When I went to college I didn't have a lot of direction with what I wanted to do as a career and truthfully even towards the end I had hundreds of semester hours and had been going to school for a long time and I didn't have too many ideas of what I wanted to do. There wasn't an occupation out there where I said, "Oooh, I want to be that." So that never really happened for me.

I knew I could do a lot of different things, but when I started rafting I really enjoyed it and I've always liked it. It's a lot of fun. I'm really good at it, so that obviously makes you comfortable in what you're doing. I love it, enjoy it, and am good at it, but what I really like are the people. I really like talking and spending the day with all these people. It's kind of funny how you make a difference in their life in just a five or six hour period. They treat you like family. They get close to you. You end up developing relationships. I've taken some of the same people year after year after year. It's a job that really makes you feel good. In so many things you don't have a positive impact on that down to earth scale with somebody. I don't know ... you spend the day with them, give them a thrill or experience, it makes you feel good. What can I tell you? It's a good feeling. People appreciate you putting out the effort to do an exceptional job. People can pick up on whether you are really trying hard to make sure they have a good time. Everybody's a winner. I'm a winner, they're a winner.

Happiness. I'm really happy with what I'm doing. This is something that gives me a lot of free time at different times of the year to pursue other things--travel, fish, hunt. Being a whitewater guide gives me the opportunity to do that.

It's different for everybody. I don't define it [success] as wealth or position. To me it's about enjoying life, and what I'm doing affords me the opportunity to enjoy my life. I'm not going to look back and say, "I didn't do that or I didn't do that." I'm making other people happy and that makes me happy. I think that makes me feel successful. In my peer group I know they respect me. Maybe comfort is it, I don't know. I'm very comfortable and I know that's it's out of the norm maybe. I raft in the Spring, Summer, and Fall. I hunt and fish. I ski patrol in the winter time. My life is almost somebody else's recreation. Other than not ever becoming rich from it, it's the perfect occupation. I'm happy every single day I come to work. I look forward to it. That's successful. I'm happy. I could go on and on with a bunch of little things, but overall I'm good at what I do and I'm happy with what I do and people appreciate the job I do and I feel good in my peer group. Life is good.

I'm really happy that things didn't work out in what most people would call my last "real" job as sales manager. In those positions, I felt that I was doing what anybody would do to elevate themselves in that career path; more money, power, control over what's going on. But that didn't make me happy. Funny how things work out because there are different situations where I might still be doing that and I'm real confident that I wouldn't be enjoying life as much as I am now.

Good things are happening all the time. Of course over the next couple of years things could happen to lead me off into a different path. If that happens, I'll do that, but I'm not actively pursuing another lifestyle because why would I. I'm enjoying life. I'm doing okay financially and all that. Other people may not be as comfortable with the amount of money that I make, but for me I'm comfortable with it.

I plan ahead, but I take it as it goes at the same time. I know what to expect next year. So I have to plan my lifestyle around what I'm going to accomplish financially through the occupations that I'm doing. I mean, yeah I look ahead and everything, but I don't look ahead and say "I want a quarter of a million dollars in the bank at this time in my life." I think more in terms of home and personal relationships with other people. I just don't have a burning desire to worry about a lot of money. If I win the lottery, I'll keep doing the same thing that I'm doing. Other than taking some of my friends on some nice trips, it won't change my life.

I think a lot of people worry a lot about what other people think. You need to live your own life and not take into consideration or at least put a lot of weight on what society thinks you should do, or what people around you think you should do. It's kind of funny that I'm surrounded by people who took the norm. They're engineers, lawyers and such, and I'm fairly confident that I've enjoyed life and am a lot happier than they are. I don't know. All I ever hear from them all the time is, "Boy I wish I did what you did." I don't ever say "I wish I did what they did." So don't let other people dictate your future. You've got to be smart and reasonable in whatever you're doing, but so many people don't think what somebody else is doing is good enough or whatever. Don't worry about what other people think.