We help freedom-driven people design luxury-nature-travel lifestyles through remote income, curated experiences, and world-class personal development.

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Founder Story — My Search for Wealth and Happiness

This is the story behind Exceptional Lifestyles.

For much of my adult life, I believed success meant money. More money. Faster money. Bigger money.

Looking back, I can see that what I experienced in my mid‑thirties was a quiet midlife crisis. On paper, I was doing everything right. I earned good money. I had over $100,000 invested. I owned my home outright. I owned land in the country. By most conventional measures, I was ahead.

What I did not have was clarity.

I avoided settling down because the very word settle felt like failure. I associated partnership, family, and stability with boredom and limitation. I believed—incorrectly—that I had to choose between a meaningful life and an exciting one. Between love and ambition. Between fulfillment and wealth.

So at 37, in 1996, I walked away from a good relationship with an exceptional woman and her young son to chase what I believed success was supposed to look like.

At the time, success meant big money, status, a trophy wife, and every toy I could imagine. That image didn’t come from nowhere—it was reinforced daily by the culture, the advertising, the investment magazines, and the stories I consumed about what a rich life was supposed to be.

And for a while, I caught that dream.

Within ten years, I became a millionaire. I had the lifestyle. The travel. The appearances. On the surface, I had everything I had been chasing.

Those “good times” lasted less than two years.

When the Great Recession hit, I discovered how fragile my version of success really was. My assets were illiquid. My identity was tied to accumulation. I had never defined what enough meant. Everything was invested in making more money, with no consideration for resilience, balance, or peace of mind.

The following eight years were consumed by stress, fear, and the constant attempt to hold everything together. I worried myself sick—literally—about losing what I had worked so hard to build.

In the end, I lost it all anyway.

There is a hard truth I learned through that experience: you get what you focus on. Not just the good things—but the fears as well. I spent years focused on not losing everything, and eventually, that is exactly what happened.

What followed was not easy—but it was necessary.

The decade after my personal collapse became a period of healing, reflection, and integration. It gave me perspective I could not have gained any other way. It forced me to redefine success, wealth, happiness, and the kind of life I actually wanted to live.

Interestingly, eight of those ten years were spent back in relationship with the same woman I had once left to chase money. She became a grounding force, a teacher, and—at times—a lifeline. We remain dear friends today, and I am deeply grateful for that chapter.

What emerged from this long arc is not regret, but wisdom.

I no longer believe wealth and happiness are opposing forces. I no longer believe success has to come at the expense of health, relationships, or peace. And I no longer believe that more is always better.

Exceptional Lifestyles exists as a result of these lived lessons.

It is my way of sharing what I learned—so others don’t have to learn it the hard way. It is an exploration of what the good life actually looks like when wealth, values, environment, freedom, and meaning are intentionally designed to support one another.

If you’re on your own search—whether for success, clarity, or a life that feels both rich and grounded—I invite you to follow along.

This next chapter is about living well.

And yes—it’s going to be fun.

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Albert Perras, Founder