From Financial Loss to Sex Toy Success: Adventure
Welcome to Part III in the four part series covering Melody Murison’s journey from loss of family income to successful entrepreneur. Melody and her husband, Bruce, are inventors of the award winning sex toy the We-Vibe . If you haven’t already done so, please take a moment to read Part I and Part II:
• Interview with Melody Murison
• Job Loss
After finally agreeing to her husband’s dream to travel Australia after being laid off from Nortel, Melody and her family started making plans. In my book review of What’s Next for You?, the Gussins refer to thoughtful impulsiveness. This is a term I love, and interpret as taking a risk after careful planning. Melody and her husband are excellent examples of operating with thoughtful impulsiveness.
Careful preparation
Heading off to Australia to island hop and live out of tents and back packs is not something you do without planning, thought and foresight. The year prior to the trip involved intensive preparation including becoming certified in scuba diving, and becoming proficient enough on horseback to handle a ride up a rugged mountain.
It also entailed Bruce arranging for solar panels and figuring out how to run laptops off of them, and purchasing camping gear that would allow them to travel over water and land, while still only bringing what they could carry on their backs. Islands to visit were researched and sites booked a year in advance.
However, after the island adventures, and the trip on the mainland was underway, planning was more spur of the moment “What campground shall we move to now?
I am a Need To Know type of gal. Before I got on the plane, I would have to know where we were going, when we were going, and how we were going. So much so, my children thoughtfully instructed Mr Very Right when we were first dating “Don’t EVER surprise Mom.”
Flying by the seat of her pants
I asked Melody if she was a Fly By The Seat Of Her Pants type of gal, and she said “Absolutely not.” Going with the flow required a lot of trust in her husband’s assertions that everything would simply work out. And invariably everything did.
The one thing she did not know up front, and was glad she did not, was how potentially dangerous some of the adventures were. For example, knowing she would have to lower her children down sheer rock cliffs without ropes may have dissuaded her from the trip. Or wading the family through crocodile invested streams. Or coming to the stark realization that if a child sprained an ankle, they would not be able to carry the injured party out without abandoning precious water supplies.
The Thorsborne Trail was by far their most extreme adventure. A four day hike from one side of an island to another. Exactly enough food to last the four days, and a strict schedule to meet the boat on the other side of the island or face two days without food. At one point her daughter curled up on a rock and proclaimed “leave me here to rot”, and was only budged from her spot when a beautiful iridescent butterfly flew past and distracted her. It was a gruelling hike of one foot in front of the other.
Impacts on the family
Melody faced her fears of lack of planning and pushing physical boundaries in her early forties. Her children did this before they were even teenagers. I asked her if she noticed a longer term effect on them as they entered their teens.She finds her children far more confident and self-assured than their peers. Plus, they can quickly put teenage angst into perspective. Apparently, not much compares to coming face to face with a sleeping shark and knowing that panicking is not an option.
The biggest compliment to the entire family was given by a taxi driver after asking Melody about their adventures: “You have done what most Australians will never do.” One of Melody’s original protestations against the trip was taking the children away from schools and friends. In the end, she realized she was able to give her children an incredible gift that would last their lifetime.
I asked Melody what the impact of this adventure was on her obviously already strong relationship with her husband. She said they learned that leadership in a given situation is based on individual strengths. There is a natural give and take as to who steps up to the plate to lead and face challenges.
This discovery, and the massive leap of faith required for this journey, were key to success of the business they started upon their return to Canada.
Please click here to find out how the We-Vibe came to be.
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The last section of your post, about how going on this experience has had such a positive impact on everyone’s confidence, is one reason why I want my own family to undertake something similar.
I mean, we have nothing to lose, except the chance to go on a life-changing adventure. We are lucky to live in one of the best countries in the world – why not push ourselves?
@Brett – agreed. Bearing in mind from yesterday’s post that it took undying patience on Bruce’s part for a solid year to make Melody comfortable with the idea. In other words, everyone’s fears have to be acknowledged and gently countered. And they did have almost a year’s worth of severance package to live on, so that helped alleviate short term financial fears. But yes, as you can see from today’s post, in the end everyone benefited from taking a leap of faith.
Oh, I know… (I’ve been working away at countering the fears for a couple of years now…)
…and depending on what the Fed Gov does with my company, we, too, may have that severance this year
@Brett – well there ya go!
This sounds like my kind of trip! My family grew up camping so many times my siblings and I often feel more at home outdoors than anywhere. It’s a wonderful, confident feeling. I’m so glad Melody and Bruce could have this adventure with their kids.
@Lori – we camped as a family maybe a handful of times, and I can’t say I’m an extreme camper like Melody and Bruce. Although I totally admire people like them. I love to hike … and we don’t do enough of it … but at the end of day, give me a bath and bed
I always took my children out of school for adventure! and well planned learning experiences and wow the benefits…I do not think I would have made it through the ruggedness of this particular adventure, but pushing oneself has advantages. I think this is why I did not object to my youngest bungee jumping – she needed to do something without anyone else’s help. Her jump is posted on my Facebook page. She thought I would be upset…no re leaved.
These things take lots of planing – solar panels to run computer how wonderful…
I keep on reading here
@Patricia – I exposed my children to far more challenges than I ever faced as a child. I look at them now as young adults, and they are so ahead of me in terms of where I was at that age.