Today we’d like to introduce you to Glen Van Peski

Hi Glen, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?

For me, as with for most of us I suspect, it’s not one story, it’s multiple stories, woven together at points. I have a story that is my professional engineering career. I have a story that is accidentally starting a backpacking company, Gossamer Gear. I have a story of adventures in the outdoors. I have a story of relationships, getting married (and staying married over 40 years), having kids (including a severely handicapped son who died before his 20th birthday), growing up with my divorced mom.

There are many crossovers and connection points, as each of the story lines impacts the others in some way. There are lessons learned in all the stories, which also were useful in the parallel lines. And there are certainly themes that run through more than one storyline.

A love of the outdoors is something that was instilled in me growing up, and has been a more or less constant theme in my life. This shows up in my outdoor adventure stories, and in starting Gossamer Gear. Also many of my relationships have been formed through either the adventures or starting Gossamer Gear, and many of my relationships include doing things outside.

Being of service is a theme found more than once. I was successful in my engineering career by figuring out how to be of service. I’ve been married for 42 years because I learned how to serve my wife (well, okay, also because she’s too stubborn to give up on us). Gossamer Gear started with me sewing gear to serve my own needs, and grew to a company serving others by removing barriers to help them get outside. Generosity is a piece of being of service for us. Years ago we set up a separate checking account, and diverted a percentage of all income into that account. We started small, and grew to where today we put in a large percentage of our income to the account. This means we can take advantage of opportunities to be generous, to make a difference in the lives of others, because we’ve set aside money that is no longer in our budget, we’re just stewards of it.

Hand-written notes is another important theme. I have lifelong relationships and successful business deals that started with a hand-written note. In this digital age, there’s something magical about sitting down and putting pen to paper. It makes a difference, and it makes a real connection. And it’s something that anyone can do!

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?

There were plenty of struggles, as is true for most people I think. When I was the City Engineer for Carlsbad, a water department staff knocked on the door while I was at work, and asked my wife if she wanted to make a payment before they shut off the water. I had been too busy to pay the water bill.

When the economy tanked in San Diego County, I worked a year without salary so I could continue to pay my employees. We took out a second on the house (the first mortgage was at 15%), and Francie went back to work as a nurse to keep the household afloat.

Everyone has had some hardship, and some blessing. So much of how we look at life depends on what we focus on. As I write in my book take less. do more.:

Here’s the truth: I can tell two very different stories about my life, and both are completely accurate. This is the hardship story: I was a nervous, anxious kid. When my parents divorced in the middle of my fourth-grade year, I was distraught. I cried so much my parents had to move me into another room so my crying wouldn’t keep my brother and sister awake. We left sunny Southern California with our mom to drive across the entire country in the middle of winter and ended up in an apartment in Amherst, Massachusetts. I had to start a new school where I knew no one. When I joined the Boy Scouts, I was sexually molested.
And then when my mom took me for psychological counseling, that psychologist also abused me. I was not popular at school and didn’t have many friends. After high school, I moved back to California, where I married Francie. When she was pregnant with our second child, I almost died in a plane crash that killed the pilot. Then Derek was born severely disabled, and the cost for medical insurance on my fledgling company went from $600 a month to $8,000. Then the economy tanked and my business went with it. I worked for a year with no pay and had to take out a second mortgage on the house to pay our staff until I was finally forced to shutter the business. Meanwhile, Francie’s depression brought on by Derek’s struggles spiraled out of control, all while I was working eighty-plus hours a week to keep the financial wheels on.

Sounds pretty grim, doesn’t it? And if I focus on that grimness, I will miss all the happiness that takes place in story number two,
which is also true. This is the happiness story: I was a nervous, anxious kid. I was raised by intelligent, loving, and involved parents, who instilled good values and morals in me. When they divorced and my mother moved us across the country, thanks to family money, she was able to continue caring full time for us kids. We had amazing educational opportunities and lacked for nothing. Boy Scouts fostered in me a love of the outdoors that led to incredible successes later in life. In high school, I was the tri-captain of the lacrosse team and president of the Outing Club before I organized a forty-two-hundred- mile bicycle trip across the United States with three friends. Taking two years “off” school, I worked at an engineering firm and found my passion for civil engineering, which set me on my future career course. I graduated in four years summa cum laude and moved to San Diego with an amazing woman I met at my apartment complex and somehow convinced to marry me. I worked for local firms before starting out on my own and always had enough work. I used not just my engineering skills but marketing skills to build my company. When the economy tanked, I was able to find jobs elsewhere for all my employees before shuttering the business
and going to work for another firm. The birth of our disabled son, Derek, brought me to Jesus, a huge turning point and strength in my life. Because of my involvement with Boy Scouts as a leader and giving back to my community, I started a backpacking company on the side. That turned into a multimillion-dollar business. Though I’ve never taken a salary from the company I formed, it gave me relationships all over the world with amazing people: Guinness World Record holders, National Geographic Explorers, renowned endurance athletes, A-list directors and actors—all of whom I count as friends. Today, Francie and I have control over our time and money and enjoy amazing freedom. We live in a custom home in a location we chose with scores of genuine friends as neighbors. What an amazing life!

Both stories are absolutely true. They just depend on where I put the focus.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?

I am most known for my ‘side hustle’, Gossamer Gear. I’m proud of making my own gear, and helping others to lower their pack weights so they can get outdoors more. But I’m also proud of my ‘day job’ that paid the bills and allowed me to retire. I fell into civil engineering – land development by accident. When I arrived by bicycle in California in 1976, a friend of my dad’s was looking for a draftsman. We worked long hours, and I loved the work. Every project was different, and had different issues to solve, usually simultaneously and sometimes with conflicting goals or regulations. After getting a degree and starting my own engineering company, I loved the challenge of building a company also… “the business of business.” It was a great challenge that never got boring, though sometimes terrifying. I’m proud that I’ve been able to have my own companies, and also work for others. In my mind, you’re always working for someone, and the principles are the same. In some ways having a boss is the easier option.. you just have to keep them happy and make them look good. When you have your own business, you’re working for your clients, and your employees.

What set me apart in my engineering career is working on my ‘soft skills’. I know a lot smarter engineers, even though I did graduate summa cum laude and am a registered engineer in three states and a licensed surveyor. I’m an introvert, but I figured out that no matter how hard I worked and how smart I was, achieving anything significant was going to involve others. So I worked on becoming a better writer, so I could explain concepts in a way that people could understand but was also interesting. I joined Toastmasters, so I could become a better public speaker, and take advantage of presentation opportunities. I think it all paid off. I may not have been the smartest one in the room, but I was often the most well-rounded, and the hardest-working.

Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?

Enjoy the wonder of today, don’t miss it while you strive for a better future.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.glenvanpeski.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gvanpeski/
• Twitter: https://x.com/glenvp
• Other: https://www.gossamergear.com