Seas the Bay: Failure and San Francisco Photos

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Photo of me by Sam Graves. Follow him on Instagram @TheSamGraves

It’s funny how failure can lead us to the right places. In my case, figuratively and literally.

As I sat across from Matthew Kepnes and Brooke Saward (Nomadic Matt and World of Wanderlust) in a San Francisco diner — the two first travel professionals I discovered via Google a year ago —

I could not help but think about where I am, and how I got here.

San Francisco by Sash, follow her on Instagram @SanFrancisco

San Francisco by Carl Wilson, follow him on Instagram @sbdunkscarl

Here I am, but I never intended on being a professional traveler.

There’s no sign up list for my career, no internship or UCLA courses on how to travel the world while working remotely.

I had painfully failed for one of the first times in my life, and it led me to this.

(I’ll tell you the story of how I started working remotely because I could not get a job in Sydney some other time. Meanwhile, check out 7 Things I Learned Working Illegally Abroad).

This failure liberated me, and allowed me to pursue a life of passion.

Photo of me by Sam Graves, follow him on Instagram @TheSamGraves

San Francisco will do that to you. Grand and great, the heart of the bay area bridges the gap between dreaming and doing.

San Francisco via @StephBeTravel

I would rather fail than not try something new.

Failure means that when things come to an end — whether the pursuit of a career, a wrong relationship, or habit we finally change— comes a new beginning. Had I succeeded at landing a corporate job in Sydney, I wouldn’t be traveling around the world, meeting up with locals to learn photography, and catching up with friends from college to discuss how I am now (or always was) one of those people.

Essentially, entrepreneurs and creatives.

We, those people who do. We fail, we learn, and we triumph.

Meet up photo of new friends, by me :) Thank you to everyone who came out!

Home to wildly successful corporations such as Facebook, Pinterest, and Google, the leaders of Silicon Valley are much like the San Francisco hipster entrepreneurs of farm-to-table cafes and Reno’s bar-owning bartenders. I guarantee that every single one of those individuals who succeeded with a large or small business has failed at one point.

If we aren’t failing, we are doing something wrong.

I had a few meet ups during my time in San Francisco, and am so inspired by the people I have met. I have invited some of the local creatives who showed me the best spots in San Francisco to share their photos with you.

Included are some of my favorites as well as some of my own. May they serve to remind us to seize the day, bridge the gap between dreaming and doing, and of course, to fail.

We never know where failure will lead us.

Photo of me by Carl Wilson, follow him on Instagram @SBDunksCarl

Photo by Andy To, follow him on Instagram @AndyTo

Just quickly, I would like to thank Matthew Kepnes for his public invite join his Great American Road Trip and putting up with me for hours in a car (and Brooke for the lunch meet up). Sam Graves for inspiring me to download Lightroom and Photoshop. My friends from college: Kelsey, Brock, Adrian, and Scott for showing me around. Jessica Wright for our day trip to Big Sur. And most importantly, the trendy downtown boutique Hotel Abri for hosting me.