If you’d have told me in 2012 that I would be supporting my family of four on a single income from money made online, I would have thought you were crazy (or that I was officially a scam artist). Yet here I am, making an honest living from online business, supporting my family, and experiencing a life of freedom I never knew was available to me.
That being said, I’m not a popular blogger or a YouTube celebrity, I don’t have the online impact of Tim Ferris nor do I have an impressive email list like Pat Flynn. I am Brad Hussey, a 30-something freelance web developer who grew up in a tiny northern Canadian town (seriously, I’m from the sub-arctic).
There's nothing overly fancy about me - I'm a pretty normal guy and I don't put tremendous value on material possessions, fancy cars, mansions, or being perceived as high on a socio-economic ladder. What I do value is my amazing wife, my intensely lovely little daughter, my sweet baby son, travelling, life adventures, and happiness. I don't consider what I do to be "work" — I call it my mission — and each day, my mission allows me to be home with my family doing what I love.
My Story The Story of a Dreamer
I used to dream of being a famous broadway actor, or rock star. It wasn't just because I loved singing and performing—it was because I thought it was the only way I'd be able to live a dream life. I trained & educated to be a theatre performer, but I soon realized it wasn't my calling.
Fast forward to 2011 — I graduated from a college program that taught me to be a web designer. I eventually landed a gig as a front-end web developer at a studio in Calgary, Canada. After a year of working at what most people would consider a "dream job", I realized something was missing — I just wasn't happy. I was spending the majority of my time away from the most important person in my life—my wife, Laura. Call me a dreamer, but I've always wished to spend most of my time with her — not at a job. I never knew if this dream could ever be a reality, but I knew that spending most of my time at an office everyday was not the way to go about it.
In the summer of 2012, Laura and I found out she was pregnant. Most people would take this as a strong reason to stay put and keep their job. In true Brad Hussey fashion, I did the opposite — I quit my job. And to top it off, we moved 200km south of the big city to a town where there were no jobs for me in my field.
I might sound crazy, but hear me out: I may have my head in the clouds, but that doesn't mean I don't know what I'm doing. I'd been freelancing as a web designer & developer on the side for a few years at this point. I'd built up enough business to be confident in my ability to provide for our basic needs, and that was a risk I was willing to take because it would mean that I would be home with Laura and our baby — 100% of the time.
Let's just put it this way: It's been more than 3 years since taking the leap, and I'm living my dream life.