Living Their Dream Life

Written by riadmin | posted in Blog, Purpose | 0 Comments

I had a video call with Karen Ellison the other day via Skype. I learned of Karen through the Microsoft Alumni Network and was fascinated by the little I read. Karen had been with Microsoft for over a decade. She was based in Asia Pacific for a long time. In May 2009 her job was eliminated. As she took time to explore options on what to do next her husband and her landed on the idea of opening Duke’s @ Kata on Friday, December 18, 2009. It was a short 3 weeks from conception of the idea and acquiring the spot on the beaches of Phuket (Thailand) to the time they opened their doors to the public.

Today, Duke’s is the watering spot for most ex-patriots and tourist from the U.S. and elsewhere when visiting Phuket. It is a small and fun sports bar, offering 5 large flat screen televisions to catch all the sports action from around the world. Their Thai business name is Duke’s Big Board Bar and is named after Duke Kahanamoku, considered to be the father of surfing. Mark and Karen met in Waikiki, Hawaii back in 1986. Karen and Mark are living out their American dream in paradise.

Karen also shared a few other personal aspects to her decision and how it’s working out for them almost two years later. She talked about how her father worked for the same company for 30 years and she expected to do the same till the sudden lay-off, despite her high-performance record. Accustomed to the big pay check she wasn’t sure how they would fair with this change. Her father passed away at the same time (back in 2009). After spending some time in the U.S. with her family, her husband and Karen chose to settle in Phuket.

Today, her “fabulous life” (her words) consists of being home all the time, hot yoga in the morning, walking her dog on the beach and lots of study thanks to the Internet. She spends her evenings as a night-trader managing their portfolio. Karen says she didn’t leave the corporate world earlier as she did not know her purpose and passion. In many ways she feels she still doesn’t and yet she is very content with her life. Their bar has a loyal client base and with high recommendations on their Trip Advisor listing. Karen and Mark feel good that they are contributing to the local economy with four Thai employees on their pay-roll. Their business breaks even for the most part, despite growing and that’s by design how they prefer it. Thanks to technology they get the best of both worlds and stay connected with friends and family around the world.

Please consider a vacation to Phuket and send me pictures to celebrate. I will definitely make it to visit Karen and Mark when my wife and I can travel with our three kids who are too young to travel that far right now.

Thank you Karen for living an awake and aware life.