I heard an amazing story about an very successful SFM member who literally almost killed himself to live 

 

His average paid but mega stressful job and a related car crash were the cause and starting his online business with SFM was his salvation  

 

But instead of just passing his story on I’ve got one of my own - maybe you have too? 

 

Mine took place on the beautiful Island of Mull in the Scottish Hebrides around 30 years ago….

 

I’d gone there to take a summer job on a Salmon Farm run by a second cousin in law but ended up staying there for 4 years 

 

During that time I went from being a fish farm assistant to the assistant manager of a 10,000 tonne fish farm 

 

As you can imagine this can be a pretty stressful enterprise. Not only are you out at sea all day long often in extremely harsh weather 

 

But you are responsible for other peoples safety and the health, wellbeing (and profitability) of millions of prime Atlantic salmon

 

The natural beauty of your surroundings soon pales into the background in this situation 

 

There were some very hairy moments but the one that nearly got me started with a bad car crash 

 

Myself and two farm assistants were on our way to do the weekend feed on a single track road when a small van rushing to catch the ferry hit us head on 

 

For some reason he went for the same passing place as we did even though we were closer to it. It later turned out he had a flat tire which caused him to swerve when he hit the brakes 

 

I came out of it with 28 stitches in my left eyelid and 12 in my right wrist

 

The guy in the back seat broke his ankle 

 

But the guy sitting next me who wasn’t wearing a seatbelt was airlifted by helicopter with serious head injuries 

 

He was in a coma for 6 months but luckily came out of it relatively OK 

 

But it was after all this that I nearly killed myself through stress.

 

I was obviously worried about my badly injured colleague and at the same time a boat propellor snagged one of the nets on the farm releasing several hundred fish into the wild 

 

My boss was away on holiday so I was in charge  

 

One day I had sudden chest pains, my lips and left arm went numb and I collapsed at work. 

 

Not an actual heart attack (I was 25) but a heart murmmer the Doc told me after wiring me up to a cardio graph and taking blood 

 

During the tests he asked “Are worrying about anything at all?” 

 

“You name it - I’m worrying about it Doc!” was my reply 

 

I left the job soon after and returned to the city 

 

The Internet was in its infancy back then so I wasn’t able to take advantage of that possibility   

 

But many years later when I found myself laid off at 47 with a mortgage and little prospect of replacing my well paid job 

 

It had grown to the life changing, incredible thing it is now and thats when I too came across SFM and started my online business lifestyle 

 

That’s ironically led me back to the beautiful highlands of Scotland but I now appreciate it far more every day than I did back then 

 

The big difference is I don’t have the stress and I have a lot of time to spend on the things that a close shave makes you realise are important 

 

And I’m in the position to introduce other people with similar stories to whats realistically possible now 

 

And if you’re wondering - I still love Salmon! 

 

 

 

 

Cheers!

 

 

 

Dave