Andy's Story: From Banking to Bali

After quite a few ‘escape’ attempts, 2018 proved to be a pivotal year for me. In March my employment with a City bank, where I had led strategic projects for nine years, came to an abrupt end.

It was not long after I had spent time in a psychiatric hospital, where I was diagnosed as having bipolar disorder. It was the cruellest of blows – right when I needed the comfort of a place to go each day that a job provides, I was shown the door. It’s hard to put into words how that rejection felt, and it left me feeling utterly demoralised. This made job hunting difficult, to say the least. I become awfully depressed as weeks unemployed ultimately became six months.

After countless rejected applications and having burnt a large hole in my savings while living in London, I went to visit an old friend in Sweden. She was off work from her corporate job, battling severe burnout, and so we shared our stories - it was the first time I had had a decent chat with someone about my bipolar condition and how it might be affecting me.

My friend said something to the effect of, “f*ck, if that was me, I would totally change my life”, and with those words from someone that had known me for more than 20 years, I decided to relocate to Bali. So I headed back to London, packed my bags, sold my car and boarded a flight bound for Bali two days later. For me, ‘escaping’ the City is more about ‘to where’ than ‘to do what’.

This was not my first escape. In 2013, I took a six-month sabbatical from my long-term City job, which came with the security of having an employer to go back to. This meant I didn’t have to worry too much about money, and I also had my London flat waiting for me on my return.

In late 2016 I attempted what seemed to be a very obvious escape: to set up an Escape house in Cascais, Portugal. The idea was to have a big house in an amazing location away from the City that a lot of escapees could share to live and work together.

I came to call it the Better Living Project, and for the first month, with the sun on our backs, something very special began to form. The feedback was consistent: the concept was great, the location with its vast natural beauty was amazing, and I was a fantastic host.

The problem was that after New Year, ‘sales’ (the flow of escapees) dried up, and I was left alone at Escape house. This was a tough, lonely feeling, so I decided to close the project and head back to the dreary London winter with no job to return to, which made for a desperately lonely time and a few months of pretty bad depression.

These experiences taught me that it’s far easier to plan and execute an escape from a stable base. Having something secure to go back to if things don’t work out makes the prospect of escaping far more palatable and achievable, no matter what form that escape might take.

In the summer of 2017, I tried a new form of escape – a camping and paddling business for City folk to have an affordable nature experience. Despite the amazing support of Dom, Skye, Ben Keene and our cohort in the Escape Startup Accelerator, this concept never got past the test event.

However, I did learn two very important things: it was only ever going to be a seasonal business in the UK and that I didn’t want to, or have the ability to, be a solo founder. I wanted to find something where I didn’t have to do all the thinking and all aspects of the business.

Ultimately, my previous escapes led me to teach English in Bali, where I have been for nearly three years. Here I have a fun job where I can focus on teaching without designing the lessons or finding customers, and the living and working environment couldn’t be further from the City.

I really wasn’t sure how things would work out but, having left London really depressed, the new environment gave me a big boost, and I made a commitment to get myself as healthy as possible. This included cutting out alcohol for six months.

It was an advantage that I had spent quite a bit of time in Bali over the years so I knew the environment well. I knew that it was tough to get a regular job in Bali as a foreigner, so I arrived with a good dose of reality to offset some of the anxiety.

It took around six months for me to get established in Bali, find a job, get into the rhythm of teaching and the expat life. It was around Easter 2019 that I felt like I had ‘made it’, that the failed escape attempts over the previous two and a half years had been worth it. I embraced my new career with passion. I was soon winning awards, and I was flying professionally for the first time in a long while.

I would love to say that it’s been a ‘happily ever after’ story, but that’s not been the case. In my 45 years of experience, things rarely work out as you think they will.

Three months after starting my teaching job, I had a severe manic episode and went into a state of complete delusion and psychosis. It led to 10 days in the psych ward in a Balinese public hospital, and in my manic state, I resigned from my job – it was total madness.

Eventually, the mania wore off, and it was replaced by the depression of being unemployed (again) and having nothing to do to fill my time. Over the next year and a half, I barely worked, felt self-pity in spades and broke up with my girlfriend.

Then, while I was in New Zealand visiting my family in early 2021, I got in touch with my old employer in Bali and asked if I might be able to come back to work: “yes”, was her reply.

I’ve now been back teaching English for three months, and life feels great again. As I close in on my third anniversary of this escape, as I have said, it’s not been easy, but I’m proud of myself for having the courage to stay here in Bali. At this stage of my life, I really wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

Bali is a place that I can be myself, and it’s far easier to meet up with people here – you can literally turn up at their house. Oh, and the sunsets looking out over the Indian Ocean are to die for.

While I loathe to give out advice to other people because very few situations are alike. The thing that has been the biggest blessing and good life choice was my decision to invest in property when I was 29. Without those investments sustaining me financially, there’s no doubt that things would have been different and a lot harder in times of unemployment or starting an escape journey. So, I would encourage everyone to get on the property ladder if they can – the UK has a thriving rental market in cities like Liverpool, Birmingham and Leeds. Get this safety net in place as soon as possible.

The other general piece of advice I have is ‘keep paddling’. There’s nothing worse than feeling stuck or trapped, and there are multiple ways of avoiding that situation.

To finish with an anecdote, in the spring of 2017, I’d been spending my unemployed winter days drinking alone in London when I saw an email to join an expedition to paddle 1000 miles down the Mississippi River. I became part of that expedition team, and a feeling of amazing camaraderie replaced my loneliness during our 42 days on the river.

By ‘keep paddling’, I really mean do different things, meet new people, and maybe take a few risks, but don’t quit your job without a stable base because the downside is too big. If you can’t do 42 days on a river or a three-month internship, do a week or two – I’m certain that you’ll see things differently and, just maybe, a great opportunity will present itself.