I believe I was in the 3rd grade but I don’t recall exactly. What I do remember was the homework assignment to write an essay on a foreign country. I was as excited as Ralphie in the Christmas story to get started. I lived in rural Oklahoma and the furthest I had ever travelled was Branson, Missouri.

Now this was back in the day before the Internet or Google maps so I consulted the globe we owned. (Do people still own globes?) I spun the globe around to find the location furthest from where I lived that also sounded exotic. I quickly settled on the remote island nation of New Zealand.

I knew nothing about New Zealand. I just thought it sounded intriguing. I consulted our Encyclopedia Britannica collection (my kids cannot grasp this archaic process) and read the few paragraphs the authors had allotted to New Zealand. There certainly wasn’t enough to write a report. So my parents helped me write a letter to the New Zealand tourism board requesting information. We mailed it the next day.

And I then I waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

Just as I had given up hope they would reply a package arrived in my name. (Is there anything more exciting to a child than an unexpected packaged addressed to them?) Inside were tons of New Zealand travel brochures and photos. I pored over every word and image for weeks, dreaming about going there one day even though back then it seemed impossible to this country boy.

Well today that dream comes true. It seems fitting that on the one year anniversary of starting my new job as COO for Stuck in Customs that I would be getting on a plane bound for New Zealand. I’m blessed to be going over to help with a photography workshop and spend a few extra days to tour the country. The only bittersweet aspect is that my wife and kids were not able to make this trip. I’ll miss them greatly but I’m sure they will join me on future visits there.

Here’s an amazing time lapse video Trey Ratcliff put together during his first 30 days in New Zealand. (Best viewed full screen in HD with headphones!)

A little over a year ago I wrote a blog post titled “My life sucks and what I’m doing about it“. (Please read it if you haven’t already, I’ll wait…)

I wasn’t forced to make those difficult decisions. I had a great job, we weren’t behind on our bills, our marriage was strong, the family was healthy. Yet I felt compelled to make some dramatic changes. I didn’t fully know why. I was not pursuing a vision or dream. I was not following a plan. I just knew that change was needed. I could not abide the status quo.

So with my wife’s full support and encouragement we began to eliminate many of the things that sucked precious time, money and energy from our lives. We didn’t know where it would lead, we just did it.

We moved into our new home (still large by the world’s standards but much smaller than most in Texas) in November of 2011. We sold our boat, truck and much of our furniture. With the proceeds from the sale of our home we paid off all of our other debts. All that was left was a modest mortgage payment. The simplicity of our new home and extra expendable income was an awesome feeling!

I began to chart our new budget and was making plans for the extra income we now had available. I would save some for our kid’s college fund, some for retirement and some for traveling with my wife. It would be wondrous!

Then the phone rang

After just a few weeks of enjoying our new budget the phone rang. It was my friend Trey Ratcliff. Trey and I had worked together back in 1995 as software programmers and became close friends. We had gone our separate ways, pursued other interests, but kept in touch. I was aware that over the last few years, Trey had exploded onto the photography scene and become one of the best and most followed photographers in the world. The reason for his call? His photography business was growing exponentially and he needed someone to run the business side for him while he focused on what he does best… create amazing art. Trey asked me to fill that role.

I was honored of course. But I had no idea what that would mean for my career. I was a Marketing Director at a $300M publicly traded company. However, I wasn’t enjoying the role and wanted to pursue something that truly interested me. The opportunity to work with an old friend, to be in a creative field like photography and to help build a business from the ground up was compelling. The problem was that although Trey’s business was growing fast it was still in its infancy so he couldn’t pay much. My existing salary was certainly out of the question. His offer was equivalent to what I made a decade earlier.

Now here’s the cool part

Eight months prior to receiving Trey’s call I felt compelled to make dramatic changes that realigned our monthly expenses. I had no idea Trey’s business was doing so well. I had no intuition that he might call just 30 days after we moved into our new home. The seemingly unrelated big and little decisions we made along the way had placed us into a position of possibility. If we had not made those changes I would have been forced to turn down Trey’s exciting offer. But we had made changes. We were in a place that I could make a hard left turn in my career and comfortably accept a significant reduction in salary.

One year ago I was climbing the corporate ladder at a large company. We had repositioned ourselves for change but had no idea what the future held. Now, a year later, I can look back with clarity at how the scenery has changed. I work from home leading a small but growing business for a close friend and amazing artist. I’ve been to San Francisco, the Virgin Gorda, Colorado, Paris, France and will be in New Zealand in the near future. I’ve met billionaires, astronauts, entrepreneurs, authors and artists. I’ve made hundreds of new friends from around the globe. I’ve learned new skills that I never thought I would need. It has been a most amazing year!

A few weeks ago I was walking down the stairs of the Château de Champlâtreux holding a stuffed antelope head in one hand and a 16th century bust in the other on my way to stage a room for two beautiful models. I laughed to myself and thought … “Just how did I get here?” I really don’t know the answer. I just know that my life sucks a little less than it did a year ago.

What changes do you need to make to put yourself into a position of possibility?

Growing up I spent most of my summers with my Grandparents. It seemed my Grandpa Clair had an endless supply of amusing anecdotes, each one laced with bits of wisdom. One morning Grandpa told me about a friend that was a mechanical engineer in the oil business. He said his friend had decided to take up painting after he retired. A few months later this gentleman held a big party at his home during which he unveiled his first painting.

Everyone gathered around as this man pulled the covering away to reveal his art. The painting was of a red brick home in the countryside. The colors were bright and true. The composition was pleasing to the eye. It was obvious that he had labored over this artistic endeavor for many days. Meticulously painting this beautiful home as he remembered it.

But, and has my Grandpa would say “it was a big but”, the painting itself was horrible. The large group that had gathered around was speechless. Not wanting to offend the retired engineer they all praised his ability to so perfectly capture the scene. However, that in itself was the problem. The painting was too perfect. In fact it was precisely perfect. The man was an engineer and had let his left brain do all the painting. Bolstered by the group’s praise he proudly told them how he had first drawn the scene to scale on the canvas before he carefully painted within the lines he had laid out for himself. Every corner, every brick, well … everything was perfect. And yet it somehow looked unreal and unappealing.

When I pondered why millions use Instagram every day to place “filters” over their photos, it finally became clear. Subconsciously we prefer a slightly altered picture of reality. We prefer to remember a place, a person or a moment in time as we wanted it to be, not as it actually was. It’s unsettling to us if the reflection is too perfect. Filters also allow us to subtly hide our imperfections. All of our warts and wrinkles can be easily obscured or even removed. It’s so rare to find an untouched photo now that it takes us by surprise when we do see one.

Ironically when we use filters to hide our imperfections we are actually becoming less perfect and more fake. We filter our mistakes from our spouses and friends. We wear clothes that we hope will filter out the negatives we feel about ourselves. We put a smile filter on our face to prevent others from knowing that we’re feeling depressed. We invoke the laugh filter when our insecurities arise.

Filters certainly have their place in art. They allow each of us to fill in the gaps with our romanticized views of the world. But using filters in our own lives can be exhausting. Isn’t it time we just be ourselves?

“For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” – 1 Samuel 16:7 ESV

This past week I attended the Google+ Photographers Conference with Trey Ratcliff and the entire time has been a blur of amazing experiences.

Sunrise at Bay Bridge, San Francisco

On the first evening of the Google+ Photographers Conference, Jeremy Cowart shared with the audience several of the stories behind some of his most beautiful and well known photographs.

He told us how he talked his way backstage at a concert and was specifically instruction not to take any portrait shots. Yet when he happened to see Sting he couldn’t resist. He explained how he bartered his way into a gym membership in exchange for some photos. They liked them so much they later asked him to take some photos of a football team that was in town, a team that happened to include Tim Tebow. He also spoke about the time he negotiated his way into the Country Music awards and while back there took the photo of a relatively unknown (at that time) but rising star named Taylor Swift. And he told us how he agrees to take photos of many, many young bands, most who never make it big, but one did… the Civil Wars.

These photos are now iconic images in his portfolio. None of them would’ve happened without Jeremy asking, negotiating and hustling his way into position. More often than not his hard work results in nothing particular interesting but on a few occasions something magical happens.

Over the last few days I’ve been blessed to meet many talented photographers like Jeremy Cowart, Peter Hurley, Scott Kelby, Peter Adams, Alex Koloskov and many more than I can fully list here. I was excited to spend time with Guy Kawasaki, Eric Cheng and Topher Martini from Lytro; Brian Rose, Chris Chabot and a ton of other people from Google. I even got to meet Sergey Brin and try on a pair of Google Glasses. And I was blessed to spend time with friends like Karen Hutton and make new friends like Petra Cross, Sly Vegas and a cool young man named Jordon Yates.

Just a few short months ago I would not have imagined attending a conference like this, spending time inside of Google’s offices, or meeting so many interesting new people. When I reflect back on how I got here I’m reminded that it wasn’t simply luck or a single major decision. It was countless small moments over a period of months or even years where I hustled to get into a position of possibility.