Who's behind this

I'm John Cochran. I'm just a guy in Round Rock, Texas, and a proud Papa to Sevi and Whit.

I used to own a domain called retireby40.com. I did not retire by 40. Life had other plans, some of them wonderful and some of them hard, and somewhere along the way the goal stopped fitting. In 2016, at 44, after admitting I failed to achieve the first life goal, I developed a new goal. This allowed me to sell the retireby40 domain and launch my new domain.

Why 97

Because 97 is the largest two-digit prime, and I am a total nerd about prime numbers. I even sing my kids a prime number lullaby at bedtime. If I was going to aim at a number for the rest of my life, it was always going to be a prime. And I was specific about the verb: not live to 97. Thrive to 97.

What's coming

On November 2, 2026, we close on the third house in a row on our cul-de-sac that my family has bought, gutted, and rebuilt with our own hands. The kids are the crew. We're calling it Rock Shelf Trilogy: Part III, and this site opens the same day the keys land in my hand. The full story of the 97, the three houses, and the year of dust ahead will all be here.

See you on the 2nd.

John Cochran, Round Rock, Texas. Proud Papa to Sevi and Whit.