Five years ago Pete and Dalene Heck were drowning in a boring, ordinary, well-paid work. A small town of Alberta, Canada, offered the relatively young couple with almost any type of entertainment: if they wanted they could go bowling or go to watch a movie at the local cinema.Tired of such “diversity”, Peter and Dalene decided to send their good jobs, along with their retirement savings, to hell. Really, why following such a boring life routine, preparing for old age, when there won’t be any other options for a pastime spending? So, the Canadian couple sold everything in 2009, to travel the world.
To start with, the couple provided themselves with tickets to South Africa. Before getting there, they bitterly admitted that their future plans can’t be made by themselves. But they understood that there’s no going back and they had to deal with some troubles in the process.
One way or another, for a period of five years, the family went through a lot of great adventures. Dalene and Pete worked as teachers in Turkey, lived at the foot of a volcano in Ecuador and nearly fell couple of times while climbing to Machu Picchu.
Of course, they documented everything that happened to them along the way. Their family blog was named Hecktic Travels. Here, hundreds of great pictures, together with gripping stories about their travelling, appeared from time to time. But no one offered to pay for their entertainment, and the couple needed more and more money in order to be able to continue their lives’ adventure.
Then Pete came up with a brilliant decision. He created a platform that links professional travellers with brands that promote specialized clothing and equipment. As a result, the travellers in need received a steady flow of necessary funds, and brands got reliable and inveterate travellers, whose journeys and adventures were watched closely by hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world.
“Life of a travel-blogger is a wild world with hundreds of animal paths. We knew a bunch of guys who are professionally doing serious things – says Dalene Heck. – And we know dozens of companies that would like to work with people who enjoy travelling and exploring the world. But no one knew how to start this cooperation. Nobody excepted for us.”
Hecktic Media has become a platform that decided this family’s financial problems. Now, neither Dalene nor Pete felt a need to give up their journey from time to time and start searching for subsistence. Now, they can focus on what they are doing much better than ever before.
For the fifth year, the Heck family continues to explore the world. This is something much more difficult than to sit in a stuffy office every day, waiting for Friday’s paycheck, old age and death. Everyone has a choice indeed. But not everyone is willing to make it.