I’ve always been entrepreneurial. I’ve started and owned about 4 different companies, and sold 3 of them… sometimes by myself and sometimes with partners. I’ve always loved the idea of working for myself, and it’s part of the reason why I ended up going to business school in the first place. However, straight out of university I ended up working at a video game company.

I’ve been working in the video game industry in Vancouver for the past 4 years. In all honesty, I can’t imagine myself working in a different industry… at least not for a long, long time. Still, I often find myself thinking of new business ideas, thinking of new opportunities… and how to implement them. The strange thing is, out of all of the ideas… the one I want to do the most is the simplest one.

When I was growing up, I always wanted to open a bed and breakfast. In recent years, this dream and desire has intensified, and I am sure now that I would open it in Tofino. I’m so passionate about this idea that I find myself thinking about it almost every night.

I’d like to purchase a home in Tofino, and move out there when I am 40 or 50 to open it as a bed and breakfast. I’ve always known that I wanted to get out of the city and move to the Island when I am older, and it just seems like the perfect plan for Allan and I. Sure, we’d be old farts out there surfing… but we’d have our piece of land, a home, a business to get us by (cost of living is a lot lower out of Vancouver), and we’d get to surf whenever we wanted. And still be close by enough to do trips every once in a while to Mount Washington to get our snowboarding fix.

And of course, the next level to this idea is to also own a bed and breakfast on Mount Washington, or a small mountain town somewhere in BC. We’d work at the Tofino B&B in the summer, and the mountain B&B in the winter, and have a manager to run the operations in the low seasons.

It would definitely be a dream come true.

I feel like it is well-suited to our skills and interests as well. Both Allan and I love entertaining, we can cook and clean, and we love meeting new people. We’d have a social media strategy for the business, and we’d use our other interests like photography and filming to round out our offering. Allan is great at teaching surfing and snowboarding, so it could be a nice little package add-on with photography included. I could go on and on with more ideas we’ve thought up.

I’d love to think of new breakfast ideas to serve to our guests each morning. There would be numerous personal touches to surprise our guests at every turn, like freshly baked warm chocolate chip cookies with milk before bed on stormy nights.

The property would be west-coast style with vaulted ceilings and exposed wood beams, with a focus on earthy elements like wood, stone, and plants.

However, it would be warm and cozy in décor…  lots of lamps, comfy couches, flowers, and warm colours.

Ideally, we’d be living on the beach… or at least with a view of the ocean. The property would be heavily treed, so that guests feel like they are living on the ocean and in the forest at the same time. There would be wooden walkways around the garden where we grow our own produce, surrounded by flowering vines and foliage. The walkway would be lit with lanterns at night, leading to a secluded hot tub where you could gaze at the stars or at your loved one.

At one point, I even spent a few days creating the business plan and some spreadsheets. I crunched the numbers… I did the cashflows and investments required and even detailed licensing and legislature considerations. It looked good on paper. But paper is very different than reality.

I guess we’ll just have to see if the dream ever comes true…

What’s your dream?

Well, at least it seems so in my life!

I mentioned I had a big announcement to make today, and since then I’ve been getting Facebook messages and MSN messages asking me if I am pregnant or engaged. NO PEOPLE, no. Goodness!

Yes, today is my last day at work at a wonderful company. Since graduating university, I’ve been working in the video game industry here in Vancouver. While I absolutely loved games, since March I’ve been trying my hand at working at a software company as a Product Marketing Manager. I was blown away. I can’t say enough good things about this company, my boss, and about my coworkers. In all honesty, I could have seen myself working here for another 5+ years. I’ve been extremely happy here.

And so… if it was any other company that called me three weeks ago, I would have said no. I would have said that I couldn’t make a change now. But, it was that company.

Growing up, one of my closest relatives was my uncle who was working in software at the time. He was a programmer, and when he set up a 486 computer for my family… I fell in love with computers and technology. As I mentioned in my blog post here, I’ve always been a huge nerd. Although I grew up into the arts and playing sports, I wanted to be a programmer when I grew up. Yes, I had a copy of Bill Gates’ “The Road Ahead”. My childhood dream was always to work for Bill. Yes, I know I’m the devil. I took AP Computer Science for a couple years in high school, and I got accepted to Waterloo for Computer Sciences. At the last minute, I made a drastic decision and decide to go to Western and Ivey instead for Business. I’ve always loved video games and in university I joined an Xbox 360 clan and pretty much played dozens of hours a week. And so it was natural that I ended up working in the video game industry after graduation.

Yep, I actually like Windows Vista. I’m excited for Windows 7. I drove down to the States to buy a Zune. I’m probably the only person I know who has a Zune. I use MSN Messenger exclusively as my messaging platform. I own an Xbox 360. I think you can tell where my loyalties lie.

So, as my boss likes to call it, I’ve “crossed over to the dark side”. Next Tuesday, I will be starting my new job full-time at… yup, you guessed it.

I’ll be working at their game studio here in Vancouver, part of their Games Division. I’m nervous, excited, and very happy. I feel like I’m taking a big risk. I can’t believe my childhood dream is actually coming true.

Back into video games!

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In other news, this weekend Allan and I have been invited to stay for two nights at the Wickaninnish Inn in our favourite place, Tofino. We’ve eaten there before and it was fantastic, but never stayed there. We feel very grateful and fortunate for the opportunity (hurray, no camping in the cold this time!). It’s a Relais & Châteaux property, and in my opinion, the most beautiful luxury hotel in Tofino. It couldn’t come at a better time… a little mini long weekend getaway for surf and relaxation before the new job starts to clear our slate is exactly what we need. We leave tomorrow morning and come back Sunday night. I’ll definitely have some photos and videos for you!