The "Realizing your Dream" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Just finished reading "A Beach Less Traveled" which was written by John Berglund.  Several years ago I bought a book titled "A Trip to the Beach" which was written by Melinda and Robert Blanchard and told the story about quitting their jobs in New England and starting anew on the island of Anguilla in the Caribbean.  The story dealt with the hardships they faced while trying to open a restaurant on the north-eastern end of the island.  My wife and I both read the book and just loved it.  The following year we made a trip to Anguilla just to meet the Blanchards and visit their restaurant.  The book I have just finished is very similar, but with different people and a different type of business.  On our way to St. Martin this year for vacation, Carol was looking through a small publication that she found in the compartment on the rear of the seat in front of her on the airplane.  The publication featured a story that told about a man who was a successful professional with a thriving career who walked away from a comfortable lifestyle and took his family to a Caribbean island to open an untried business in a place where he doesn't speak the local language.  Carol showed me the story and said, "Sounds just like the other book we read a few years ago.  We'll have to find the book when we head into Philipsburg to go shopping."  Sure enough, a few days after arriving in St. Martin we made our yearly journey to Philipsburg, which is the capital of the Dutch side of the island, to do some shopping for souvenirs for our grandkids.  When we entered the Shipwreck Shop on Front Street we found the book on a table in the rear of the store.  Carol picked it up and told me, "Here's the book I wanted to buy ..... and it's even autographed!"  There on the inside of the end sheet was written, Enjoy the Journey; Enjoy St. Martin.  C'est la vie!  John Berglund.  We took the book to our villa and Carol began reading.  After we returned home to the states I picked up the book and began reading.  The front flap of the book gave this account .... Can a happily married American couple successfully abandon the corporate rat race, along with its handsome salaries and benefits packages, to open a perfumery and create their own custom lines of fragrances in the French Caribbean?  That was John Berglund's vision, and A Beach Less Traveled is the remarkable story of how he made it happen.  

John and his wife Cyndi in front of their Grand Case Store

He begins his book by introducing his family of four and how the dream began with a trip on an island-hopping adventure.  They explored the land of four saints: St. Thomas, St. John, St. Bart and St. Martin. Oh yeah, they threw in Saba to complete the trip.  St. Bart and  half of St. Martin are French, Saba and the other half of Sint Maarten are part of the Netherlands and St. John and St. Thomas are US territories.  Again in 1998 they made another visit to the Caribbean and a few more islands and eventually settled on St. Martin and the village of Grand Case as their location for their new life.  As I read, I could picture in my mind all the places, turns in the roads and tables at the restaurants that John wrote about.  For years Carol and I traveled the same roads, ate at the same restaurants and probably sat at some of the same tables he was describing.  On our journey into Grand Case one evening after Carol had read the book, she pointed out where John's business, Tijon Parfumerie, which is named after his son, was located.  John's story about how he went from chief prosecuting attorney at age twenty-four to lobbyist and trade association executive to perfume maker is interesting, adventurous and sometimes comic and all the time raising their two children who are now both adults.  He originally wanted a career in chemistry, but settled for the legal world.  While living in Atlanta he did build a lab in his basement where he spent hours experimenting with different scents for perfume.  He eventually traded his coat and tie for sand, water and flip flops and built his new business on a Caribbean island creating body lotions, gels, powdered, deodorants and fragrance soaps.  To go along with that, they also offer classes where you can create your very own scented perfume.  Don't want to spoil anymore of his story so I'll let you read the book to see what is possible when your dream comes to life.  On our next St. Martin vacation I plan to make my own scent and call it "Paradise."  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.