ROBOTICS ENGINEER, BIG WAVE SURFER, ENTREPRENEUR BRIAN SWAN EMBODIES CHANGE . . . AND SLAYS DRAGONS FOR FUN.
BRIAN, the first thing I noticed from your resume, and having known you for a while, is that you used to be a robotics engineer. Tell us about that …
When I was a senior in high school I had a 10-minute meeting with my guidance counselor and he asked me what I was good at … and I said math and science. He told me that engineering was one of the top professions post-university, so I made a decision there and then to become an engineer. That dictated the next 14 years of my life. What followed was four years of university and a decade in the corporate world working for Parker Hannifin as a robotics engineer living in San Diego.
I remember you once telling me a story about meeting Elon Musk at one of your places of work…
As a surfer living in San Diego covering the Western USA, I learned to schedule my sales calls for Southern California around the surf reports. If I could get on the water either before or after my sales calls when I traveled it was a good day. I looked on Surfline and saw that a strong southerly swell was on the way for Wednesday, so I asked for an 11 am meeting, giving me the opportunity to surf “Trestles” in San Clemente beforehand.
Passing by LAX I made my way to El Segundo. Usually, my mind would be on the impending sales call but since I was deep in the projects, carjacking was more top of mind as I pulled into a very unassuming facility. “Really,” I thought. “You build rockets here?”
The receptionist ushered me into a room where a waiting rocket man greeted me with an outstretched hand. He walked me down a long corridor before turning the corner where I couldn’t believe what I saw. I gazed out onto a 100m-long rocket sitting on the hangar floor. Choosing my words more carefully, I said, “That’s a real rocket,” and he replied with, “Of course. I’m a rocket scientist…” and we both chuckled.
With the ice now broken we entered a huge boardroom. A small group of engineers occupied four of the 50 chairs as we sat across from each other with their backs to the ship. During our conversation I couldn’t help but gaze past them through a huge window staring out at the soon-to-be interstellar craft.
Handing them our proposal for Thrust Actuators, I went through the details over the next 30 minutes before shaking hands and heading out the door. I hadn’t even left the parking lot when my boss called and said, “Nice $60K order Brian.” I was like, I’m just leaving the facility … I don’t know who these people are, but they have a freaking 100m rocket on their manufacturing floor. What an incredible experience that was. This was the real deal and my new friend, Elon Musk, and I had been sitting in SpaceX.
What do you still carry with you from that time?
What’s interesting is that even though it took place two decades ago, I still don’t relate much to my time as a robotics engineer.
You’ve transformed yourself a few times over, then another thing I wondered about reading your CV … how has change been a part of your life so much?
Change has been my whole existence, and it all started when my father died of Aids when I was 16 years old. My world was turned upside down when he broke the news that he was unwell, terminal in fact. At the age of 11 years old, coming to terms with the knowledge that my Dad wouldn’t be around forever was unfathomable. The thought had never entered my mind.
What he did next is the stuff of movies. In fact, years after his passing, Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson brought a similar tale to the big screen in the movie The Bucket List. But my Dad was different, he did it with his family in tow and we began a journey of search and discovery during his final years, one that has left a lasting impression on me. An impression that remains deep in my psyche today. That period in my life taught me to open my mind to a plethora of possibilities: from a Midwestern boy with a limited understanding of what the world had on offer, to a world we have created years later, that quite frankly knows no boundaries.
When did you meet Rhonda?
Around the same time I was at university, I went to Australia in my third year for a study program, which is where I learned to surf. Later I only accepted jobs if there was surf, which landed me in California. That’s where I met my wife Rhonda, and then in 2006 she literally retired me and I entered the world of digital marketing.
In the years that followed we went from affiliate marketing in the personal development industry to creating “Freedom-Preneur” programs that helped people make the jump from regular jobs to running a laptop lifestyle anywhere around the world. We were out traveling since 2008, working online as one of the first digital nomad families.
I also see you at your home sometimes near the big waves in Bali … Surfing is such a deep and difficult thing to do, how does it relate to your life’s thinking?
I remember stepping off the plane in Australia and I went to the beach and saw a girl in a bikini and a guy catching a head-high barrel. At that moment I made the decision to be a surfer. Fast forward 29 years and I’m still as excited by surfing as I was on that day.
Today I’m 49, and at this age what I have learned is that I have to keep my body in peak physical condition in order to deal with the life or death situations that big waves can bring. This relates to my life thinking in all areas. I’ve taken this on with my body, my relationship with my wife and my daughter, my spirituality, and all my business ventures.
