So far it has been a crazy wild ride with high highs and low lows, but most of the time insanely fun. So much so that I want to share it with others.

A little about me. I am a 58-year-old bald guy who is known for being both absent minded and wildly optimistic – a strange combination. I also tend to lose anything small, expensive, and not permanently attached.

I was born in a quaint Midwestern town the son of a house painter. My best memories growing up were our summer vacations. Every year my mom, aunt, cousins, grandmother, and great-grandmother would pack up our things and travel to a cottage on a lake in northern Michigan for a week. The cool part was we went to a different cottage every year. I have fond memories of swimming all day, playing lots of board games, and talking around campfires at night. These were some of the best times of my life. This love for vacationing and discovering new places stayed with me my whole life.

When I was in high school I said there were two things I would never do: 1. wear wing tips, and 2. own a station wagon with wood grain sides. My first job out of college was with IBM, where I would spend the next ten years of my life. Every day we dressed in either a blue or gray suit, white button-down shirt, and you guessed it, black wing tips. I felt like a square peg in a round hole. To top it off, during this time I purchased an imitation woodgrain-sided K-car station wagon, which my wife, Barb, and I would pack to the gills before road tripping with our three kids.

Eventually I left IBM to live out my dream of starting my own company. The next twenty-five years are a blur of entrepreneurial activity, including many startups and failures. Eventually I did manage to start and build a successful tech company.

This baffled my family. I recall a particular 4th of July when I was fussing with jalapeno poppers on a smoker for hours. I tripped while getting them off the grill and sent the poppers flying down the sandy boardwalk. My kids all witnessed the fiasco and chimed in with a question that was all too familiar in our household: “Dad, how in the world do you run a company?!” Later that day I accidentally knocked my mother’s BBQ grill off her deck (and no, I was not drinking). I agree with my family; if I can build a successful company, it gives hope to millions.

When I Bought the Island

I retired at the age of 55 but didn’t plan to sit home every day and watch TV. After 35 years of my nose to the grindstone, I wanted to find something to keep me busy that was fun and energizing. You should have seen the looks on my friends’ faces when I told them I purchased a hotel in Costa Rica – priceless! The name of the hotel is El Castillo. Click here to have a look for yourself.

I was having a blast with El Castillo, but three years after the purchase I still had that hungry look—the kind you get from not eating for a while. In my case it meant I wanted to start another business. So I bought an island!

When I Bought the Island

I retired at the age of 55 but didn’t plan to sit home every day and watch TV. After 35 years of my nose to the grindstone, I wanted to find something to keep me busy that was fun and energizing. You should have seen the looks on my friends’ faces when I told them I purchased a hotel in Costa Rica – priceless! The name of the hotel is El Castillo. Click here to have a look for yourself.

I was having a blast with El Castillo, but three years after the purchase I still had that hungry look—the kind you get from not eating for a while. In my case it meant I wanted to start another business. So I bought an island!

Where is this island and what am I going to do with it? Here’s a hint: the water surrounding it is crystal clear aquamarine and is perfect for building over-the-water structures like what is common in Fiji, Bora Bora, and the Maldives.

An Invitation: Help Me Build This Place!

Yep, we plan to build a luxury resort on the island. I would love your input as we make hundreds of decisions along the way.

Sign up for my blog to join the adventure.

This is my commitment to you. I will send you an email on the first every month with a link to a new post. If something comes up that is so exhilarating or so devastating I just have to let you know, I reserve the right to send an emotionally driven post anytime during the month.

I love music, so I plan to begin each blog post with a theme song or two that seems to fit whatever I am writing about that day. You can decide if the music fits, is a bit of a stretch, or a flop. We can have some fun with this in the comments. No matter what, we will all have a blast along the way. We need an overall theme song for the blog, so I have decided to go with “Bungle in the Jungle” by Jethro Tull.

Theme Song: “Bungle in the Jungle,” Jethro Tull.

Welcome aboard!  

Author’s Note: Some of the blog posts will be events that have taken place in the first twelve months after acquiring the island. As I write this, the island is uninhabited and undeveloped other than a pier and over-the-water house that was present when we bought the island. We have not begun construction.