Ian Usher (born 25 July 1963) is an English traveller, author and public speaker. He is best known for his 2008 "life for sale" listing on

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...

following divorce from his wife, Laura.

Early life

Usher grew up in Barnard Castle, Co Durham, England and attended the Barnard Castle School. Following school, he lived on a

kibbutz A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...

in Israel and travelled through Europe. He gained a BEd teaching degree in Outdoor Education at Liverpool Polytechnic in 1985.

Career

He worked with British Rail as a Youth Leadership and Teamwork Counselor before opening Scarborough Jet Skiing on England's north east coast with his partner, Bruce Jones. In 2001 he moved to Australia where he worked in sales, marketing and management. In 2008, after the break up of his marriage, Usher listed his "life for sale" on eBay. He gained world wide notoriety. The final price ended up at $399,300. His stated goal for the eBay auction was a "fresh start," so, following the sale, he travelled across the globe in pursuit of a series of 100 goals, which were achieved in 100 weeks. His two-year "bucket list" ended in New York City in the crown of the

Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; French: ''La Liberté éclairant le monde'') is a List of colossal sculpture in situ, colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York City, in the U ...

on 4 July 2010. File:IanUsher CannesFilmFestival.JPG, Usher on the red carpet at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

in May 2009, achieving the 43rd goal on his list of 100 File:Ian Usher Great Wall of China.JPG, Usher visiting the

Great Wall of China The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand ''li'' wall") is a series of fortifications that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against various nomadic grou ...

in November 2009, achieving the 64th goal on his list of 100 File:Ian Usher Christmas Island Crabs.JPG, Usher visiting Christmas Island in December 2009 to see the march of the red crabs, achieving the 67th goal on his list of 100

Books

He wrote two books, 2008's ''A Life Sold'' and 2013's ''Paradise Delayed''. In ''A Life Sold'', he documented two years of travel. The movie rights were purchased by

Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Pictures is an American film production company and subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. The studio is the flagship producer of live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Studios uni ...

, which commissioned a project called ''Life for Sale''. It was scheduled to be produced by Andrew Panay.

References

External links

100goals100weeks.com

IanUsher.com
– personal website {{DEFAULTSORT:Usher, Ian 1963 births Living people 21st-century English writers People educated at Barnard Castle School