Colin Wright, Founder of Colin is my Name and Exile Lifestyle

Don’t let the open gates fool you, Colin Wright is in exile. OK, so not a torturous one. More of a self-imposed exile that currently includes sunning himself in Buenos Aires and eating empanadas, while still enjoying a full income from Colin is My Name, his growing sustainable design business.

Taking along only the essentials (MacBook Pro, boxer shorts, and a sense of adventure), Colin took his business on the road this year in a social experiment he calls the “Exile lifestyle”, detailed on his blog of the same name. Every four months, readers will vote on a destination country where Colin will live and work until…well, until he comes back. By focusing only on the 20% of work projects that generate 80% of his income, Colin has reduced his work week to a mere ten hours, leaving the rest of his days open for new experiences and chance encounters, in whichever locale his readers see fit.

During my interview with Colin, I had to kick myself for being too lazy and technology-averse to set up a Skype account so we could speak “face to face”. By phone, I expected to hear the voice of a semi-cocky, fair-skinned white kid having his first international experience while making more money than I deem any 24 year-old to be worth. Instead, I was connected to the gravelly voice of a young man whose Brady Bunch baby-face may have already gained the perspective that only a few rough nights in a strange country, or maybe even a little food poisoning, can give you.

Either way, I am certain the exile experience will be that of a lifetime, and the gates back home will remain wide open for Colin’s return. Until then, baby-face, you may want to stick with Peanut Butter.

1.  What do you wish most for your “Exile lifestyle”? To achieve a specific goal (i.e. writing a book), or to have some intangible experience or enlightenment?

The main reason I decided to move forward with the Exile Lifestyle project is that I realized I had lots of experience with books and education and business and technology and so on, but little or no experience traveling, seeing the world and meeting people who have had radically different life experiences than I have. I guess you could say I’m looking for enlightenment, but really I see it as an investment in myself in that each new experience makes me a better person and more capable of dealing with the unexpected. To have a nice big group of engaged readers and a book deal at some point would be excellent, but the thing I’m really setting my sites on right now is becoming a better person in a lot of different ways.

2.  You are allowing blog readers to vote where you move every four months. What destination you will go, regardless?

I will go wherever my readers vote for me to go, with a few caveats. First, there are some countries I wouldn’t be able to get in to (think North Korea). Second, there are countries where civil conflicts or wars are going on (Afghanistan, Congo, etc). I’m game for living in any country in the world, so long as I won’t be putting myself in an unreasonably unsafe situation or fighting for months just to enter the country. Maybe someday I’ll have the experience and justification to visit those kinds of places, but for right now I’ll stick with new experiences that don’t involve wearing body armor.

3.  Do your corporate clients have any problem not getting “real” face time?

‘Real’ face time is such a vague term these days; I can always hop online and do a Skype video chat with my clients, but if you’re asking can they meet up with me in person? No, in person is difficult now that I’m out of the country. They generally don’t seem to mind, though, and in fact most think what I’m doing is pretty cool and have given me their full support (continuing to pass a steady stream of work my way, checking out the blog, voting on where I should go, etc). I have great clients

4.  What did you bring that you can’t live without? What did you forget?

I brought my Macbook Pro, without which I wouldn’t be able to do much serious design and development work. I’ve got a satchel that I use as my day bag which carries my camera, iPod, netbook, Moleskines, etc, though I could honestly do without everything I brought except for the Macbook Pro. I (fortunately) didn’t forget anything, so far as I can tell, though I miss my iPhone quite a bit (sigh).

5.  Is there anything you miss about the US, and what image of Americans do you hope to leave behind?

Peanut butter! There doesn’t seem to be peanut butter anywhere in this whole country, and though I’ve never been a big peanut butter fan, the fact that I can’t have it makes me crave it.

I’m hoping to leave a kinder, more thoughtful image of Americans in my wake, because a lot of people here have a few not-so-nice or not-very-accurate ideas about people from the States (the girls are easy, the guys are either gun enthusiasts or gay, the people live lifestyles like they see on Friends…oh yes, Friends is still very popular here).

6.  You said you have remained friends with all of your ex-girlfriends, and even had a break-up party with your last.  Have you never really been in love, or are you just a nice guy?

I’ve never seen the point of becoming enemies with someone, and especially someone that I really, really like. I’ve been fortunate enough to have some really intelligent, creative, beautiful and talented women in my life, and I certainly don’t take that for granted, or want them out of my life just because the nature of our relationship changes. It’s hard to say about love, because the term has really ceased to mean a whole lot anymore (you LOVE that cake and you LOVE all your friends and you LOVE this and that and on and on), so I’d say that I just try to enjoy each relationship for what it is and not what I or society thinks it should be (which really seems to take a lot of the pressure off, let me tell you!).

7.  Describe the person who would best complement both your life and your business.

Let’s see, she would be someone who is ambitious, motivated, passionate, intelligent, creative, capable, open-minded and charismatic. She’d take care of herself mentally and physically and is looking for the same kind of person as me; a person who would supplement and amplify my life, not someone who will BE my life. There’s got to be a big tolerance (and enthusiasm for) the sporadic and random, and if she has a good sense of style, I’m sold.

8.  Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

By then I hope to have a few bestsellers still on the shelves (virtual or physical) and to have whatever businesses I’m running at that point automated and making lots of money. I’ll have a handful of projects to work on (I’d really like to destroy the current American education system and replace it with something much better and cheaper) and hopefully still taking quite a bit of time to travel. I’ll likely still be seeking out novel experiences and doing things that most people will think are crazy. I’d hate to lose that.

Colin’s Bio:

Born in Northern California and raised in central Missouri, Colin Wright moved to LA after completing a dual-emphasis degree in Graphic Design and Illustration and shortly thereafter started a sustainability-focused design studio, Colin Is My Name. After a year and a half of success with small and large clients alike, Colin decided to take his business on the road, working from and living in a new country every 4 months through his new business venture, Exile Lifestyle, a blog and media company focused on lifestyle design, minimalism, sustainability and mobility.

Colin is currently living in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the readers of Exile Lifestyle are currently voting on what country he’ll move to next.

He’d love to be your friend on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn!