Chris Guillebeau

A Surprise Visit To Sydney

2011-10-04T10:00:00-04:00

After a visa snafu kept me off a flight to the South Pacific island nation of Nauru, population roughly 7,000, I was stuck -- at 11 p.m. with nowhere to be except the world's smallest island country, which wasn't able to welcome me due to my lack of a visa.

I eventually made it back to my transit hotel in Brisbane, where I was able to get online and explore options. I ordered a drink right before the bar closed at midnight and considered various ideas. Vanuatu... wouldn't work. Solomon Islands... the flights were all sold out.

Kiribati and Tuvalu, the final remaining countries in the region, were too far and also had limited flight schedules. (I'm going there in January, and will now need to see about adding on Nauru.)

Accepting defeat, my next thought was to pack it in early and return home. I was booked for four days later on a Qantas award ticket out of Melbourne, so I called American Airlines to see about changing the date... no luck. Everything was filled up.

Then I thought of a novel idea: hey, maybe I could be a real traveler instead of a country-collector. Whoa. What an idea. Let's visit Sydney!

I thought about renting a car and driving down the coast, and if I was with someone or had more time, I might have done so. But I found a budget flight for $145 and hopped on down. And let me tell you... I had a magical visit to Sydney.

Read more about my impromptu visit to Sydney at The Art of Non-Conformity.

The Feeling Of Landing On A Remote Indian Ocean Airstrip

2011-09-19T09:00:00-04:00

Sometimes, your adventures take you further afield. You fly to a big city, then to a smaller city, and eventually on to an airstrip that could be anywhere. Stepping off the rickety commuter-jet stairs into the void, you're tempted to shout in expectation of an echo.

Hello... ello... lo... o.

But just because it's remote doesn't mean you're alone.

It's hard to explain to those who aren't similarly addicted why you would go to the ends of the earth for such a moment. Coming back from Comoros, a small, island country in the Indian Ocean, I took the Madagascar Milk Run. My flight to Comoros was direct, but getting back required a shuffle through what seemed to be every airport in Madagascar.

On one of the milk run stops, I was informed by a sign in the tiny airport that the #1 "core value" of the baggage handling company was "smiling." On-time baggage delivery was #3.

This, I thought, was a good representation of traveling in this part of the world. You might lose your bags, you might not get a boarding pass for a confirmed ticket, and it might take a while to get home--but eventually, nine people will be summoned to do the work of one in serving you, and they will all be smiling.

Read the whole story at The Art of Non-Conformity.

Gorilla Trekking In Rwanda And The Congo

2011-09-07T13:00:00-04:00

After flying through the day and night via Hong Kong, Johannesburg, and Nairobi (yes, I'm perpetually tired), I made it to Kigali, Rwanda — the starting point for my latest trip.

This was a special adventure: a visit to several countries in Central-East Africa, and my first time to trek into the forest of Virunga National Park in Eastern Congo.

Even after I made it to the region, getting into Congo required two overland border crossings. I left with Ahmed, my driver, from Kigali in the early afternoon for the drive to Kisoro, Uganda. It was about 150 kilometers away, but with rain, construction, traffic jams, and a couple of stops, it took nearly four hours.

We eventually rolled up to border crossing #1, where I said a temporary farewell to Rwanda and entered Uganda. To get into Uganda, I had to pay $50 in cash — fortunately, Rwanda offers free entry for U.S. citizens, so I didn't have to pay anything when arriving in Kigali the previous day.

There was a one-hour time change in Uganda, so between that and the long afternoon drive, the sun was setting as we arrived at the small town of Kisoro. My tour had advertised "budget accommodation" that night, and that's certainly what I received. It was cold and my room had no heat, so I shivered through the night and got up at 5 a.m. for a "budget breakfast" — Nescafe and white bread with no jam in sight — before we hit the road.

Read the rest of my adventure and find more videos of the gorillas we found at The Art of Non-Conformity.

Chasing Daylight: Some Thoughts on Mortality

2010-12-03T14:21:17-05:00

I recently read two books about the choices people make when faced with the knowledge of their forthcoming death. The first book is called Last Acts, and was written by a doctor who worked predominantly with hospice patients.

Throughout the book, people make different choices -- some seek to create closure with their loved ones and prepare as much as possible to say farewell to life as we know it. Others refuse to accept the reality of their forthcoming death and try to fight as long as possible. The author writes non-judgmentally, but also shares his belief that those who accepted the circumstances and attempted to create closure made the better choice than those who chose to pretend they weren't dying.

Then I read Chasing Daylight, a similar book from a very different perspective: instead of being written by a healthy doctor working with sick patients, it was written by an executive who was given less than 90 days to live due to a rapidly-appearing brain tumor. In this book, the executive considers himself fortunate to have the chance to effectively count down the days until his death. Within days of learning about the tumor, he makes a list of everyone in his life he wishes to say goodbye to. Then he begins contacting all of them, one-by-one, to let each person know what they meant to him. Some people he contacts are uncomfortable, afraid, or even angry with his desire to "close" relationships. But as he says in the book, no one is going to overrule the wishes of a dying man, so he pushes ahead.

I read both books very quickly, with the sense that when you are reading about someone whose days are limited, you shouldn't wait too long before finding out what happens with them. In different ways, both books demonstrate the need to live deliberately instead of just passively filling the days.

This brings us to a good question I heard recently (from Jamey in Little Rock):

If we were no longer here tomorrow, who would notice?

Jamey is a pastor who often asks this question of his congregation, but don't let that put you off -- I think it's an excellent question for everyone to think about, regardless of background. Would anyone notice if you were gone, and if so... what would they notice? Does that kind of thinking produce regrets? (And if so, is there anything we can do about them?)

***

Thinking about the end also helps to think about the present. When the author of Chasing Daylight realizes he has only 90 days left to live, he immediately resigns from his job as CEO -- even though he loved his job and derived a lot of fulfillment from it. Some of the hospice patients in Last Acts seek to reclaim creative projects they had abandoned earlier in life. Almost everyone in both books, at least those who are able to deal with the knowledge of their impending death, reflects about the importance of creating "perfect moments" and living in the present.

Most of the time these days, I wake up excited and go to sleep excited. Sometimes I even wake up in the middle of the night thinking about all the projects I want to work on. So many countries left! New adventures, new friends, trips, writing projects, business ventures, etc.

I don't want it to end, and I don't expect it to end for a while. But reading Last Acts and Chasing Daylight served as good reminders that we don't always get to choose how things turn out, so it's important to make sure we are deliberate in the things we do have control over.

From refugees to survivors of all kinds, I've met a lot of people whose lives have been altered through trauma and near-death experiences. In my own life, I can pinpoint a few experiences that shook me up and caused me to rethink my priorities, especially a major change that came about after 9/11 when I was depressed and trying to find a way to engage with the world. The problem is that these events don't come along very often (for good reason), and when they do come along, you don't always have a choice in how to respond.

Instead of responding to trauma, therefore, it's better if you can avoid a wake-up call like that to create change in your life. You don't have to wait for a 9/11, a car crash, another near brush with death to think about what really matters. You can do so right now, today, no matter what else is happening in your life.

As for me, I do my best to live in the present while looking forward to the future. It's not always easy to do this, even if you're happy with your life, as I am. Over here, it helps to get up on Sunday mornings and run for at least an hour without listening to music. (I like listening to music when I exercise, but it also tends to zone me out -- so sometimes it's good to just run.) When I travel, I go for long walks alone.

I balance these behaviors, which are solitary by design, with the need to contribute to something bigger than myself, and hopefully make the world a better place along the way. I feel glad to be alive and aware that all of this is a beautiful gift. I want to take it as seriously as it deserves. Mary Oliver put it this way:

Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

In various forms, questions like that are what I believe we should think about every single day. How would you respond?

On Being Homeless for 35 Minutes in Central London

2010-12-01T10:19:03-05:00

A couple of years ago, I was in London on a three-day layover after flying in from Africa. I had been in Sierra Leone for several months and was looking forward to walking the streets, hanging out in coffee shops, and seeing friends before heading on.

On my first night in the city, I had nothing important to do, so I took the underground down to Trafalgar Square. I bought a takeaway curry meal for dinner and ate about half of it on a park bench. Then I went walking down Oxford Street for about 15 blocks in search of the nearest Borders bookstore where I hoped to spend the rest of the evening reading books and drinking coffee. I kept the rest of my dinner box with me, because I thought I might run into a homeless person who would appreciate some food. After walking 10 blocks, I hadn't met anyone and began to feel silly about carrying around half a box of vegetable curry, so I finally threw it away.

Sure enough, two blocks later, I came by a panhandler who was sitting beside an ATM (a convenient location, I thought) asking people for spare change as they walked by. I felt bad about throwing away the rest of my dinner, so I decided to see if I could do something else to help.

I asked his permission to sit down and chat. "John" welcomed me and told me his story. Years ago, he had been a successful tradesman but had fallen on hard times, went through a divorce, and so on. If you talk with homeless people in most major cities throughout the world, you'll often hear similar stories. Sometimes they're true and often they're not, but I've learned that it doesn't matter that much. For whatever reason, most people hanging out on the streets all day really don't have a regular place to live.

I talked with John for ten minutes, and his story was growing crazier by the minute. The climax came when he told me that six months ago, he was at this same ATM station when a woman was being robbed. John tried to defend her, but was hurt in the process. The police came and arrested him because the mystery attacker had fled the scene.

At this point I interrupted him. "Look," I said. "I'll give you some money for dinner, but you don't have to lie to me. Do you really expect me to believe you?"

John kept insisting that the story was true, and I may have even started to believe him. "What has he got to lose?" I thought. Perhaps I was feeling especially generous after coming out of Africa for the first time in months, but I gave him £10, which was about $17 at the time. John was very thankful.

I let my guard down a few minutes later when John's face brightened and he said, "Hey, I get a lot of coins from people and they're heavy to carry around all the time. Would you mind exchanging these coins for a ten-pound note?"

I looked at a paper cup in his hand, which was indeed filled with heavy English coins. I gave him the note. John put it in his pocket and stood up. "I'm just going to the washroom down the street," he told me. "Can you watch my stuff for me?"

He took his backpack with him but left his coat, a box of crackers, and another bag with me. As he walked off I realized that he had taken the cup of coins with him too. I was alarmed for a moment, but then I remembered the stuff that he had left in my care.

"That's a clever trick," I thought. "I bet he's thinking that I'll forget to ask him for the coins when he comes back. He is coming back, right?" I looked at his things beside me and felt relieved again. What kind of guy would leave his stuff behind and never return?

Well, I waited for John for ten minutes. Then I waited another five minutes. The whole time, people kept walking by, trying not to make eye contact with me as I sat beside the ATM with a homeless guy's stuff. I felt incredibly uncomfortable. One guy actually said, "Good evening" to me, and I rushed to explain myself.

"Oh, hi. I'm not really sitting here. I mean, I'm just waiting for my friend John. You know John? He, uh, works here sometimes." The man walked on and I grew even more anxious. Around that time, I decided to go through John's things to see what I was faithfully looking after.

To my surprise, I found that the bag he left behind was full of trash. The cracker box was empty. The coat, which I had earlier assumed would never be discarded, was old, tattered, and dirty. That morning I had browsed through a charity shop where I saw dozens of old coats for five pounds or less.

And I realized what I should have known from the beginning -- John was gone, and he had taken almost $17 from me, in addition to the $17 that I willingly gave him, and he wasn't planning on coming back.

I felt incredibly angry and embarrassed. Wasn't I a Very Experienced Traveler? Don't I know how to talk to homeless people in a place like London? How can I go traveling all over Africa, deflecting bribe requests from corrupt officials and staying out of trouble, only to end up losing $17 the first day I get back to Europe?

I was determined to not let John get the better of me. After all, I reasoned, he has to come back sometime. He's probably going to wait half an hour and then return, thinking that I've given up. I'll show him, I thought.

"Nice try, John," I imagined myself saying. "You put on a good effort, but I want my ten pounds back right now."

I sat there for another twenty minutes, looking at the ground and getting more and more angry. I didn't want to admit the truth to myself -- John wasn't coming back. Whether I admitted it or not, though, it was true.

I finally left the ATM in disgust. I couldn't figure out who I was the most upset at--John or myself. There must be some good reason for this, I kept thinking. Maybe I'll run into John at the Borders tonight and I can confront him then.

"Who bought you that hot chocolate? Who paid the extra thirty pence for the whipped cream on top?"

After walking around the London streets for another half-hour, I made it to the Borders I had set out to find a long time ago. John wasn't at the café inside. I didn't see him later that night as I rode the underground back to my guesthouse, and I didn't see him two mornings later as I left London for another city.

Life requires you to take risks. When you take risks, sometimes you lose. Is it worth it to you?

Was it worth it to me that night?

I thought about calling this essay, "How To Lose $34 in London," but I realized that losing the $34 was easy. The hard part was learning to let go of the money long after it had left my pocket.

Whether by his own fault or through the fault of others, John was homeless. While I went around sleeping in hotel rooms or on the couches of friends, John went from shelter to shelter. Given the choice, would I trade places with John for even one day? The idea is laughable -- I could hardly manage to sit on the sidewalk by the London ATM for 30 minutes, knowing that the people passing by thought I was homeless. Yet, some part of me that night was resentful of John and wished that I could be in his place with the $34.

***

I have a friend, Marie, who works with the homeless in Seattle. One night she came over to talk to us about her recommendations for how we should respond to the many transient people in our city. One thing that Marie said made a big impression on me.

"You can give money if you want," she told us. "But once you give it, let it go. Don't expect a miracle, because many people on the streets are not ready to change their situations. But at the same time, there's nothing wrong with helping someone get dinner or a place to stay."

I liked that approach. Do what you can do to help, and then let it go. Live your life, help others, and don't stress out when something doesn't work the way you expected it would. You can still go to Borders and read books at the café.

John, if you're out there, I can't really say "thanks" for taking my money. I'm still a little mad about it. But I appreciate the lessons I learned through my mistake and your chicanery. I've probably been thinking about this long after you've forgotten it, so it's time for me to let it go too.

I hope you got another coat from the charity shop.

I hope you won't be falsely arrested for fending off robbers at the ATM again.

I hope you enjoyed the hot chocolate that I imagined my money being spent on.

Take care, John, and everyone else out there in London and beyond.

The Unconventional Strategy in Action

2010-11-23T14:53:05-05:00

Most of the time, the obvious way around an obstacle isn't the only way.

Looking for another option is called the unconventional strategy -- when you have the same goal as anyone else, but you find a different way to achieve it.

It works in education, career, personal finance, social causes, politics, relationships, etc. Oh, and it can even work in sports and contests too.

Take 27 seconds today to watch this video of a middle-school American football team that adopted an unconventional strategy to achieve a traditional victory.

***

Note: If you're not from North America and don't understand this sport, it's OK; I don't really follow it either. As far as I can tell, the object is to move the ball down the field without getting a concussion. Normally when you are trying to do that, the players on the other team are trying to stop you -- but in this example, the kid with the ball manages to confuse everyone by walking through the defense instead of running and pushing. Nice.

***

Some people feel that adopting the unconventional strategy is cheating. "That's not fair!" they say, when you succeed without the struggle. It's not fair to adapt to your surroundings or find a creative solution -- and it's not fair to create an entirely new playbook, because that throws the existing one into chaos.

It's only natural that some people feel this way. If you spend your whole life taking the long road, of course you'll be resentful when someone finds a shortcut.

But some rules were made to be broken, and other rules have loopholes. In both cases, there is almost always more than one way to accomplish something.

Killing Time

2010-11-19T13:48:59-05:00

I did a media call for a journalist on the subject of "time management" recently. When I heard the topic, I was worried: one, I don't think I'm that great at time management... and two, I'm not even sure such a thing exists.

You can't manage time; it exists independently of any choice you make. I tend to think more about managing energy and managing projects -- as for time itself, that's another story altogether.

Yet, we all have to make judgment calls on where we should spend our time. I am an advocate for spending it deliberately: if you've got a spare hour, put it to good use. Or enjoy it by deliberately choosing to chill out. But don't waste it, and don't kill it. "Killing time," what an unfortunate phrase.

***

Time is a jealous lover. If you mistreat it, you can start over, but you never get it back. It's kind of like forgiveness without forgetting -- it's over, it's OK, but it's going to be different now.

Unfortunately, inertia and I are well acquainted. On any given day, I can choose to become the most informed New York Times reader. I can ensure that no one will know more about Frequent Flyer programs than me. I can attempt to rule the Twitterverse.

And I will get nothing done.

Alternatively, we can use the time entrusted to us. We can count down the 1,440 minutes in each day and put them to good use. Which will it be?

Sometimes it helps to put things in perspective: what one thing will you get done today? If nothing else happens, how will you help others while pursuing your own dreams? (These goals are not mutually exclusive.)

When you find yourself with time to spare, don't kill it. Respect it.

###

Image: KevB

Who You Are and What They Say

2010-11-16T16:15:38-05:00

If you are confident, they will say you are arrogant.

If you are deliberate, they will say you are too sure of yourself.

If you have a sense of purpose, they will say you are self-absorbed.

If you know who you are, they will ask, "Who are you, anyway?"

If you believe in kindness and compassion, they will say you are naïve.

If you are a dreamer, they will say "join the real world."

If you are a rebel, they will try to shut you down.

The instructions include:

Rein it in.

Slow it down.

Wait it out.

Pull it back.

Take your time.

Play it safe.

But you will know:

They are envious because they want what you have.

They are afraid of change even as they crave it.

They are projecting their own regret into resentment of you.

It's not all bad news: some of them will sort themselves out and end up joining you. Because you are a good person and have had plenty of false starts of your own, you'll understand and welcome them warmly. We've missed you! you'll say. It's about time you made it.

As for the others, well, you will remember what Gandhi said:

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

****

Image: Edge

How to Get Paid for What You Love

2010-11-12T16:18:21-05:00

I'm no consultant, but from time to time (as in, several times a day) people ask for my opinion about building some kind of online business. I'm happy to give $0.02 for whatever it's worth, and I'm sure there are times when it's not worth more than that.

How can you do something you love and make a good living from it? Much of my Unconventional Guides business is devoted to answering this question in one way or another. And as discussed before, often when we ask for advice, we don't really want advice -- we want someone to say "That's great! Go for it!"

But when people really want advice about building a business out of something they love, there are a few principles that are fairly universal. Starting with...

Not everything you love makes a good business.

In fact, most things you love don't really make a good business. This is probably the most common misconception of the entire "follow your passion" concept: you love watersports, or crafting, or traveling, for example. So why not build a business around it and do what you love all the time?

There are actually several reasons why this isn't always a good idea, one of which is that you might not like everything that goes along with running a business as much as you like the actual activity. Sure, you like traveling... but how much do you want to work while you're traveling? Do you like the business of crafting or just the crafting itself?

Second, not everything you do is commercially viable. Chances are, no one will pay money to watch you go surfing, and this brings us to the next point...

What you love must be relevant to other people.

Whoever your prospects, customers, or clients are, they have to identify with what you do and believe it can be possible for them as well. That's why you work to find the magic convergence between your passions and what customers will pay for. (I go on and on about this in my business work -- if you have the Empire Building Kit, I'm sorry for repeating myself. But, I repeat myself: you have to meet a clear need or solve a real problem for the people who pay you. This is critical!)

In fact, the more you can focus on other people's needs and understand how they overlap with a skill you enjoy sharing, that's where the real follow-your-passion model gains potential.

Often you won't get paid for the obvious thing, but something related.

To get paid for what you love, you must inspire, educate, or entertain -- preferably at least two of the three. But one way or another, you'll get paid for helping people, not just being awesome. As much fun as it is, I don't get paid to travel. I get paid because of a business I've built that helps other people; it has very little to do with my actual travel.

Sometimes it helps to separate the business model from your passions, even if the two are ultimately correlated. The main question you have to answer for the business model is: "What will customers actually pay me for?" It probably isn't surfing or travel, unless you're teaching people to go surfing or travel.

Instead of "breaking in" somewhere, create your own market.

Freelance writing is a good example. As far as I can tell, supporting yourself as a freelance writer under the traditional system is effectively dead. Business Week, CNN, Psychology Today, and the Huffington Post all pay me a grand total of $0 for the articles they post with my byline. It's worth it to me because I've built my own platform at AONC and UnconventionalGuides.com. Without that platform, I'd literally be working for free.

So don't worry about breaking in -- figure out what you can do that no one else is doing, or at least how you can do it in a different way than everyone else is doing. You can waste a lot of time trying to get into an existing system, or you can put the time to good use and build your own system. (Ironically, when you do the latter, it becomes easier to break in to the original system as you go along.)

Keep startup costs very low.

Someone asked me the other day, "If you had $1,000 to start over with my business, how would you spend it?" I said I would get a $10 domain name, a free Wordpress installation, and a PayPal account. Then I would set up a one-page site and see what I could do with it. If it looked promising, there are plenty of things I could spend the remaining $990 on (I'd probably start with design). But the point is, I would first make sure I had some kind of viable idea.

If you can start something without spending a lot of money, that's best. If you have to invest some amount of money, that's OK too. But the worst thing you can do is spend a lot of money and do nothing. Don't do that!

Find a way to make it work just a little.

In Louisville, Kentucky I talked with Nick, who told me about a small photography business he wanted to start. A few weeks later, I saw him again in Charleston, West Virginia, and this time he had an update: "I sold a print for $50!" he said with great enthusiasm. And I knew exactly why Nick was so excited--he wasn't going to cash it in and retire on one $50 sale, but it was very empowering to get paid for something he loved to do.

When it comes to a lifestyle business, a little momentum goes a long way. The sooner you can get paid, even a small amount or a one-time sale, the better.

***

The greatest benefit of a lifestyle business is freedom. But usually we find that freedom does not just appear out of nowhere; it requires a shift in mindset and the corresponding action. It also sometimes requires a surprising amount of work to maintain. (If you love something, you have to protect it.)

These disclaimers are not meant to dissuade anyone. Overall, I think this is a fantastic time to start a business and find a way to get paid for what you love to do. Don't hold back! Just make sure you head off in the right direction. As I see it, the right direction begins with taking action, like Nick did with his $50 print sale.

###

Image: The Wolf

Why You Should Quit Your Job and Travel Around the World

2010-11-09T14:36:27-05:00

It happens to me every time I travel overseas. I talk with people who hear about where I'm going, and they always say the same thing: "That sounds amazing! I wish I could do that."

My reply is always the same: "What's keeping you from it?"

I'm not being judgmental; I'm just trying to figure out what people's motivations and priorities are. There really could be a good reason why someone doesn't travel much, but the responses I hear back is usually variations of these answers:

"I don't have money to travel."

Fair enough if it's true, but for many people who say this, it would be better to say, "I've chosen to spend money on a lot of other things, so now I don't have money to travel." America is a country of great wealth, and many of us living here throw things away every week that would be prized possessions to lots of other people. If that sounds a little soapbox to you, read this New York Times article.

We choose what we value either consciously or unconsciously.

Many people, young and old, have no problem happily spending their money and even going into debt for luxuries each week. I've chosen to focus my own spending priorities on meaningful experiences.

One time someone told me that she couldn't give to a charity event because she did not believe in going into debt, and that her husband believed that a pledge to give money was effectively a debt. I must have surprised the person making the comment, because I agreed and said that I also believe in living a completely debt-free lifestyle.

She nodded and said, "Yeah, we don't have any debt either right now. Well, just the two cars... and the student loan... and the credit card... and of course, the mortgage doesn't count."

I was too shocked to say much of anything in response to that statement.

"The rest of the world is dangerous."

Most people don't come out and say it that way, but that's what they mean. "If I leave home, something terrible will go wrong." Aside from the fact that bad things can happen in your own country just as easily as anywhere else, there are very few places in the world that are outright hostile to visitors.

The more you travel, the more you realize you are at least as safe in many places around the world as you are at home. Sure, you probably shouldn't plan a trip to Baghdad or Mogadishu right now, but the list of inhospitable places is really short. The list of amazing places is incredibly long, so get started. Intelligent people usually recognize this fear to be somewhat irrational, so as long as you don't let it keep you home, it's not worth fighting.

"I like staying at home."

This is another way of saying, "I'm afraid of change and different experiences." Before you write it off, understand that most of us feel this way at one time or another. It's just something that needs to be overcome. A small group of people will be brave enough to do it, and the rest will stay home, never venturing out beyond their own culture of comfort. It's their loss; don't let it be yours.

I'll do this kind of stuff when I retire (or at some other distant point in the future).

I see nothing wrong with the general concept of delayed gratification. I have an IRA, I look both ways when I cross the street, and it's reasonable to give up something now in expectation of greater future benefit.

What is dangerous, however, is when delayed gratification becomes an excuse for not living the life you want.

How many people do you know that actually do the things they say they are going to when they reach arbitrary ages of leaving the jobs they have given their lives to? Far more common is the downsizing of dreams along the way.

If you want to play golf all day and take your medication at regular intervals, the 40-year career track plan should work well for you. If you have other ideas or ambitions, though, don't kill yourself as a slave for the future. Instead, go and figure out where you want to travel and do something about it.

4 Important Questions to Ask Yourself:

1) Am I satisfied with my work? Does it meet my needs and fulfill my desires?

Your work should not exist merely to provide income for the rest of your life. Ask yourself, what am I working for? Am I working to make a living or to make a life? If your work supports your goals, that's great. If it doesn't, maybe it's time to make a change.

2) Think back to the times you have left your home country. What did you learn on those trips? Do you think you have more to learn?

For me, the more I have traveled, the more I learn, and the more I realize how big the world really is. When I was younger and had spent a fair amount of time abroad, I used to say that I had traveled "all over the world." More than 60 countries later, I laugh at that idea. There are still many, many countries I have yet to visit, and even after I achieve my goal of visiting every country in the world, there will still be many places within those countries that I still won't have experienced.

3) If you could go anywhere in the world, where would that be? (Don't think about reasons why you can't go there.)

Brainstorm through the six inhabited continents -- Africa, Australia, Asia, Europe, North and South America - and think about cities or countries on each of them that you've always wondered about. Chances are there's somewhere, and probably several places, that you've always wanted to see.

Finally, while I believe that international travel is not nearly as expensive as the lifestyle many people wear themselves out to maintain, it's true that it does cost money to travel around the world.

Therefore, you should also understand the answer to this question:

4) What are your financial priorities?

If you don't know the answer offhand, it's easy to get it. Just look back at your bank statements, financial software, or credit card statements for the last six months. Whether you like it or not, where you've been spending a lot of money is where your priorities are. If you'd like to value experiences more than "stuff," you may need to make some changes.

For now, the rest of the story is up to you. Think about the questions and make a plan. What's that one place -- or ten places -- you've always wanted to go to?

Write it down and stick it to your monitor so you'll continually be reminded of it.

If you don't take your own dreams seriously, who will?

Starting Over

2010-11-05T10:39:18-04:00

The question comes up a lot: "If you were starting over with this project, what would you do differently?"

In my case, I probably wouldn't put the domain on chrisguillebeau.com. If you have chrisg.com, that works -- but Chris Garrett got to that one first, and for some reason, a lot of people have a hard time with Guillebeau. Oh well.

I would try to have a better understanding of my readers from the beginning, instead of waiting 6-12 months to figure it out. And I would have an agenda and a clear message of what kind of change I was trying to create.

But the more important question is self-reflective: how can you start something?

My advice is to find a few leaders you respect, go back to the very beginning of their project and see what they did as they grew. This is easy to do with blogs and online platforms, even if you don't care about being a blogger yourself. You will almost always see an evolution as they figure things out and gain their footing. With that in mind, here's what I'd do if I were starting today.

I would pay $10 for a domain, get a cheap hosting account, and use Wordpress for my blog.

I would post on a regular schedule, even if the schedule was only once a week--in other words, I would prefer consistent attempts at creativity to sporadic bouts of genius.

Every day I would ask questions of those around me and try to be helpful.

I would follow back everyone who follows me on Twitter, unless they gave me a reason not to.

I would start a Facebook Page early on and make a big push for it. (Personally I like Twitter better, but I find Facebook "fans" to be more active than the average Twitter user.) However, you also want to be careful -- a page with 10 fans doesn't look so good.

Unless the project was in a tech-heavy industry, I would focus on email instead of RSS, since most regular people have no idea how RSS works, and even the people who use RSS often get behind on reading their feeds. Therefore, I would develop some kind of content that is only sent to my email list, and gently encourage readers to join the email list.

I would then set a goal: every day I want x new readers on the list. I would ignore most other metrics in pursuit of that goal. (According to this theory, traffic that comes and goes is much less important than subscribers who join and stay.)

I would think about monetization (i.e., getting paid) from the beginning. It's OK to evolve carefully and organically, but you want to have some idea of how you'll actually make money if that is part of the goal. The best time to introduce paid products or services is after you've gained some initial influence but before the project is widely known. Do it too early and you won't make any money because no one cares. Do it too late and the transition may be awkward, because the community isn't expecting it.

Mistakes are normal and expected, so I wouldn't worry about never making them; I would just try not to make the same mistake over and over. In fact, I would tell my community about the mistakes whenever possible, because they like to know what doesn't work as much as what does work.

I would pursue a lot of different ideas, leveraging the ones that worked and moving on from the ones that didn't. (Trying to improve your weaknesses instead of capitalizing on strengths is usually a losing battle.)

But mostly, I would focus almost exclusively on two things:

Creating something worth talking about

Getting the word out to more people

As explained here, some people are good at the craft but not good at the talk. While that may be preferable to the other way around (being good at talking but not about work), it's better to do both. "Building relationships" is in danger of joining "be authentic" in the category of overused social media advice -- but if you can really build relationships and focus on how you are actually helping people, that's how your project will become successful.

So every day, I would focus on exactly that -- creating something worth talking about, and then trying to get the word out wherever I could. Everything else is irrelevant, or at least subservient to those two strategies.

If you do that every day, then every day the work will get better and you'll get better at promoting it. And sooner or later, momentum will kick in and you'll be along for the ride with everyone else.

What if it's "too late?"

One more note: on book tour I've been hearing from a lot of people with ideas for projects. They often wonder: Am I too late? I wish I had done this earlier. Someone else is already doing something similar.

Well, I wish I had started earlier too. I thought the marketplace was saturated and I had no idea if what I wanted to do was actually unique. But despite the uncertainty, I'm glad I finally managed to take a leap. These things have a funny way of growing once you move from thinking to action.

So now the question is... when are you starting? Because it's not too late.

###

Image: LonelyRadio

The Decision to Be Remarkable

2010-11-03T16:42:02-04:00

re•mark•able [adjective]: worthy of being noticed, especially as being uncommon or extraordinary

***

If you want to break out of the mold of average, the first thing you need to do is to make a decision to be radically different. Most remarkable people are people of action, and for a good reason: if you don't take decisive action, nothing will ever change.

But this first step is entirely mental. It calls for a clear decision to rise above the culture of mediocrity. And then, of course, it calls for action.

How do you decide to be remarkable?

1. Stop making excuses. Just stop. No one wants to hear why you couldn't do something, so make a conscious decision to stop talking about it.

2. Take responsibility. This is the opposite of giving excuses. Take responsibility for your own success, and take responsibility for the success of projects you work on. When something goes wrong (it usually does), take responsibility for that too.

3. Start questioning rules and expectations. Always ask questions and pay close attention to the answers you hear back. Some good starting questions are: Why is this rule in place? Who benefits from this rule being followed? What are the consequences if I don't follow this rule or meet this expectation? What is the worst thing that could happen if I don't follow this rule?

4. Find work that you love and do it well. Depending on who you are, this requires up to two big changes in your life: first, you have to find work that you love, and second, you have to do it well. Do it better than expected and people will be amazed.

5. Begin living your own life. This is what it's all about -- the life you were meant to live. If you don't know what that is yet, start looking for it. Why would you want to live someone else's life?

6. Take it up a level. Take what's already working well and exponentially add to it. Grow your business 300%. Apply for the position of CFO when you're the Accounts Payable Clerk. Visit five countries instead of one on your next trip (or if you want to explore one place well, stay three weeks instead of one).

Beware of Excellence

But watch out: being remarkable is addicting. It's like regular exercise or healthy eating. When you first start a new exercise routine or diet, the adjustment is hard for a while. But after about 3-6 months of following it consistently, you build up a natural addiction to it.

Once you get used to regular exercise, you'll feel bad when you're not doing it. The same is true with being remarkable: do it once, and it's scary. Do it a few times, and you love it. Stop doing it, and you'll get depressed.

Many remarkable people deal with depression and anxiety all the time because they see the world differently than average people do. Their own failures and perceived failures are magnified. When others say, "Don't worry about it," they can't understand why someone would think something like that. For this reason, a lot of geniuses throughout history have been chronically depressed.

Those are the hard things -- and you also have to think about the critics, the skeptics, and the competition. We'll come to those later. On the other hand, there are some great benefits to being remarkable:

Help From a Community

As you proceed with your plans for world domination -- or whatever you want to do -- you'll be naturally drawn to others who have made the same decisions to be different. Even better, they'll be drawn to you. You'll learn from them and vice versa.

Whether you live in the Dilbert Cube, the Ivory Tower, the public sector, or are out there on your own somewhere, there are lots of ways to be remarkable. The specific application is up to you, and when you choose to make your own way, other people who "get it" will seek you out.

Remarkable people are all minorities in a world of average living.

Help From the Universe

You'll find help in all kinds of unexpected places and from people you never knew before. No one really knows how this works, practically speaking. It's okay; just accept the gifts that are given to you. They are given for a reason.

The Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho put this best:

When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it.

All you need to do is (1) start something, and (2) stick with it long enough to see results.

What Goes Up Stays Up

Instead of shrinking over time, your vision will actually get bigger. The funny thing about big goals is that they often take less time to achieve than you expect, and once you achieve them, you've already mentally moved on to bigger and better goals. As you proceed with questioning authority, building your army, achieving your goals, and helping others, the vision keeps expanding.

This is why it is not much more difficult to grow a business from $1,000 a month in sales to $10,000. The challenge is in getting that first $1,000 together.

This is why artists scrape together a meager living for an average of seven years before being noticed. Most of them drop out along the way, but for those who stick with it, all of sudden they're selling paintings for $8 a square inch. (And by the way, art that sells for $10,000 isn't always better than $100 art hanging in the coffee shop.)

This is your personal tipping point -- not when everyone else starts adopting a new trend and makes it mainstream, but when everything comes together for your own vision. But you have to get in the game first, and you can do that by being remarkable.

***

Of all the steps required to change the world in the way you see fit, the decision to be remarkable is the most important. With this decision in place, other variables can be changed. Don't rush this -- it's a big commitment.

Once you make the commitment, you need a vision to change the world. What will it be? Whatever you choose, make sure it's remarkable enough to suit every gift you have ever been given. Once you decide to defy the expectations of being average, there will be a lot riding on your ultimate success.

Oh, and one final thing: don't expect everyone to understand your decision, because plenty of people won't get it at all. Don't worry about them. Just be remarkable.

Peak Moments

2010-10-29T17:58:57-04:00

Here's a fun exercise: take 60 seconds and write down the peak moments of your life.

A peak moment is a fixed point in time that has strong, positive memories. You climbed the mountain! You achieved something monumental! Things will be different now.

The obvious ones are things like weddings, births, graduations, and so on. But pay attention to the others as well. When you look back on how far you've come thus far (whether you're 15 years old, 80 years old, or somewhere in between), what stands out?

This is not a hypothetical exercise. Take a minute and make a list.

What did you come up with? You can share one of your peak moments with the rest of our group at the end of this post if you'd like. But more importantly, how can you get more of those moments? As suggested recently, one way is by pursuing meaningful adventure. I like this quote by Amelia Earhart: "When a great adventure is offered, you don't refuse it."

Start saying yes to more adventures, and you might have more peak moments. A life lived in search of such experiences sounds pretty good to me.

If you're curious, here's one of mine. In September 2006, I had just moved to Seattle after four years overseas. I had a few weeks before starting grad school, so I booked my first Circle Pacific trip (like a Round-the-World ticket, but only halfway around) to Asia. When the big day came, I got on the 194 bus to go to Sea-Tac airport. I felt nervous, in an awkward but thrilling kind of way.

I'm going to Southeast Asia! I thought. I'm on my own and headed to four completely new countries.

I flew to Seoul on Asiana Airlines and transferred down to Hong Kong. (It's funny to write this now, because Hong Kong is one of my most frequently transited cities, but that trip was the first time I was there.) After a couple of days recovering from jet lag, I traveled on to Vietnam and beyond.

Those were not especially difficult countries to travel in, at least not by West African standards, but there was something significant about them for me at the time. A new world had opened up to me, and I look back now and see how important it was in defining my worldview of who I wanted to be.

For twelve days I wandered new cities until the time came to return to Seattle and start another new life at the University of Washington. I was looking ahead to that experience, but I was already looking forward beyond that. As John Mayer said, "I am invincible as long as I'm alive." That's how I felt on the bus to Sea-tac, and the feeling continued as I walked through Hong Kong and flew to Saigon. That's my story. What's one of your peak moments?

Image: Aggpup

Creating and Living by Your Own List of Values

2010-10-27T16:32:52-04:00

Everyone lives their life by some sort of internalized list of values or moral code, but many people don't take the time to sort out what they really believe in. Because of this disparity, they often feel conflicted when deciding how to make regular choices about time, money, and personal decisions.

One definition of integrity is how closely your life aligns with your values. In other words, do you do what you say you do? Do you live your life according to what you believe in?

This definition is somewhat incomplete, because it allows for you to do pretty much anything you want to do (even harm other people, which most of us would not consider to be a good thing). But there is still some truth to the idea that integrity relates to how you live by the standards you have set. If you don't do what you say you do, how can you say you practice integrity?

Therefore, it's important to spend some time examining your life to determine your own personal, "most important" values. Choosing the ones that are most important will help you learn more about who you really are, because when it comes to values, you can't have it all.

Instead, most people will have somewhere between 4-8 primary values that best reflect who they are and what means more to them than anything else. So, how to get started? Here's a couple of ideas.

Decide What Matters to You

First, you may already have an idea of what your list of values should be. If so, you start by writing down your ideas in whatever way makes sense to you. You can use these ideas to make a finalized list of favorite personal values.

If you need some inspiration, take a look at these lists of values from other sites.

Important: find the ones that make the most sense to you, but don't leave it at that. Instead, take those positive characteristics and use them to create a full statement that better reflects who you are.

A Few Impartial Suggestions

While it's true that everyone should decide on their own values, I have a few suggestions. Adopting one or several of these will definitely set you apart from the prevailing norms of Western culture.

Valuing experiences more than stuff. In short, I appreciate things I do more than things I buy.
Adopting a flexible life vision. I want to know where my life is going and what the ultimate meaning is.
Setting truly dramatic life goals. I set big goals--for me, visiting every country in the world, among other things. Your goals will be your own, but make them meaningful.
Finding or creating meaningful work. Ask, where can I add value? How can I do work that I care about and helps others?
Getting out in the world. For me, the opportunity to travel to other countries and cultures is a huge priority, so much that I consider it a personal value.

Values in the Real World -- Time and Money

How do you apply your values in practice? Once you have the right values, it's actually not that difficult. Every day you make choices, some big and some small. When you have to make a choice, start by thinking about each possible outcome in light of what you've set your values to be.

I personally do this whenever I buy something. Others aren't that strict, and set a limit where they will begin thinking about values. For example, some people I know have set their limit at $10. Using this scenario, whenever you spend more than $10, you think carefully about your choice.

If the expense lines up with your values, make the purchase guilt-free -- it's important that you reward yourself for making good choices. But if it doesn't line up, you may need to rethink the choice or risk feeling some dissonance over violating your values.

You also make many decisions related to your time. Thinking about values when you make time choices can be even more important than your spending choices.

As a self-employed person, I often face large blocks of unscheduled time. (This is how I prefer to work on my own, although when I work with groups I like deadlines and more scheduled times.) By facing the day ahead of me, or any two-hour block of unscheduled time, I often think about what I value and then determine how I'll spend the time.

What about values you would like to have but don't?

When you create your own list of values, make sure that most of them are not aspirational. In other words, most items on your list should not relate to values you would like to have but can't honestly claim you live out. Instead, they need to reflect who you really are.

On the other hand, having one or two of your values based on who you want to become can be motivational. A while back I decided I wanted to adopt this statement into my values list:

I treat every person I meet as the most important person in the world."

When I first heard that sentence, I liked it... but I also knew that it did not reflect my life at all. I do try to treat all people with respect, and I've maintained the habit of encouraging at least one person a day for a long time, but I can't honestly say that I treat every person I meet as if they were the most important person in the world -- not by a long shot.

I decided that I liked the statement enough to add it to the list, in part to challenge myself to treat people better, but also because I thought it was a truly remarkable value.

Stick with a few things that reflect who you are and one or two things you'd like to become. Make it your own and base your decisions on it.

But what if you change?

You will. That's part of it. However, some of the core will stay the same. That's why values are sometimes called core values in business settings -- because businesses are expected to change in order to survive and prosper, but most successful businesses have attributes that are truly core and won't change.

The same is true with individuals. By defining a list of personal values that are truly your own, you'll be better prepared to make decisions. You'll focus more on what matters. For many of us, that focus is truly the greatest value of all.

Running in St. Louis

2010-10-19T11:12:21-04:00

I stepped outside my hotel room and put my headphones in. Taking the elevator down to the lobby, I looked out at blue sky and sunshine -- much nicer than the previous day of cold rain.

Then on the way outside, I did something that brought on instant embarrassment, pain, and déjà vu: I walked directly into a glass door that I didn't know existed. I thought the door was open, but sadly, it was not.

Since I was walking quickly through the lobby and even getting ready to run as soon as I was outside, the collision was sudden, shocking, and loud. The receptionist, the doorman (who was obviously slacking off on the job), the other guests, and even the piano player turned around to look. Of course, I ignored them as best as I could, finally managing to push open the door that had previously been closed and stumble outside. The world was spinning and when I put my hand to my forehead, it came away streaked with blood. Nice one, Chris.

The déjà vu came from three years ago in Singapore, when I pretty much did exactly the same thing. That time I was carrying a takeaway cup of café au lait, which spilled on the floor during my collision. I'm not sure which was worse -- spilling the coffee in a crowded Singapore Starbucks, or crashing my head into a door in St. Louis on the way out for a run.

Quickly deciding that having a concussion on the sidewalk was preferable to being further embarrassed inside, I kept walking down the street. Gradually, my head cleared and I calmed down. I didn't have a concussion, I wasn't bleeding that much, and the best thing I could do was try to forget about it and have a good run.

Which is exactly what I did. The hotel was on the waterfront, right by the MLK bridge and the famous Gateway Arch. I only had about 25 minutes to run (time is short on the book tour these days), but it was a great 25 minutes after I got over the door collision. I ran by the waterfront and listened to Marching Bands of Manhattan by Death Cab for Cutie. Then I listened to Paula Cole and Dave Matthews. When time is short, no need to be experimental -- stick with what you like.

People often ask about keeping up with running while I'm on the road. These days the goal is just to maintain a base: if I can run at least 3-5 miles, three times a week, I'm not really in marathon mode by a long shot, but I least my body remembers how to run. The main marathon taking place these days is 63 meetups in 63 cities, often back-to-back on a one-per-day schedule.

St. Louis was stop #14 of 63. Last night was Lexington, South Carolina for #28 of 63. So far to go, but so much done already.

On the way back to the hotel I ran under the arch twice, circling back around after the first time to get another look. The sun was out in full force. I was sweating, which is much better than bleeding, and excited about the day. I snuck back in the hotel and kept my head down all the way to the elevator. After getting a shower and packing up, I went back down to check out. Thankfully, the clerk either didn't recognize me as the guy who had just ran into the glass door, or was nice enough not to say anything.

These things happen; we have to shake them off and keep going. When you run into a glass door, keep running. A few days later, in Chicago, I showed up at the restaurant where we were having the event and the hostess said, "Oh, are you here for dinner?" I said, "No, I'm here for the 75 people who are coming out in about twenty minutes." Both of us then realized that something had gone wrong and the restaurant hadn't planned for our arrival. It was a little awkward at first, but we sorted it out and in the end everything was great.

Remember: always ask, "What's the worst thing that can happen?" Most of the time, the answer isn't that terrible, or even that likely.

I walked to the parking garage and retrieved my rental car. Onwards to the next stop! This is life in motion. And speaking of life in motion, an hour later I received a speeding ticket in Illinois from a state trooper who was obviously not familiar with AONC. I gave him an invitation to the World Domination Summit, but he still gave me a bill for $140. Alas.

These days I know a lot of people, a lot of people know me, but it's an interesting dynamic. I think it was Maggie Mason who coined the phrase "famous among dozens," which is a good way to explain it. I go to book signings and everyone comes out to say hi. Sometimes people introduce themselves at coffee shops or on airplanes. But it's a very small circle, and no one in the non-blogging world knows who I am, which is probably for the better.

The way you deal with fear and uncertainty is to put things out in the open and do them regardless of anything else that comes your way. Do one thing a day that scares you. Get excited and change things.

Image: HZ