Life should be lived passionately

AFTER being shanghaied to Costa Rica for two weeks by his uncle when he was 14 years old, Dean Kelly Jr. has made travelling his goal and passion in life
By Morgan Thanarojpradit

A FORMER business development manager for famed night spots like Bed Supperclub, Ku De Ta, and Ce La Vi, Dean Kelly Jr. is well-known in the hospitality scene.
    
Starting a new chapter in life with a new role as entrepreneur, brand ambassadors, a husband, and a father, he said that life is just full of pleasant surprises.
    
His serious travel started in 2001 when he won Mr Panama and Mr International respectively in which he landed a modeling contract in Singapore. That gave him a chance to visit countries in Asia. Thailand was high on his bucket list since he had seen the movie, ‘The Beach’ starred Leo DiCaprio in 1998 and Maya Bay didn’t fail to take his breath away.
    
Aiming to broaden his horizon even more, he landed a position as an air crew. This is when he really got his mileage in according to his plan.
    
Feeling that he has grown past this chapter in his life, he took a couple of years off and just travel. He visited the Middle East included Dubai, Doha, Yemen, Barcelona, and coming back to Asia, he visited Bangkok and was offered the position at Bed Supperclub and the rest is history, as they say.

As for his family, Dean said he’s met Natalie on and off at events and functions throughout the years.
    
“We’ve known each other for 6 years and then the opportunity presented itself and we decided to give it a try.
    
“We have the same interests, similar passion and visions in life. It’s been a great experience.
    
“It’s only gotten better when Maya arrived. She’s a joy. It’s been a constant learning experience with Maya because there’s really no formula on how to raise a kid or how to take care of them. You work with what you’ve got.

“The most important thing is to keep an open mind and be opened to learning new things. We’re learning new things all the time with Maya.”
    
Discussing his recent projects, Travelbook.co is his current hustle.
        
“It’s all about the experience, the passion, and what kind of legacy you want to leave your next generation,” Dean said. “I want to be able to leave a lasting legacy to my family, to my daughter, and to the next generations and that’s why I decided to create Travelbook.co.
    
“My passion is about giving people a memorable experience. Experience is so important to all human beings so how can we take a regular, mundane activity or experience and turn it into a memorable one.
    
“Social media is good but it’s too disruptive, too distracting. There’s always too many things going on. Timeline doesn’t last. So realizing there’s benefits to be offered and to be gained, I came up with an idea to create a travel-centric platform where people can log in and share their travel journal and pictures with everyone.
    
“Travelbook offers that and soon more. The world has become smaller and travelling has become more convenient and more efficient and there’s nothing wrong with sharing your travel stories while being able to earn some revenue at the same time.
    
“It’s still in development but Travelbook.co is already in beta testing phase and more and more people are signing on every day.”
    
We are sure to see greater things from this family of brand ambassadors in the future.