Why did I sign up with Upwork?
I came here to explore new opportunities. To reconnect with inspiration and passion in a bottomless well of possibilities, which I believe Upwork can be. To seek out abundance - new ways to embody hard-work, effort and authenticity, because these qualities bring me the most deserved, long lived and bountiful of reward.
I work as a Civil Engineer, out of a consulting office in Cape Town, South Africa. For information on this, my specialty profile will expand.
Over and above this, I am passionate about travel, photography, yoga, surfing, reading, writing, watching, listening, video making and generally anything that allows me to be free thinking and creative, and to fuel me to grow as a professional, and as a human in whole.
As I develop in my professional career, I’m realizing the full extent of my potential. With a quiet and reserved disposition, this doesn't come naturally to me - and always calls me to push myself a little harder.
In 2018 I made the decision to take a year off from work to honour a desire to do long form travel overseas without itinerary, no plans set in stone. This required breaking the news to my bosses and colleagues, family and friends that I’d be stepping away for a year, selling everything I could, and take the plunge, following nothing but a hope and a dream. I did not have a fortune live off, but I soon realized that the act alone was sustaining in a way that nothing ever has been. It was three days after our wedding, that my wife and I set off to Asia.
The year would see us moving across India, trekking into the Himalayas and Nepal, crossing over to Hong Kong, where we got our VISAS to travel deeper into China, and coming back across to Thailand before having our bellies filled with memorable adventure and ready to come back home to South Africa. It was a period in our lives where we were unattached and unbound to any schedule and obligations. Daily, we were presented with the pure beauty that the world had to offer and the kindness of everybody we encountered. We were like aliens everywhere we were, looking out and observing life play out around us, even observing our own lives and relationships we carried. We moved through a full spectrum of scales, from luxury hotels to basic backpacker spots, seeing the extremely wealthy in urban hubs contrasted with the world’s most impoverished. From modern cities to cultures with thousands of years of history. We saw people thriving, others struggling, some happy and full of life, others with the harshness of that same life worn on their bodies. With so much variance, such a wide spectrum, I could begin to cultivate a sense of place for myself in this tapestry that is our interconnected world today.
It was in the bustling metropolis of Hong Kong that the bright lights of our age captured me most. Apart from the mega structures, sophisticated urban design and seamless transportation network it was the 24hr clock and myriad of nationalities and business interests mingling on the streets that shook me awake. Executives, sports personalities, achievers were at play and I saw that any stream you choose is your game, and yours to win.
I understood that while I was in the middle of living out one lifelong goal, there were others more to be had and time ahead was an enticing blank slate. I resolved to lengthen my reach, beyond the company I worked for, town I lived in, and personality I thought I was.
I take a lot of inspiration from that period, as I feed off it still, as it shows me that he limits we set for ourselves are only in our imagination.
It is with this spirit that I start on this journey of creating on online service. I have a wide range of skills and interests, that can be applied synergistically to provide great value. I am hard working, conscientious and motivated by high performance and quality, and I make sure that anything that I put out meets this standard.
I look forward to growing here and delivering great value to all that I may work with.
Excel
