Sometimes success comes at the expense of family or passion projects, and creating a life without compromising on those can feel like a Sisyphean task, nearly impossible.
Los Angeles native Sean Swentek figured out how to ride the wave through a combination of grit, gumption, and later-in-life, education.
The business executive and entrepreneur has a CV that would impress Louis L’Amour, including opening the first SOHO House in New York City, interning at one of the biggest social media agencies in Los Angeles, driving an ambulance in his late teens to early twenties and starting the surf therapy nonprofit A Walk On Water. To name a few.
The Arizona State University alum credits his education as the catalyst for new career ventures that allowed him to live the life he wanted.
He graduated high school at 16 and started junior college, but quickly decided to ditch college plans and join the workforce full-time instead.
“I wanted money, if I'm honest,” he said. “I didn't think school was the route for me because I started making good money out of high school. So I went to junior college off and on, and then just left and explored the world and moved all over the US. I opened restaurants and bars and did a variety of work in sales and marketing.”
Swentek saw the potential of digital marketing back when Friendster and MySpace were still relevant internet entities. Some of his biggest successes while running bars and restaurants came from leveraging early social media on Facebook to drive traffic to his establishments.
“I just saw the power of this digital networking tool,” he said. “I love meeting new people. I love talking to people. This felt like a way to accelerate that. And I thought this nascent industry of social media was gonna play a big part in marketing.”
How right he was.
By his mid-thirties, the lack of a degree started to niggle at Swentek. He missed education and worried the lack of a degree might hold him back.
“It felt weird to me that I didn't have a degree,” he said. “It was something that I had always thought I would have.”
He tackled the problem with the same intensity and focus that he threw at all of his enterprises, researching online programs that would conveniently fit into his lifestyle while delivering an excellent education.
Swentek ultimately selected a degree program offered through ASU Online.
“I had a very specific target in mind of specialization in marketing with a focus on digital marketing, ethics, human behavior and things that were important to me when it came to marketing,” he said. “ASU Online let me add in and take out classes to make a custom degree that fit what I was trying to get out of it. I really appreciated that.”
It was during this time that Swentek, along with some friends, founded A Walk On Water, a nonprofit using surfing as a form of therapy for children with special needs. The organization aligned with Swentek’s history of volunteer work in youth-focused sports.
After graduating from ASU, Swentek was poised to transition from intern to full-time employee at a major social media agency. However, he was recruited to run social media for a multibillion-dollar healthcare company and later, delved into the commercial banking industry.
His degree gave him the life-long learning skills to be flexible and apply his skills across industries, companies and business ventures.
Then, in 2017, A Walk On Water reached a milestone; it was ready to hire its first employee.
Changing gears, Swentek came aboard as its Executive Director. For the next three years, he poured his heart and soul into his passion project.
Today, A Walk On Water is one of the largest surf therapy organizations in the world, with millions of dollars raised to date and tens of thousands of kids served over the past 12 years.
“I've been volunteering with sports for children with special needs for over 20 years,” he said. “I started in 1999 with Special Olympics. I think sports are the foundation for youth development, and for kids with special needs or disability, I thought it was important to give them opportunities to experience that if they didn't have the avenues otherwise.”
A Walk On Water events involved hundreds of people coming together at the beach. When COVID arrived, those events were no longer possible.
As the whole world stood at a standstill, so did Swentek. For a guy who had been working full-time since he was 14, not working felt like an identity crisis.
Those choppy seas subsided: He seized the opportunity to join Omnidian, a startup in the renewable industry.
Even though it was another new company and industry, Swentek was thrilled to accept the challenge. He started as the director of social media and was recently promoted to vice president of marketing.
Swentek’s wife, Dr. Lourdes Swentek, is a board-certified surgeon with a schedule to match. When he took the helm at A Walk On Water with the commensurately reduced paycheck, her career provided needed support for their fledgling family. Today, he can support her in her goals.
“My wife knew from the age of nine that she wanted to be a surgeon,” he said. “She achieved that. Somehow she’s achieved being a mom and a leading surgeon. That’s kind of amazing, I believe.”
The father of two is thankful for the career direction his degree allowed him to pursue. Even though startups have a reputation for demanding hours, Swentek’s day is structured around his family.
Sia Kahlo Swentek, 6, and Aria Gael Swentek, 2, have made Swentek a proud “double girl dad.”
With Swentek’s new company based in Seattle, he works remotely and heads into the office once or twice a month. When he’s not working, he’s hanging out with his kids or cooking dinner for the family.
“I would say that my work ethic and the way I work has allowed me to arrive at the position I have now,” he said. “I can do the things that are required of a dad. I do my fair share of the shopping, the cooking and cleaning, the taking and picking up kids from school, which I love.”
It’s a life that only became possible by evolving, seizing opportunities and earning his degree.
Swentek is excited to pass along his love of learning to his young family but also hopes academics never become a chore the way they felt to him in his youth.
“I want them to see education as more than just needing to be smart,” he said. “It’s experiencing new things. Education is about creating relationships, building on yourself, learning about things that you never thought you'd want to learn about, or would ever know about, and coming out of it a better person.”
If a person measures the success of their path by its adherence to some preconceived timeline — graduate high school, go to college, get a job — then that person might be under the mistaken impression that their journey isn’t succeeding.
That person should take a page from Swentek’s book.
“I think everyone’s path is different. Mine was just wavier than some, but I ended up where I wanted to be. It was the right path for me.”