How Udemy made a lifelong dream come true

For 23 years, David Doost worked long hours at his printing business in Atlanta. Until a couple years ago when his business partner, and best friend had a brain aneurysm and passed away suddenly. This inspired David to sell his business and move his family abroad, an idea he had been putting off for a long time. David and his family now live in Ecuador, where David works as a freelance copywriter. David took courses on Udemy to help him get started  with his copywriting career, and continues to take courses to explore his many hobbies like travel photography.

It’s humbling how quickly life can change. David Doost was working long, grueling hours at his printing company, the same as he had for the past 23 years, when suddenly his best friend and business partner had a brain aneurysm and passed away three days later.

After dealing with this life-changing devastating news, Doost and his wife made a conscious choice to make a change for the better. They decided to pack up their family, sell the printing business, and live out their life-long dream of moving to a different country. It was a dream Doost and his wife kept putting on the back burner with the ever-present “someday” whispering in their ear. But after the death of his friend and partner, he decided that their “someday” had come.

David’s wife and two children

David saw this terrible tragedy as a way to answer the question, “what do I want to do with the rest of my life,” instead of “what do I have to do to get by.”

The answer to that question was to take classes through Udemy and become a freelance Copywriter with the intention of fulfilling his desire to write and also the desire that his family could enjoy their lives internationally. After visiting Ecuador, they realized that there were good international schools for their two young children, a great expat community to rely on, and a very safe, non-violent environment.

Ecuador provided the Doost family with a completely different ideal than what they had become accustomed to back in Atlanta. The words ‘family time’ and ‘quality of life’ were no longer a part of their vocabulary because they were now a part of their every day life. And after working the exhausting hours of a business owner in America, Doost was ready for a positive change.

“I’m really grateful now because I get to spend so much more time with my wife and kids,” he says, “We walk them to the bus each morning and wait for them to get off.  We have a park where we can walk our dogs with our kids.  So that was a drastic change for me.  I really wanted to spend more time with them.”

Taking classes from Udemy helped David jump start his career as a freelance Copywriter and allowed him the opportunity to really begin living his life.  And even though as a freelance Copywriter he says, “there’s nothing like just getting out and doing it,” the classes from Udemy provided him the tools he needed to begin his successful new career.

“It exposed me to the ins and outs and realities of freelancing life,” he says.

Udemy has also helped him expand his other interests that continue to improve his quality of life. Because of his family’s new love of travel, he signed up for a travel photography class “because I wanted to be able to take some good pictures while I’m traveling around down here. Udemy’s awesome because often I just use the iPad app here when I go to the nearby coffee shops.”

Doost is a firm believer that personal growth and education doesn’t stop after you leave school. His experience with living in both the U.S. and abroad has helped to open his mind to different aspects of life that otherwise might be missed with a jam-packed schedule.

“People in the U.S. pass away right after they retire and they’ve worked all their life.  But it seems to me that people here have a lot more juice and energy,” Doost says, “I think it might because their minds and bodies are still working and they never stop learning.”

And that learning is what pushes him to get out and experience life to the fullest now.

“Things like Udemy, whether you’re abroad or not, allow you to expand your mind.  It revives and refreshes you.”