What If It Did Work?
What If It Did Work?
What Would You Do If Fear Was Wrong
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You can’t “someday” your way into a new life, and David Schnurman proves it. He and his wife take their three kids, pack up what they can fit into 11 suitcases, and move from Brooklyn to Barcelona. No fantasy montage, no perfect timing, just a chain of small decisions that turns a pipe dream into a real family relocation abroad.
We talk about what expat life in Barcelona actually feels like: the language gap, the Catalan reality, the daily adjustments, and the surprising ways travel exposes history and identity. David also shares what it was like living in Europe during COVID, why parenting challenges don’t disappear when you change countries, and how the move reshapes time with his kids in the years that matter most.
The biggest takeaway is simple and hard: do it despite fear. A school dean’s advice becomes a north star: your job is to say yes. Yes to the invite, yes to the museum tour, yes to the uncomfortable room where you might become a different version of yourself. We also get into entrepreneurship, remote work culture, and how AI is changing writing and publishing faster than most people realize.
If you’ve been thinking about moving abroad with kids, redesigning your routines, or just getting out of a rut, listen all the way through and then tell us: what would you say yes to this week? Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a push, and leave a review so more people can find the show.
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11 Suitcases And The Big Leap
I've never done one left. My whole life, I've been holding back every time I go fucking heroes. All right, everybody, another day, another dollar. And I gotta say, not only do I know this is gonna be one of my favorite episodes of my favorite podcast because I'm biased. What if it did work? Now, today on this show, we're unpacking a story that literally starts with 11 bags and ends with a whole new way of living 11 suitcases by David Schnurman. It's not a travel memoir about Europe. It's not Eat, Love, and Pray. It's a story about stepping out of a comfortable routine, facing fear head on, and redesigning life with intention over habit. David's an entrepreneur, author, lifelong learner who, with his wife and three kids, picked up everything they knew, packed it into a handful of suitcases, and set off from the NYC, the borough of Brooklyn, to Buffalona in pursuit of a life less ordinary. In this conversation, David shares what it really took to move a family across continents, what they learned about fear, freedom, control, and connection, and how the lessons from this journey can help all of us live bigger with fewer regrets.
Barcelona Identity Catalan And Roots
How's it going, David? It's going great. Well done with the Barcelona. You're gonna laugh about this, man. I the first time I ever went to Spain, and it was birth Barcelona. I'm like, oh you know, I'm gonna my my roots, my forefathers, I'm gonna have some connection. And it's like everybody they don't even consider themselves Hispanic, they're European, they're all way taller than me, and then they don't even speak Spanish. Yeah, you know, it's Catalan. It's like no, man. I I'm like in the bathroom, it's homes. It's really confusing because all the all the the sign the street signs are in Catalan, and then people are sort of speaking Spanish and you're learning Spanish, but it doesn't match what the signs are, so you gotta kind of do a little bit of uh dictionarying all the time. It's exactly, but but it's like you you think and I'm sure a lot of Hispanics always like, oh, that's the homeland, you know. We're we're you're and it's like no, it it to me, I I liken it to like I'm a colonist, no different than like, you know, somebody here is like, oh, I'm going back to the old country, I'm going back to England, and it's like, yeah, you're not gonna have that, you know, because we always romanticize about you know going back to your roots, and it's like, no, you're your your roots is like grandma and grandpa, and they're you know, they didn't live in Barcelona, so all all my roots were escaping Europe in the 30s, so there's no romanticizing to go back in that regard, at least, at least in that regard, but love living. I love I love traveling around, especially you know, as I'm Jewish. Uh, it was amazing to all the different places that I went to, even Morocco. There's you can find you know, in museums, there's stories about Jews living there and stories about the persecution about them. And that's one thing that we have in common. Uh, going back generations, you know, thousands of years. Um, I don't know. We didn't want to talk about that right now, but I was just, you know, kind of thought about that for a moment.
Jewish Traces And Spain’s Layered Past
Although speak, have did have you ever gone to like it's those like communities where everything's still the same? It they have a couple of these in and one's in Barcelona. You go to a neighborhood, and it was all Jews that were just rounded up because they would not convert, and it's like in between buildings, and you see everything's like still the same, like hundreds of years. So, one just quick thing we went to Mallorca and we we went on a Jewish tour there. That's another, yes. Yeah, and we we saw like you go into buildings, you see hidden on the corners when nobody normally sees it, some Jewish letters, and you wouldn't normally see it if you walk by. And we were told this story that when they were doing the you know, the persecution of Jews and killing them, uh, a lot of Jews were converting. And to prove that they converted, um, they started putting um like pig oil and pig meat in bread because Jews don't eat pig. And so when they put it in there, they did that to show them that. And now, if you go to Mallorca, all the all the most famous bread there that everybody eats has some sort of pig fat in it because that became the tradition, you know, when they first started it. And so I don't know, like those are some stories that you wouldn't know unless you sort of learn the background. Well, well, the thing about Mallorca and pretty much all of southern Europe is they don't know whether they're coming or going because there's these beautiful churches that that are like converted mosques that were churches before, and then they became mosques, and then they be and it's it's like a blend, like a weird blend. And it's like, you know, it's it's but you know, the Moors finally kicking them out. Hey, my I've got one of my useless degrees is in history for you know, the Renaissance was when when Europe finally took we can be a history podcast, but like the like the Aljambra is a great example of that, you know. Oh yeah, you know, just Spain, you know, is Spain and Morocco are not too far apart, and there's there's a lot of brother. When when people like miscon mis they confuse me for or any Hispanic to be an Arab, it's like, well, yeah, but they did run things for a thousand years. I mean, literally, that's why France is divided in half and spain, Portugal. You have your your dark, dark complexed people compared to, yeah, read your history, people. That's what I always tell
History Cycles Safety Blinders And AI
them. Unfortunately, our history is right now, is as far as a 30-second TikTok video. If it's oh, yeah, well, well, dude, and it's funny, you know, history repeats itself, it whether it's the Holocaust or whatnot, and this is just the only social commentary. It's like when they say that how can that happen in Europe? It's not that people are bad, people just want to mind their own business, and they're like, as long as it's not me, as long as it's not me. The one that we're we're having that right now in this country. The hardest people are like blinders, are like, as long as I'm not being persecuted or nothing. And it's just that's why we have you know, when people like that's such a useless subject, history. No, history teaches you, man, what comes around goes around just because people we're we're we haven't really evolved much from the Fred Flintstone. And to me, that's even more evidence that we're in some sort of simulation because the the repetitive we're like on season four of the same story in a oh, of course, and then you know what's gonna be funny? It's like 50 to 60 years from now, people are gonna be, what a bunch of dicks, what a bunch of jerks. How'd they all let that happen? It's because it's human nature. Once you're like safe, you have the blinders on, you're like, okay, as long as nothing is happening to me, I am fine. And that's what happened. And it's like hit it goes always in cycles, and it's just always that that's just human nature, though. Right? Is well look as long as I'm good. I know we always I know this is like nuclear or weapons could have been the end of the world, and they still can be, but I and I know every generation we say, no, I don't know if we'll make it 50, 60 years. But the question I have now is it's the same, it seems now those stakes are so high with AI and the ability for AI to transform and author authoritarianism happening, but AI is really empowering everything to change. And and you know, and when so the question becomes it, what does is 60 years from now, and you're I'm an optimist or I try to be, how different does that world look you know, from 60 years, you know, if you look back now to 60 years back, it's different, but not so different. Technology is different, we're the same. But if you think about it, even when it comes to uh the school system, it hasn't changed since like 1920. Which is the problem. No, that's not a good thing. It's not a good thing. No, I'm not no, yeah. It's just we haven't we pretend we've evolved so much, and we're really the same. It just yeah, it seems like that's why I'm to me it the best possible explanation is a simulation because the technology that exists to some degree seems like magic. I'm like, how are we inventing things like this? And I can barely like videotape myself on a podcast, but anyway, uh I but David, this is one thing I you know, I had to do the eloquent introduction, and he's modest. So just in case anybody doesn't know, he's also, besides being an author, the CEO of Lawline, talk provider of online continuing education for attorneys. He's the man the myth, the legend. He's also the host of the lawyers who learn podcasts, he's he's written on late leadership, he's got his own TED X talk as well. Man, and he still had he still found time. I I have to ask you this because I love the book. And I I've ran through thank you. I I've ran through Brooklyn, so I I've been to all five boroughs. What what was it that's that got you saying because it takes a lot of balls? Yeah, I can I can tell you this. I'll tell you what happened. Yeah, man.
From 10-Year Vision To Visa
I'll tell so the story starts in two. So we moved in 2019, but the story started in 2015. And it didn't start with us being like, oh, we want to move abroad, we want to change our our lives. We had three kids who are six years old or under, and all we wanted to do was figure out how to put them to bed, right? Like that is like all you you struggle with, like bedtime routine. And we bought a book, and in the book, it said to us, in order to help with your day-to-days, create a 10-year vision of where you want to see your family in 2025, because it was 2015. And it was like, great. So we sat around the kitchen table, and the last line of the vision, because it was something that my wife and I were passionate about and we dreamed about, and we did as a when we were younger, was experiencing our lives through travel. That didn't mean shit at the time. It was like, great, that's what we want to do, that's who we are. And I did one thing. I told everybody I could about that vision. And I was actually introduced to somebody who had just come back from living abroad in Barcelona with his family. When he told me that, I'm like, that sounds like a pipe dream. I'm like, okay, thanks for telling me. I spoke to him for four years, literally a dozen, two dozen times about asking him all about that. And then in 2019, we hit what many people hit a midlife, I don't want to call it crisis, but maybe a rut. It's a rut, every yeah, it was a rut. And we were just like doing the same thing every day. And repeat, repeat. I was building my business, everything was good. We we're actually comfortable. We weren't in pain, we were just the rut and comfort. And our kids were going from elementary school to twins. We have twins from elementary to middle school. And so my wife just said to me casually one day, she's like, Why don't we just apply to the school in Barcelona where that other family went and see what happens? And that was the beginning of the the journey of the small question to see what happens that led us to Barcelona. But you know how many people talk the talk and don't do. Oh my god, David, how many people had said, Oh my god, you know what? I I I went to San Diego, I went to La Jolla, and it's so beautiful. I would love to live in SoCal or everybody, everybody when they come back from Hawaii. Oh my gosh. Yeah, to live in oh, I could see myself it's it's a pillowtop. You're absolutely right. And so we did a lot of little steps to get to actually going there because there was not one big thing like we're the we're gonna do this. So we applied for school, not even still thinking it was gonna happen. We put a deposit down saying, okay, we can lose that deposit, but we gotta at least do it. We started applying for a visa, which was a long, painful process. Then we actually started telling people we were going. Even the big the big thing was I sat down with my parents and I said, Kelly and I have decided we're moving to Barcelona. We hadn't decided yet. We weren't even sure we were gonna do it, but we were just pretending that we were doing it to you know to test the waters, but also to see what happened. I think we told one too, I swear, I think we told one too many people. We're like, I guess we should do this now, and that's it. We went there for one weekend to find an apartment, we found it, put the deposit down, and that's how we accidentally ended up in Barcelona, or not accidentally, being intentional. And because for me, I I lived five blocks from where I grew up at that time. This was not in my blueprint. I was not sure, but it was I wanted to give my kids an experience that they would remember for the rest of their lives, and so I still am not really sure how we well how we did it, um, how it happened, but that's why the book I wrote it, because I journaled every day publicly and I shared it with people every day while I was there, and so I wanted to memorialize that for my kids, but for other people who are like, what did he do? How did he do it? And so that's what the book's about. Well, and you were talking about you know putting the kids to sleep.
Barcelona Life Siestas Gaudi COVID
I mean, what better place than a place that shuts down midday for you know the mandatory siesta? There's a flip side to that. Dinner, dinner did not start until like nine o'clock every night. So so you would go to a restaurant, they wouldn't even open till eight. So that it was some adjusting in the beginning. Oh, trust me, I I've been there. There's for somebody that can speak Spanish, and I went there twice with my my ex-wife and and kids, and there's a major adjustment. It it's you in general, anywhere you go, is a major adjustment because you know, we're used to the Best Buy, and we're used to uh just just little necessities, like you know, things that we take for granted, like Walgreens, CVS, Sam Goody uh out in New York, and it it's it's a completely different world, just just in in that aspect compared to you know, here. Well, you're surrounded by buildings that are hundreds uh that are older than our country, yes, that's it. And especially in Barcelona, Gaudi's influence and and the beauty and the mountains. I didn't even think about we thought about the beach when we moved there. I didn't realize the pyrene, they're only two hours north, and so you can be skiing the same day. I was skiing with my boys when my wife was on the beach with my daughter, and like I'm like, this is not New York. Yeah, obviously, this happens more on the West Coast sometimes in the US. So it really was the weather. We've been in a deep freeze in New York for for a long time in the past couple of weeks, and a lot of snow. That of course doesn't exist there. So we were really excited about the weather, the culture, the food, the people, the language. And then just think speaking of Gaudi, you know, you guys got there, you're like, Yeah, by the time we leave that that uh church, uh familia Segrat or whatever that that you know he designed and all that by the time we leave, it'll be you know be completed, and it's still to this day. I think it's done now, or some, but but I'll tell you, did you go inside it? Oh oh yeah, I've been inside it twice. I mean, I've never I've never seen anything like that. And by the way, do you know how Gowdy died? I I did, but it was one of those things. I because I I did do the tour of his house and the other building. How how did he die? It's terrible, terribly mundane and stupid. He got hit by a car. So here's a guy, and he was you know in his prime, wasn't like old and decrepit. And so, not that you know, um not that being old is being decrepit, but my point is you just I didn't expect that when I was told that story about his life, and yeah, he got hit by a car. And you know what the sad part is is that uh being there and going, seeing seeing everything twice, you think being a history buff. But it was like one of those, well, he's not gonna so maybe it's sad, or maybe taking the train to go see um Dolly and see his museum and see where he's buried. But yeah, no, it it's it's amazing just in the sense that the man was ahead of his time and just to see the crazy buildings that that guy. So you went to Catays as well, yes, yeah. Yeah, we we were there in the middle towards the end of COVID, which was a unique time to be there because there wasn't a lot of tourists, of course, almost none. And I don't know if when you were in Catays, because you mentioned Dolly, like there's this hike that you go on that was really interesting and beautiful. But everything, if you've ever seen a dolly painting, everything looks like it's melting and the rocks and things like that, and you're going this hike, and the rocks look like they're melting, and like, oh, that's where he got his inspiration from. I don't know, it was just like super cool. You felt like you're in a dolly painting. No, I I went both times, like when it was slammed with tourists, yeah. Uh both pre-corona, pre-corona, where like Europe, Europe, south of Europe, the Mediterranean's taken over by by us, and we're in our little scooters saying, We're American! We're in the fascinating because I can't imagine what the real experience is there. We were in San Sebastian and Bilbao, the Bilbao, the museum, the Gowee Museum in Bilbao. It was empty, like you know, there's locals and things like that. And we stayed, we went to Rioja and we stayed at this hotel that that was modeled after the museum, the Gowdy Museum in Bilbao, and we stayed in what they called the Brad Angelina suite because that's the suite they stay in when they go there. But because of COVID, it was like 10% of what the cost they normally charge for the suite. So we were like it was just a weird time. Um, you know, obviously we paid the price, we were in the strictest lockdown in Europe uh for 50 the kids are could our kids could not leave our apartment for 52 days in a row in the beginning of COVID. So but we did get to travel when many people in Brooklyn were not even doing anything. Well, what was crazy about it was it just in Europe, places like where tourism is like 90% of the economy, like Italy, how they just shut everything down, and it was like wow. As the movie, um, what is the movie, Princess Bride? I don't know if you've ever seen it, but there's a line of course, I'm an old guy like inconceivable. Like I you go through these countries and you're just like, how was all of this shut down? It doesn't even make sense that that's possible. Well, don't worry, it was it was odd here too. Yeah, for sure. I I I traveled everywhere and got upgrade first class every time, and it was the it took me like like two hours just to eat a pack of jelly beans. And it just the rules were crazy because you know, if you're eating something, it was okay to have the mask down. But if you fell asleep, oh yeah, if you fall asleep and the mask uh slid down, they uh they'd shake you. But you're in Florida, COVID didn't even happen there, right? Like there was no mask, there was no nothing. Uh no, the municipalities, believe it or not, there was look Florida's like Miami Beach, right? Miami, Miami's a little different. Yes, Miami Beach was uh touch and go, yeah. But like it was really the west coast of Florida that was like the wild, wild west, like Naples. Uh there's this place uh called Seed the Table, it's very like right-wing anti-like the urinals have Joe Biden and FJB everywhere, and and they would have like signs because of HIPAA laws. We can't ask you for your for your health to see if you you have that because you know, the I I guess some people couldn't you didn't have to wear a mask if you you had that. I understand, yeah. Yeah, so it was like that. So everybody I'm sorry to bring us back into a COVID conversation. No, no, no. It's okay. I I mean I'm one of those that I just smirked because I never thought it was gonna get so drastic. And and then uh maybe I'm like naive to believe that we would create you know political something on as because it was it was pretty much whatever way or whatever municipality was based on who you voted for, which is insane. But hey, welcome, welcome to America. Yeah. So you know what? I thought you with the whole move, I thought you got you're gonna tell me you you had like some Jerry Maguire moment, you know, that you got you got up and you just started screaming that you want, you know. But that's funny, because believe it or not, a lot of people okay, you you got the dopamine hit because you told everybody. Usually, like when it comes to hey, I'm gonna lose weight, I'm gonna lose a hundred pounds. And oh my gosh, Omar and David, you guys are rock stars. Can I just say something to that? I I you're absolutely right. I so I read the success principles in like 2010. By Jack Canfield. And one of the principles that stuck with me was keep your commitments. And one of the things I and that's when I made a commit with my friend to run the marathon for the first time. The furthest I had run before that was like a 5K. And the one thing we didn't do was tell anybody else because we didn't want the dopamine hit of telling people we did it. They're like, oh, congratulations, you're doing it. And so that most of the time I'm like, I agree with you. I don't tell people things because I don't want the dopamine hit because that it'll trick my brain to think I already did it. I was moving to Barcelona was such a pipe dream that I actually the dopamine hit helped us take the leap, not the opposite. Does that make sense? Like of course it's because things that you think are gonna do, I actually didn't think we were gonna do it. And so the more people we told, the more confidence that we built in ourselves to making it happen. And it was pulling my wife left her job and she's never gone back to working, which is a blessing for her and our family because one of the gifts of living in Barcelona for two years was the amount of time that we got to spend with our kids in travel, in learning new language, and new culture, in the uncomfortableness of all of that and getting stuck in COVID in a foreign land. And like, I don't know if you know the statistics, 80% of the time you spend with your kids are before the age of 18. Yes. Okay, yes. So she and then after afterwards, you're you're gonna laugh because my kids were both in like travel soccer, and it was like, oh, I hate this. What what crap? And then whenever I drive by going anywhere, and I know it's like travel soccer, it's like, oh my gosh, if only I can go back. So everybody wants their kids to grow up, and then it's like, yeah, you you want that field of dreams moment where you can go back and play catch with your your dad. And it's interesting timing for me because my twins are 18 years old, 17, they're seniors in high school, so they're going to college next year. So I'm going from three kids in the house to one kid, and I'm a little bit in denial with it. But like my wife, when we moved back to New York, she decided not to go back to her job because she wanted to continue to spend all her time and energy in PTA and parenting and all these different things, and she hasn't looked back, you know, for a moment. Well, because that's priceless, man. You you know, we we we're the opposite of Europeans, we work our asses off to work just to buy stuff, while in Europe. I mean, I remember being one time in Amsterdam with my ex-wife, and you could tell that they're on a date, and the guy's picking up this girl like in his bicycle, not motorcycle, bike, and they're just like having a picnic right there. Um that would never happen, that would never fly.
Time Control Work Culture Remote Teams
I I realized early on, this is one of my first jobs, or probably back in I don't know, high school, college, the most important thing to me was control over my time. That meant everything to me, and that's why I always wanted to be an entrepreneur. That's why I always wanted to sort of do what I wanted to do. And I had some really bad experiences. I was in because I'm a lawyer when I was in law school working as an intern for different law firms where I was completely disrespected, thrown out of an office. And I remember saying to myself, I'm never first of all, I've been never treating one like that, but two, I'm never gonna put myself in a position to be treated that way again. And that's why after so many years, I was an entrepreneur for for 20 years, and then I'm like, these people, I'm I'm highly educated. And then it was also then like, why would you treat people like this to begin with? And and what and it's always the companies that have like uh all the posters on teamwork and it all the bullshit because you think, oh man, these people this place is gonna be great. You know, they they know about leadership, they know about and it's the worst, and it's it's the I mean uh I was raised, you treat everybody with respect, uh, and a lot of these bosses. I mean, and and what's happening now in corporate America is it's not that millennials and Gen Zs don't want to work, they've heard the horror stories from their grand their parents and grandparents, and it's like they they don't want to work in in those conditions, they don't they don't they don't want to be a number or you know speak when spoken to. Yeah, no, look, it's a weird part in our society because so we are a remote company, we didn't start that way. We turned remote during COVID. We had a beautiful office right on Wall Street, beautiful studio for all of our courses, and now we have employees in 12 different states, so we burn the boats like we can't go back to an office, and we've built a really strong culture remotely. And I tell everybody, I want you to have a hobby that you love and you're passionate about outside of the job that you can share because I do it, and that's an important component to your happiness and and of course work work-life balance. We do a company retreat everywhere every year and somewhere special, and it's just a time for us to get together and connect. Now, David, did living abroad ultimately just bring you closer to that life that you envisioned and closer to who you you thought you were gonna become? Did it enhance that? I I clearly it did with your wife because yeah, well yes and no. So yes, a hundred percent. Like we almost stayed, I don't know about permanently, but we almost stayed longer than two years. We it was for us being in so yeah, you said that not many people actually go abroad, but when you're abroad living in Barcelona, you're surrounded by expats, so you're surrounded by like-minded individuals who are there to explore and meet new people. So we it almost felt like adult summer camp because you think it in your 40s you have all the friends you're gonna have for the rest of your life. We made 30 new couple friends within a month, and many of them we're still close with. That's that's the story we tell ourselves, so we can keep people at bay. Oh, well, you know, that guy didn't go to my college, he's not my fraternity brother, you know, who's you know, the and it's always because I would because totally, or it's just it's just hard. It's hard like we're all busy, and it's really hard to connect. That's I think it's more that you you just don't know what the this the segue is in to find like-minded because it's easier when when you grow up with someone because okay, you don't have that time, you have shared experiences, yeah. You have shared experiences, so you don't always laugh about it. It's not just that, it's what in your routine of your normal life, even your best friend, they're like, Oh, let's get together. You're like, Okay, maybe four months on a Saturday. When you said in Barcelona, let's get together, they said, How about tomorrow night? Because that's what we were there for. And so you asked me if I was living my dream life. We were traveling, it was beautiful, the weather was great, we were together as a family. Yes, I was living my dream life. The reason I said yes and no, right before we left to Barcelona, I published my first book, The Fast Forward Mindset. Two months later, I left. If I hadn't left, I'd be doing sort of what I'm doing right now. I just finished four TV interviews this morning. I'm doing a book tour, I'm traveling, I'm speaking a lot. My goal is to get the word out. I moved to Barcelona and I focused on me and my family, which I don't regret at all. And then, of course, COVID happened and the whole world stopped. So I actually never really did what I was meant to do with my first book, which I can do right now, which was about how to help people get out of their comfort zone and you know fast forward their mindset, you know, fast forward their mindset by being more fearless. And so I the if I stayed here, probably nothing would have changed because COVID happened. So I now feel like I'm back into my normal routine, which is totally cool. I'm publishing a book, but I do miss the living in Europe. I do surprising. Also surprising. I don't know if you're serious or joking. No, no, because we're creatures of habit. Yeah, I mean, I I came back to the place that I I grew up at. I I mean, I I left South Florida because clearly South Florida sucked. It wasn't because of me, it wasn't because the fact I was a severe introvert, it wasn't because I was afraid of rejection or or all these fears. I you know, it it dawned on me literally, because I'm a you know, I'm kind of slow, that you know, I could have grown up in Lahoy, I could have grown up in Beverly Hills, and I always still had the same hangups.
Friendship Abroad And What We Miss
And you know, I'll say this to your point. First of all, we have a great community in Brooklyn, and I and I love our friends and I love everything. You know, this is where I grew up. I live five blocks from where I grew up right now. Here's what I could tell you we were there for one year, then COVID hit, or seven months and COVID hit, and then the next year was kind of weird. If I was still there, we have friends who moved there the same year as us and stayed. You're right. It probably would be more like my normal life here, right? Because it's no longer new, it's no longer fresh. That happened while we were there. We started to see things differently. So maybe that's it. But I always want to see new things, to push myself to explore new areas. And when you're living in a different country or a different continent, it makes it easier to do that. But it might be a little bit harder here, but we can still there's so there's so much of the US that I haven't seen. And the US is almost as big as all of Europe, right? And it's probably as beautiful, if not more beautiful, in nature. So maybe I'll do that this summer. We'll see. And what people don't understand is uh just way different. Well, we're like Europe in the sense uh someone in uh Brooklyn is completely different than somebody that from Bend, Oregon, or from Carson, Nevada, or Brownsville, Texas. We we all have different, yes, we share. I can't even say a language because the way we we talk and the way we enunciate things are completely different. But and that's that's what I tell people if you want to connect, you have to come from a place of non-judgment and try to understand someone's world instead of being like, because the number one issue that we we want everybody to be a carbon copy of ourselves, we want people to have the same social views, the same political why don't that be boring? Could you imagine uh how many people live here? 300 million, 300 people, 300 million people. That's what social media is, though. No, it's it's just echoing your own beliefs a million times over.
People Are People Propaganda And Heroes
And and then the the number one thing that that you experience, well, you live in in Brooklyn, but what people don't realize is when you travel abroad, everybody has the same hangups. It's it's really just manipulation, it's really just propaganda, like thinking some kid in in Thailand or Taiwan. You know, everybody just wants to be loved or find love. Can I just tell you something? We were in Morocco in the Sahara Desert, eight hours from Marrakesh. We drove there and we were with people from all over the world staying in tents, and we had this exact conversation. And this one guy who's from Nigeria, who actually lives in Florida now, he was saying, Look, I've traveled all over the world, I've lived in many different places. The one thing that we have every country has in common, people just want to live and be happy. He said, right there. People are people anywhere you go, and that's even like in Europe, I expected to go somewhere and to feel so different, and it felt exactly the same. And I'm like, Yeah, and you just realize the stereotypes in any of these places are just yeah, people want to live and be happy, and that's why but it's propaganda to for the war machine or for you know, so Fox News or CNN. I either I mean, I I honestly been so many different countries, and I know for a fact that you know, when we're trying to when we're occupying Iraq, some 16-year-old Iraqi kid's not like, How can we bring down America and Europe? No, man, he just wants he wants to find love, he wants to find happiness, he wants to find a chick to go out with. Yeah, and that's that's just something that we create us versus them when uh religion, everything, pretty much people just have the same basic needs, man. And and and that's something that you know that's why go out there. If you're from Kansas and you know, Manhattan, Kansas, another Manhattan, go out there, go, go, go abroad somewhere, and you'll see, you know, people just want to be love, find love, happiness. Well, that's why you got to really commend people who do stand up for those who are being persecuted or attacked, because it is the easiest thing to do, is be like, it's not us. And and if I do put myself out there, I might get attacked because you just want to live and be happy, and that takes a lot of confidence. And this you can repeat this a million times over in every different civil civilization since the beginning of time. There's been people who stood up, you know, and well, those are heroes, you know that that those are real heroes. The the problem is is with not even not even before social media, we had this skewed view of heroes from movies or TV show that you're bulletproof or you're this or you're that. A hero is somebody that goes steps out to help out others when they don't have to, unfortunately. And again, we're this is not the intention of this podcast. No, not at all. Just have one conversation. But one person's hero is another person's terrorist, and that's always always right. Yeah, and that's the the struggle, and I don't know, it's just it's really sad. I I told you we're like-minded people, brother.
The Rule That Changed Everything
Here, what's one lesson from this amazing experience? Because I I consider it an amazing, beautiful experience that anyone even without uprooting their life, can apply. About a month into living there, we went to a new barbecue, like a barbecue for new parents at the kids' school. And I was feeling a little bit of an imposter syndrome at that time because I as we were talking about it, I met some people from all over the world who had traveled to so many different countries. And I'm like, I'm from Brooklyn, I came from Brooklyn. So it was a little bit feeling off. The dean gave a speech, and I felt like he was talking directly to me, Omar. Like he looked, felt like me directly in the eye and goes, This year, you're gonna be invited to different events, barbecues, trips, hiking groups, study groups, book clubs. You might be tired, it might feel inconvenient. You have one job during this year, and your job is to say yes. Say yes to the book club that only breathes in Spanish. Say yes to the hiking club that seems too intense. Say yes to the trip to a country you can't even or city you can't even pronounce. And when he said that, he goes, That's how you get the most out of this, and you get the most out of the mess and the magic of being in Barcelona. And I can tell you, that hit me like a ton of bricks because I went from feeling like an imposter to getting energized. And I started saying yeah, literally that next morning, I said yes to a museum tour that I never would have done. And I met my best, one of my best friends doing that. So that that was one of the takeaways that I uh helped us in the trip and of course helped us beyond that. And it's not easy to do that, but that was a good lesson. But but the what's amazing about that is it's all about being outside of a comfort zone because so many people are like, Oh, I went to Jamaica, I went to Jamrock. It's like, oh yeah, really? What did you do? Well, we stayed at the Ritz Carlton for a full week. Well, did you go out and explore? No, we what we did. We we we took a tour with that, you know, 60 other tour tour groups took to whatever falls and whatnot. And it's like, no, that's not experiencing. You you you said it best. You you did things that you would have never done. Here's what I would say to that, because I don't want to be a hater because there are like I have a friend who does something like that, and then they go to something like the Ritz Carlton, they do it every year, but they also do it with a group of like 30 other families and all the kids, and all the kids get to spend all this time together and grow their connections and grow their community. And for them, they love it because they're building the ties and the the relationships, and they're not they don't have the wonderlust that I have, right? That's it's not not everybody has that, and so that I think that is special. It's not necessarily for me, but for for most people, they just they're so burnt out in their day-to-day, they do want to just lie on the beach and and sort of decompress because I could tell you, we just went to Argentina in December. We had to take five different flights to like Patagonia to Bariloche, and then we had to travel and do all these things. It was exhausting, but it was unbelievable at the same time. But we didn't we came back from that, you know, the joke like I need a vacation for my vacation, but that's how we feel, but that's what that's what works for us, but it's it's definitely not for everybody. So I just wanted to put put that out there, and also probably what you realize too is when you went to a place like Bartholona, you weren't exactly an outsider because there's just I I know tourism is down at the time, but there's still the trickle of tourists, and there is also expats, man.
Learning Spanish And Parenting Amplified
If if you and there's also the golden arches, if you ever really seriously missed look, at the end of the day, the expat community in Barcelona is strong as giving me like there's more Americans there than I realized, and we were in a community, we were in an international school that spoke that was taught in English, so we were surrounded, expect we were surrounded, but I would say we probably spoke too much English while we were there and surrounded ourselves with too many people who were from not from Spain, and so that is uh it gave me empathy because in New York, especially in Brooklyn, there's a lot of expats from Europe and other countries, and you see they hang out with each other because that's what they do, but they're still part of the community, and so it just gave me more empathy for somebody who is from a different culture living here, it's not their first language. Well, it's it's it's hard, man. And instead of like ostracizing or or beating them up, I mean, I I I never understood why, as a nation, it's something to be proud of that you only speak one language. It's like, well, the whole rest of the world speaks more than one. Yeah, but I'm an American, so I mean, one of the best moments for me was when I was able to start really, you know, it's still at the level of a first grader, but you can have conversations with everybody at a first grade level. And so when I was able to like order food and get things, you know, just have full conversations with taxi drivers and people I didn't know and listen to them and respond, it was just one of the most proud moments for me because I'm like, I didn't know any Spanish when I moved there, and to to turn from no Spanish to conversational, basic conversational Spanish was really rewarding. But the and not only that, man, but uh everything, everything that you did took shut spa, man. Because yeah, it's no to he here's the deal you feel like it does, and that's why and for most people it is. What happens is when you're there, you're surrounded by thousands of other families who are doing the same thing, so it doesn't feel so special anymore, right? You're like, oh, okay, a lot of people do this, but I can tell you if if it's hard to put your kid kid to beds in Brooklyn, moving to Spain doesn't make it any easier. So all the challenges we were having in New York were just amplified parenting challenges, and by the way, I share, I share it. I hate when people say this, but I'm gonna do it. I share it all in the book. I taught like he does, he he does, and by the way, uh David gave me a digital copy. You're you're gonna laugh. A lot of a lot of people are like, you want to interview me about this book? Yeah, just send me a digital, and they're like, Well, how about if he sends it to everybody? It's like please, please do. Yeah, no, it it you you'd laugh at the the the blow, and it's like, well, how it it makes a better conversation. Well, thank you for no, but I send it so many times that people don't even look at it, so I I appreciate you doing that.
Writing Books As AI Floods Markets
And look, writing a book from 99.9% of the population is not a money-making endeavor, it's because you believe in the topic and you want others to know about it. Oh, yeah, some some guy keeps like every quarter. It's like how and I'm like, well, if if I promote the heck out of it, I can go to a a really nice dinner. But if I don't, uh if Shoney's is around or somewhere, or you know, maybe Einstein bagels, but it, you know, I'm not gonna be on Oprah's capital. But you have two books. I'm like, have you heard of academia? All those professors have are published. Yeah. And you know, they're not going to Hugh Hefner's mansion anytime soon, the party. Yeah. People ask me, why do I write books? And my answer is because I have to. I I couldn't. It's something inside of me that I can't turn off. Yeah. So everybody has their reason. And to me, everybody's going to be able to do it. I wouldn't mind making money from it, but you know, I yeah, but what the less than one percent. But you know what? We we're kindred spirits. We we we we're authors, right? We're we're we're in the same book. Yeah, yes, we're we're not Stephen King, but you know what? There's only one Stephen King, and the stuff we write, people aren't gonna be flocked into the millions to buy it. And we we talked a little bit about AI before, but every industry is gonna change. Writing books is one of them. The the amount of books that are now being published daily that are completely 100% AI written. Um, I don't have a statistic, but I know it's pretty high. And it's gonna be really, it's almost like it's gonna be this thing where, you know, it's handmade, there's gonna be like human-made book versus AI-made book. So hey man, I got my two books. I it was pre-AI because but believe it or not, I'm like, if I write a third one, I'm gonna have some, I'm gonna have some idiot say that I couldn't that I I used AI. I'm like, do I use AI for stuff? Yeah, show notes, of course, stuff like that. My ego, I I need to know it comes from me. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, everything's changing really quickly. If you're not using AI, you are hurting yourself. So yeah. And AI is more, it's a tool. It's like the internet. So many people instead want to create a caricature, and that's fine. But realize it can do way more than that. It can do way more than create an action figure of yourself. I haven't even done that, but yes. Me neither. Yeah, uh, believe it or not, you're interested. So which one would you prefer? The Barcelona Beach or your Brooklyn bagel. There's a new bagel that's came out. It's called Pop-Up Bagel, and it's in Brooklyn, and it's I don't know what they've done, but it's the best bagels that I've ever had. So well, it's the water, man. No, no, Brooklyn bagels in general. There's a new brand called Pop-Up Bagel that it's just light and fluffy and different. So a damn good pop-up bagel is good, but um, I don't know. Barcelona Beach is still uh I'm I try you know, you gotta stay away from the bread when you're in your 40s. So I'll I'll take it. You know what I love and I'll tell this uh everybody, this book it's about family, faith in yourself, risk, leadership, identity, reinvention. To me, if if if I a personal personally, uh 100% fits the what if it did work model because you kept on forging ahead. You're you're like, let's do it. And trust me, I you didn't I didn't have oh, did people tell you not to do it? That's a no-brainer. You know, people were telling David, that's crazy to go. We just bought a new house about a year. Right there, and people are like, You just bought a house, why are you leaving? I'm like, because this is the we haven't that was the only time we had to do it because the kids are going from elementary to middle school, and I love that because this is exactly the theme of your podcast, and so I would just encourage anybody. Hey, usually publicists have to twist my arm because a lot of times they don't fit, but it's like, oh, you know, I he's he or she's giving me so many. But when I read about what the story, who you are, and everything, it it's like I'm like, man, this is kindred spirits, yeah. You know, I'm yeah, yeah. Dude, it I I'm a guy that moved way out of South Florida to the sticks in Louisiana, because you know, to try something different. Uh you know, it everything's what the thing is, people are too afraid to get out of their comfort zone. Brother, you and your wife are like the poster child, and it it strengthened their it strengthened your marriage, it strengthened you guys as a family. Just say one one level of truth before we end, is I'm still afraid always to get out of my comfort zone, and I just have to reprogram myself each and every time. So I I I don't know, this is like I don't do it this despite the I mean I don't I don't get rid of the fear, I do it despite the fear, so it's it's never gone away, it's still there for everything that I do. And I was literally talking to my family about it today, brother. Put it to you this way, since you're Jewish, you don't think Moses had 40 years of fear? He still did it though, right? Everybody, everybody okay. We're all we're all human, brother. Yeah, totally. I was if you told me, hey, you know what, from this experience, F everything, I'd be like, Oh my gosh, David, you're so full of crap. But I do believe, no, yeah, dude. Here's the most exciting part is every time I've done something, I have looked back at what I thought was a mountain and it was a molehill. And one of the best conversations I had with my daughter two months after moving to Barcelona, I said, How has this been for you? What was it like for you to go to school? She goes, You know, Dad, I thought it was gonna be a lot harder than it was, but it turns out it wasn't that hard. I'm like, Yeah, I know, me too. And I'm like, Well, what does that mean for other things? She goes, Well, maybe that means other things won't be as hard as I think they are either. I'm just like, fuck, yeah. Like, that's exactly why we did this to open to let them know that they don't have limits in life. And so they're still gonna have limits, obviously, because we're all human, but it's just they can always have this book and this reminder of this experience to help them in the next thing.
Where To Find David Online
David, where do people buy this amazing book? And how do we social media stalk you? Yeah, because man, you're an interesting guy. And the podcast. Uh how do we listen to your podcast? Because you're an extraordinary guy. Who cares what the topic's about? Thank you. Can you tell my this to my kids, please? Um, uh, just kidding. Um, I stuck. Don't worry. That's how it is. I got an 18 and a 20-year-old. Yeah, that's how it is. Whatever. Um, so thank you for that. 11suitcases.com. Either the number or the word that will take you to you can learn the story. And there's an easy link to get to Amazon to buy the book. We became a bestseller, so excited about that. My podcast is called Lawyers Who Learn, lawyers who learn.com. I interview the brightest, interest, most interesting lawyers and those in legal tech about their growth journey. So I love doing that as well, similar to this, but they just share that story as well. And I post almost every day on LinkedIn. So if you go to LinkedIn, you can connect with me, David Schnerman, and you will, or you can put in the show notes and we will connect and you we can start communicating there. You can connect with David, but don't try to sell him on LinkedIn. Don't sell him that you can make him a 200 million views on on his on his podcast or and downloads and all that. Because we all get it, and we're sick and tired of it. I believe it or not, I quit LinkedIn just because of that, because but that bothers me. So maybe you know, just you telling me that will get me. I it it's one of the best sources I have to learn about others in my industry. So I would recommend maybe going back. I just ignore the sales invites. So I hear you, bro. David, Omar, thank you for the time. Thank you for the book, thank you for having the courage, and thank you just for being you, man. You live in service because overall, you didn't have to be on this show, and you are. So thank you, brother. I appreciate that. And I do live in service, and I always trying to figure out how to serve more people, so I appreciate that.