| Why I started Progress And Play®
BAILEY HOUSE, founder
I was pursuing professional golf, running my first business, seeing real growth, confident in my character, with freedom, with resources.
On the surface, things were going well…
But each afternoon, I'd find myself sitting there alone, eating my meal, finished with work, knowing I could be out doing something, but not having the right people to do anything with.
I'd often go play sport alone.
I'd even hold back from things entirely, because doing them alone, or with the wrong people, felt worse than not doing them at all.
I'd watch videos online of guys sharing the most exciting experiences together. Sport, adventure, travel. Experiences that just looked alive. Full of camaraderie. And I knew I was capable of that.
I just didn't have my kind of people to do those things with. So I didn't.
I felt like I wasn’t making the most of years I'd only get once.
I looked for something that brought together men like me.
I couldn’t find anything besides “top 1% clubs” or groups that simply valued what I stood against.
Nothing seemed to exist for the man who carries himself differently — who comes from a real sporting background, and carries that same standard into the life he’s building.
So I stopped looking and decided to build it myself.
It started by bringing these men together online, and now, in person.
The first time was a week in Queenstown, New Zealand. A world-class sporting environment. Beautiful private home. Shared by men I was meeting for the first time — different backgrounds, different countries, but a shared standard.
We played golf. We rode mountain bikes. We hiked. We shared ideas about what we were building, and how we were building it.
I walked away from the week feeling more connected, more alive, more capable… and more like myself than I had for a long time.
Since then, I’ve realised that I didn’t need to become someone else to build the life I wanted, I just needed the people and experience that brought out more of who I already was.
And I think it’s worth making that difference for every man who’s sat where I was sitting, on those quiet afternoons… that still exist for me, but are becoming less and less frequent as this grows.
Bailey House
Founder, Progress And Play®