About Me
But I’ll try not to make it boring!
A Life of Experience
Born during the Cold War to an English Serviceman, & a Czech mother, I had the perfect heritage to be an international spy
From the offset, my life was designed to be an adventure. Not some over-privileged one, with the ability to jet-set around the globe, but instead built on the necessity of being creative with barely 2 pennies to run together.
While working my way through university, balancing classes, remote work (writing computer scripts for a company in Lancashire), and diving for the National Diving team for around 8 hours a day, 7 days a week, I also tried to fit in lots of fun, enjoying every moment of university life, apart from perhaps the odd teenage heartbreak, or silly prank.
I didn’t drink (much!), as it affected my diving, & so when I left uni, with the work I did, I actually had more money than when I started, which wasn’t a bad result!
After leaving Heriot Watt University, while preparing to go to the University of South Carolina, to train for the Atlanta Olympics, I had an accident, and my entire diving career was ended.
In a split-second, my life had gone from one path, to having to find a completely new one.
Life can change in the Blink of an Eye
Forced to make rapid decisions on what to do with my future, I began working for Edinburgh’s Royal Sick Children’s Hospital, before moving full time into IT, using the skills of my youth!
It wasn’t what I wanted to do, but it was a way to gain stability. And suddenly, life was no longer on my own terms.
It took me a long while to realise it, but I was finding new ways to chain myself to a life I didn’t want.
But it was financially rewarding, so I was trapped in a golden cage, stuck between earning enough to set up a great future, & wishing to experience the wonders of the world.
I wasn’t going to dismiss this great learning & earning opportunity, even though it was far from what I wanted my future to be. I hadn’t studied Marine Biology so I’d end up running business & IT projects for large corporates.
Life was not on own terms.
You can’t dig deeper to get out of a hole
After returning from Hong Kong, with no-one to share my life with, I made some big mistakes, ending up in a marriage to a narcissistic abuser. It took me a decade to escape & a further decade to recover (if we ever properly recover), in the process, losing everything. All that I’d worked for. importantly, my children too.
During the marriage, despite bringing in more & more income, I found myself under increased pressures by my income being spent far quicker than I was earning it. This led to me having to work harder & harder, until eventually stress caused my appendix to explode, resulting in an emergency operation in early 2007.
The bright side is that I never got used to spending money & living a rich life, so when it all disappeared, it wasn’t something I missed!
Despite an somewhat envied career of working with some great clients, in some amazing roles, life was not on my terms.
Moving to Spain in 2009, in an attempt to partly retire, aged 37, the marriage soon ended, allowing me to seek life on my own terms.
I needed to re-invent my life, but couldn’t turn back the clock & start again. So where did I begin?
The Life of an Ex-Pat
With my daughters living with me, my time in Spain full of Swimming, Sailing, Scuba diving, Cycling, Climbing, Cooking & much more. In short, it was the perfect life. Visiting the UK every fornight for 3 days, I got the best of both worlds.
But with my children being used against me as weapons in an unwanted battle, in 2012 I was left with no choice but to return to the UK.
My dream life had come to a end, but I had a taste of what it could be like.
Life – Version 2
In 2016, I was hitting overload, a point we can all reach when the stresses of the expectations & obligations became too much. With a horrendous 2015, involving my children being relocated 350 miles away, losing everything I ever worked for, being screened for cancer, and the death of my best friend – all in a single week – I decided that life had to change.
I closed my business in early 2016, & spent the next 2 months wrapping everything up. I had finally paid off the legal fees that was spent fighting to enforce the access to my children, with no success. With each loophole being exploted, or court orders simply ignored, my stress levels took me to the point of needing to re-invent my life.
I was determined to find life on my own terms. After a Summer Holiday with my daughters, I planned to re-start my life, by doing something I loved, as opposed to doing something through necessity.
Even when you think life is on the right track, it can jut take one thing to send it on a different course.
Getting knocked down in August 2016, I was incapacitated & unable to take on any work. Coupled with ongoing pressures related to contact with my children, I began to spiral.
Taking on some adhoc work, while trying to regain composure, I looked at ventures with the potential to become a future I wanted. In November 2019, I decided to do something unusual; to start a business as a roaming pet sitter, with the ability to earn some money, while also using my time while supervising pets to create something better, in the form of Life on Own Terms.
Then along came Covid.
Covid shook the World, creating Fear, Desperation & Change
2020 saw the world turn upside down. Because I was already figuring out how to handle life being upside down, this gave me a distinct advantage over others who suddenly found themselves this way.
With a number of other like-minded individuals, I set up Networking for Good, an online networking group, helping me understand how the world was affecting everyone else, and pivoting to help accommodate the changes the world needed.
This meant re-inventing, & re-exploring a handful of business ideas. In partnership with others, I got involved with a few ventures, such as Procubate, an accelerated business incubator service helping spoonfeed businesses through every stage of business growth, to help them get their life on own terms, on the path to business success.
I began helping other businesses and good causes, such as Aurora, a social enterprise with a range of initiaties, from life saving medical wearables, to a deals platform to support good causes, to a charitable organisation to support others victimised through narcissistic abuse, my time was rapidly filled. But to have LooT, I also needed income, so launched a Pet Sitting agency, Trusted Sit, offering a live-in pet sitting service, offering sitters a chance for life on their terms, able to earn money from sitting while also working on growing their own business, reading, studying, or simply taking time to improve their mental health & wellbeing.
In short, my life, and that of our sitters was finally on our own terms.
Life On Own Terms
“Everything you do is about bringing others Peace of Mind, and helping them enjoy life on their own terms” a friend said.
I’d never noticed that common thread, underpinning everything I ever did. Realising the importance of gaining peace of mind through having Life on On Terms, I agreed to start a podcast. After 20 years of being encouraged to launch one, I had finally buckled.
Designed to be an entertaining listen, interviewing guests to understand how they have got, or have helped others create Life On Own Terms.
Our Podcast goal is to create an entertaining live-streamed podcast, to inspire listeners, or help the audience learn how they too can have Life On Own Terms!
What people say about Richard:
“Perhaps the most real person I know!”
“Richard is one of the most giving people I know. It’s only fair that he wants life on his own terms!”
“Who doesn’t want life on own terms? Richard has packed 10 lives into one, and uses this experience to help people get more out of life, and on their own terms”