Vishen is the founder of Mindvalley, a world-changing firm in Kuala Lumpur, and the not-for-profit Awesomeness Fest events. I immediately found his company fascinating when I learned about it, as he’s led by a solid vision and desire to improve people’s lives. He spent a few years working in Silicon Valley, then took what he’d learned there and returned to his home country of Malaysia, where he built Mindvalley up as a model company that both improves the local economy and provides an incredible experience for their employees, who come from all over the world.

You can learn more about his mission to build the world’s greatest workplace and get enlightened ideas out to 500 million people by the year 2050.

Mindvalley serves as an amazing example for entrepreneurs around the world. You need to have, as Vishen calls it, a noble mission. What’s your big vision for the world?

So what’s really exciting is he has decided to “open source” his entire business, and even let us in on closed-door meetings that reveal Mindvalley’s financial data, metrics, insights into their copywriting, design, marketing strategies, and more. Why are they telling all? Watch here:

There is nothing for sale, you don’t even have to submit an email address for access. It’s all free, and truly open-source. You can see all the latest trainings on analytics, branding, copywriting, design, entrepreneurship, customer service, building traffic, launching products, and more here at Mindvalley Insights.

I know I’ll be checking back here and putting some of these resources to use in my business, and I just thought this was such a cool development that I wanted to share it with all of you. A few of my favorites I’ve watched and read so far:

• On building the world’s greatest workplace.
• How they made nearly $1 million on a niche blog in 18 months.
• 20 minutes on how to double your site traffic.

The Birthday Gamble

One more rotation around the sun! Yes, for those of you who noticed, March 20th, like every year, is my birthday. For anyone here in Thailand, we’ll be having a little soirée at our local pub here in Ao Nang, Krabi.

If you feel generous and want to do something for my birthday, then please consider making a small donation to In Search of Sanuk, the volunteer project run my my good friend Dwight Turner in Bangkok. You can learn more about him and his mission helping at-risk families and refugees in Bangkok here. Or you can also see the part In Search of Sanuk had in changing our friend Ryan’s life, as one shining example.

Help them hit their “Fun-Raising” goals for 2012 by making at least a one-time donation here through PayPal. I suggest you send in at least $28 (as it’s my 28th).

To sweeten the deal, if we hit $1000 in donations before midnight April 7th, then I’ll open up my Digital Nomad Academy for a few more completely full-ride scholarships again (as I did for the holidays). This time around though, it’s much simpler, if we bring in $1000 or more combined donations by midnight on the 31st, then the free spots will go first to those who make the largest donations (of $100 or more), and secondly to anyone who is also a past scholarship applicant who makes at least a $28 donation.

If you’re feeling generous like I am, then let’s share with In Search of Sanuk to help them continue the good work they’re doing to improve lives in Bangkok. And above all, have fun!

Go here to make a donation.

**UPDATE: I’m extending this opportunity for an extra week so that hopefully a few smart folks get the chance to do some good and sneak their way into DNA for significantly less than the going price of admission (minimum $750+). You have until April 7th.

Also check out Rodrigo’s review of his experience inside DNA—a past scholarship recipient—and what Tim has to say about how crazy you’d be to pass up this opportunity.

Other Bits and Bytes

I also wanted to share a few recent links and pieces of press, to say thanks.

John Bardos over at Jet Set Citizen recently compiled information from 14 digital nomads, bloggers, and online business owners to really answer the question: can you make money with a travel blog? John and his wife have just finished up a short location-independent trip to Chiang Mai, and are on their way through Australia, Japan, and back home to Canada. I hope we get the chance to finally meet in person next time! But, I think this is a great round-up that really addresses one of the biggest misconceptions many people have about how people like me and many other nomads and lifestyle designers make our money. Check it out here: How to Really Make Money from a Travel Blog – An Overview of 14 of the Biggest Names in the Industry

Florian over at 4-Hour Workweek Success Stories recently interviewed me about my “4-Hour Workweek” (more like a 4-6 hour workday really, but listen in to the interview to learn more about that!). Check it out here: The “Sexiest Lifestyle-Design Blogger” Cody McKibben Talks About His 4 Hour Workweek (and just to clarify, that is a joke from my About Page, voted by all the ladies of the world!

Also, a few friends have already spotted my cameo appearance in the latest issue of Business Punk magazine, one of the coolest web-entrepreneury mags in Germany. This month’s issue features Darth Vader on the cover, and a Q&A about me and my Digital Nomad Academy project. Big thanks to Christoph Stockburger for the article, and to founder/editor Nikolaus Roettger. And a warm welcome to any of you new readers from Germany!

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: A Noble Mission, An Open-Source Business, and a Birthday Gamble

• When we were organizing events together in Bangkok, he proved it was possible to do good and have a blast at the same time.
• He showed me the secret recipe for absolute guaranteed happiness as we volunteered with children throughout Thailand.
• He has written here to show us how to be an unconventional giver, and he leads by example.

My best friend up in Bangkok, and fellow DNA student—Dwight Turner—is the crazy changemaker behind the grassroots volunteer organization In Search of Sanuk. He is an inspirational and unique character in the strange chaotic melting pot that is Southeast Asia. His love for others, and his dedication to helping children and families in need shines brilliantly in the darkness. If you’ve been following me here at Thrilling Heroics for long, you will have seen his name before, but somebody with some skill finally picked up a video camera and followed him around Bangkok to get a real tactile feel for what he’s doing to make this little corner of the world a better place, working hard to help urban refugees in Thailand:

I’ll let this quick 4-minute documentary speak for itself, so watch it. If the video doesn’t appear for you, click here to watch it. It’s only a few moments of your time, and I promise it will be well spent.

To me, Dwight is a shining example of the entrepreneurs—or social inventors—who are creating new realities that will shape the next century. He’s a selfless, hard-working, global citizen who genuinely cares about making the world a better place, and people like him are doing it, a little bit at a time.

If this short documentary has you inspired, then find out more about Dwight’s project and begin your unconventional giving by donating today. Give just a few dollars, a small sum that could very well have a major impact on the lives of an underprivileged family living in poverty.

Dwight is just the first of many incredible social inventors and changemakers who I hope to highlight here in 2012… But  Bangkok certainly wouldn’t be the same without him.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: The Young Social Entrepreneur Shaping the Future Helping At Risk Families in Bangkok

Do you daydream about quitting your job and traveling around the world? What about taking it a step further and building a location independent career, so you can live and work wherever you want to?

I can remember the first time someone labelled me a “digital nomad” on a major blog… Two-and-a-half years ago these were the words of Corbett Barr—back when his site was still called Free Pursuits. Corbett listed me among the top 10 Digital Nomads to Learn From, alongside Tim Ferriss and Rolf Potts—two truly incredible writers who inspired me to follow my own path in life—as well as huge A-list bloggers Chris Brogan and Mike Elgan, and big names in the travel blogosphere including Christine Gilbert from Almost Fearless and Chris Guillebeau of Art of Nonconformity fame.

I wasn’t quite sure what I thought of the label at first, although I was immensely honored to be among such incredible company. I was excited! Reading Tim Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Workweek and Rolf Potts’ Vagabonding had been a turning point in my life—those two books opened my eyes to whole new possibilities and put a fire under my ass to create a life of my own design, and try my hardest to enjoy every moment of it.

Not long after in late 2009, Jonathan Mead used me as a case study in his manifesto The Zero Hour Workweek, which played off of the ideas in Tim’s book, but took them even further to encourage people to build businesses that basically allow them to get paid to be themselves. Soon I was being interviewed about my live-and-work-anywhere lifestyle, and people started calling my story inspiring, and asking me about my travel experiences and advice for overcoming travel obstacles.

Sometimes I’m a bit embarrassed by the buzzwords (digital nomad, location independent… and lifestyle design… there’s another one!) but eventually I embraced the title Corbett had bestowed upon me. Who’d have known that just two years later I’d be running a business course called Digital Nomad Academy with the help of Corbett himself and several other hugely successful remote-control entrepreneurs I look up to!

Like many people, sometimes I feel like the small (but growing) online niche we’re in is a bit too cliquey, too markety, and sometimes people get big egos, or they feel under pressure to maintain the appearance like they’ve got everything figured out and their lives are just so cool.

I know, because I’ve been there… but I’ll be the first to tell you, nobody has it all figured out. I’ve been broke as a joke many times along my journey, I’ve been stuck up a creek with no paddle many times on my travels, I’ve experienced immense business failures, I’ve been stabbed in the back, I’ve been discouraged. But, this is an incredible life we’ve all been given, and I’m grateful for the amazing adventures and obstacles I’ve experienced. I wouldn’t trade my experience for anything.

I’m even more thankful for the people around me who have helped fuel this adventure. It has its ups and downs for sure—I was defrauded and went through several down months. I wasn’t confident everything might not collapse at times. I took a break from blogging and let some of my friends use this platform to share their writing and their projects with you (I see no point writing unless I actually have something to say, but once I conquer the challenges laid out in front of me, maybe then I’ll have something of real value to share about them).

But despite the challenges of living an unconventional life, I have no plans to quit traveling, meeting new people, and having new experiences anytime soon, to stop experimenting with my own businesses, to ever go back to a 9-to-5 if I can avoid it, to move back home, or to stop blogging about this weird journey. Living life your own way, you will definitely be confronted with setbacks, and the journey will be more challenging than living according to someone else’s prescribed path. But it is absolutely, 100% worthwhile. 

My girlfriend and I are fortunate to live for now in one of the most beautiful regions in the world, in a three-story townhouse surrounded by forests and beautiful limestone mountains, all for a fraction of what it would cost back in California.

Emily and I recently spent a week in Singapore, and it was the most fun I’ve had in months! We were trying to decide what country to visit for a renewed visa and I decided I really wanted to visit old friends there. She teases me that I can’t travel anywhere unless I know someone there, and when I thought about it, I realized it’s not far from the truth.

Undoubtedly when most people think about travel, they tend to think of places, monuments and landmarks like the Acropolis of Athens, the Roman Colosseum, the Eiffel Tower, London’s Big Ben, Bangkok’s reclining Buddha, Krabi’s mountaintop Buddhist temple, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. Each of these are fantastic places I’ve been able to see on my travels. But what really has made my travels remarkable are the people I have met and the experiences I’ve shared with them.

I became very close with my French professor in high school, who was also a huge influence on me (as far as my interest in travel, culture, art, music and languages). The very first time I traveled outside the U.S. was a trip with some classmates to France, and what made it special was the wonderful family I lived with for a week on the Mediterranean coast in Cannes, as well as the time I spent with Mssr. Hodgins and my classmates wandering around Paris.

London is probably one of my top three favorite cities in the world to visit. Although I really enjoy wandering around on foot through London and sightseeing, it wasn’t the London Eye or the Houses of Parliament that kept me coming back… it was because I first traveled there on my own to visit my cousin Ian, who spent a year as an exchange student there, and it was the fun crowd of college students I got to know—James, the Toms, Sarah, Dav, Elaine, and many more—when I visited him for two weeks that made my experience so special.

I traveled to Spain for a three-week Christmas and New Year holiday with my friends Paul, Tim, and Ryan. Barcelona was a stunning city with great food, equaled by the gorgeous views and historical Old Town on Ibiza (and it’s nightlife), but what really made the trip special were the incredible friends we made—Meye and Barbara, two amazing women who took it upon themselves to show us all the best restaurants and pubs in town, introduced us to friends, showed us the parades and the local Catalans celebrations, and invited us into their homes for Christmas dinner!

Greece, Turkey, and Italy are infused with history, vibrant culture, and amazing sights (especially for someone who studied history at university) but what made my travels there special were the memories and time I spent bonding with family.

When I first arrived in Thailand, it was two Thai friends I met—Poon and Om—who spent three days driving me all around Phuket on their motorbike showing me the sights.

Bangkok is a huge metropolis with great nightlife, great food, a big flag on the backpacker trail. But what made it so much fun for me was the people. I got caught up there for a year and a half eating cheap street food all the time with Migration Mark, Joel, Ryan, May, Nalin, Bank, and Aum, going out partying, and running fun monthly mixer events and volunteering with Dwight Turner, Christina, Craig Gonzales, and others. I remember the first day Sean Ogle landed in Asia, and we went with my sister and my friends Chris, Ryan, and Nick to explore the ancient ruins and Buddhas at Ayutthaya, coworking with David Walsh and Derek Johanson, planning a TEDx conference with Rob, Greg, Andrew, Chris, Karla, Fluke, and more.

Travel puts me face-to-face with friends—many friends I’ve known for many years from school or work, but also many who I’ve met and become friends with through running my business online.

In Bangkok, mostly through Twitter and the Bangkok Tweetups that Dwight and I would put on, I also was able to meet in person with awesome bloggers Dan Andrews, Adam Baker, Benny “the Irish Polyglot” Lewis, Gary Arndt, Matt Goult, Jodi Ettenberg, Jonny Gibaud, Marc Gold, Ross Hill, Kevin Revolinski, Wes Nations, Ryan Martin, Mark Powers, and many more.

Warning: I’ve linked to a lot of people in this post! But I want to share each and every one of them with you (I’m definitely missing more than a few, too) not to gloat… not because I’m some celebrity, but because I’ve been blessed to meet so many truly cool people from around the world—each of them working on their own unique, interesting things—and each of them has at some point or another in my travels made a profound impact on my journey in their own small way. Because of that, I do encourage you to check out each and every one of these folks and discover how they’re making the world a more interesting place. I owe it to them to share what they’re doing.

In Bali I met Kyle and Bessie Crum doing yoga in the rice paddies, Stuart McDonald eating ribs at Naughty Nuri’s, Jez Tryner for a drink, and spent time with my friends Jerm and Vie at their lovely condo.

In Kuala Lumpur I met Nomadic Matt Kepnes while wandering around hostels, Dwight and Mark and I met our travel buddy Agnes (who drove us at lightning speed at 11pm one night to see the cozy little town of Melaka, on a whim!) through Couchsurfing, and I met Hani Khaursar, Vishen Lakhiani, Brian Wong and others on a subsequent trip when I spoke at a conference.

Phnom Penh has been home to my two friends Brittany Sims and Caron Margarete who, along with some of Cambodia’s footballers showed me the town and made me feel right at home.

Here in Krabi, I spent considerable time climbing and beach partying with my friends Alicia, James, Vanessa, Peter, Jane & Toto, and I finally met in person with my blogger buddies Carlos Miceli, Colin Wright, Adventurous Kate McCulley, Backpacking Matt Kyhnn, and Shannon O’Donnell, who’ve all stopped by on their travels.

When I traveled back to the States this year, in Austin, I met up with Markus & Ashley, Nick Reese, Jenny Blake, Ridiculously Extraordinary Karol Gadja, Where is Jenny Leonard, Andy Drish, Andrew Norcross, Thursday Bram, Technomads Chris & Cherie, and many other good folks for a week of awesomeness while South by Southwest was on.

The San Francisco Bay Area is home to a host of inspiring folks like Ramit Sethi, Corbett Barr, Amber Zuckswert, Charlie Hoehn, Lorna Li, and serial entrepreneur Rajesh Setty (and I also had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Chris Ducker there, who usually plays an Englishman in the Philippines).

Los Angeles is or has been the stomping grounds of my very good friend Ryan, entrepreneur Jun Loayza, blogger Jonathan Mead, dating coach Jordan Harbinger, my friends Dariane Nabor, Laurenne Sala, and many other cool peoples.

In past trips to Singapore, I’ve met other cool nerds (like myself) Adrianna Tan, Ziqi Koey (who also just visited us here in Krabi!), Guyi Shen, and many more.

This trip, Emily and I had an incredibly fun time together…  we did all the touristy stuff: we walked all around the city on foot, stayed on the beautiful riverfront in Boat Quay, gorged ourselves on amazing delicious food from all around Southeast Asia and beyond, we hung out at the marina by night and took in all the city lights, wandered all around the big fancy new Marina Bay Sands resort and casino, went to a Salvador Dalí exhibit, to the cinema, briefly to a concert hall, and much more. But our time together there also reminded me that one of my biggest motivators is the people I get to share it with.

It was seeing my friend and singer Shimona Kee for her birthday and enjoying the hip young local music scene, having a lovely homemade dinner with Michelle at her impressive 16th-floor apartment, having a drink, a shisha and a catchup with my old friends John Berns and Martin, and getting to meet Derek Sivers in person (the very down-to-earth, engaging, but brilliant and wildly successful gentleman who founded CDBaby) to chat about travels, businesses, failures, and planting multiple flags (BTW you absolutely must watch this fascinating, short 8-part video series by Sivers). Getting to interact with, have fun with, learn from, and learn about all these fascinating people that are all doing their own interesting things—that’s what makes travel so much fun for me.

Running my business online has meant I’ve built friendships with people all around the world. Interacting with people through Twitter alone has connected me to dozens and dozens of new people that I’ve actually become real friends and done business with.

The point is, I’m just an average dude—but because of the way I choose to live my life, the way I run my business, and the way I reach out to connect with other people out there, I’ve had an extraordinary experience making new friends all around the world. The tools I’ve used to build an international network of friends and colleagues are also available to you.

Being location-independent, running a business online, and being on the move—living my life this way has opened many doors to people and experiences I wouldn’t have back in my “normal” life, that I would have never dreamed I’d have. My passion and what drives my journey is the interesting people I meet… making new friends and having fun new experiences with them, learning from them, and growing with them. Your interests, what drives you, and the life you want to have may look entirely different to mine, but whatever they are, there are millions of people you can connect with out there in this small little world of ours. The amazing journey I have had, like many others, is only an example of what anyone could do. You only need to start opening doors.

What journey are you on? What are the people, places, and experiences that have meant the most to you along your path?

If you found this interesting, and if you’re anything like me, click here to get some incredibly awesome (and completely free) stuff to add to your toolbox and learn more about my philosophy. You won’t regret it→

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Setbacks, and What Motivates Me to Keep Exploring & Experimenting

###

When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers.”

–Ralph Waldo Emerson

Maintaining relationships as a permanent traveler and entrepreneur has it’s challenges. I’ve been puzzled as to how to broach this topic here, but I recently parted ways with my (now ex-) girlfriend.

Nikki was (and always will be) a stunning, inspiring, ambitious woman. We met in Bangkok, she had built her own successful business, we saw four countries together in the last eight months alone, and together we got a beach house on beautiful Koh Phangan island in the south of Thailand. In many ways, we were the perfect travel couple. I thought I’d found the love of my life. So it’s hard to share with the whole world when you fuck something that good up.

Maybe we rushed into things. Maybe our hopes were too high. Maybe we were too alike—both A-type, hard-headed entrepreneurs, both accustomed to the ever-changing permanent travel lifestyle, and both very stubborn. We both had outside stresses, and moving from a busy city with literally hundreds of friends we could go out with nearly every day of the week, to sharing a home together for the first time, together nearly 24/7, on a small island where we didn’t know anyone, we had a few fights that escalated from bad to worse, and eventually I left Koh Phangan.

In retrospect, I don’t even remember what our arguments were about. Average disagreements, minor hurt feelings, money worries, but they would spiral out of control as we provoked each other to higher and higher stakes back and forth. Occasional fights are inevitable in long-term relationships. But perhaps we hadn’t had enough time to fully figure each other out, or maybe we both still need to learn how to handle those misunderstandings and disagreements properly with a more mature discourse.

Over the course of several months I had adjusted my business and scaled back on a lot of the projects I had been doing on my own (to clarify, she didn’t ask me to do this) to help her expand her magazine online and across Asia further. She had wanted me to potentially partner with her more officially on it, and we’d had plans to travel to South America in 2011 and do similar business there…

So when we went our separate ways, not only did I walk away from a girl that meant a tremendous amount to me, but I also became a homeless “digital drifter” again, and reverted back to solo entrepreneur. Because I had dropped a few big clients and discontinued some of the services I had been providing over the months, it’s put me at a crossroads in my business: what direction do I go? What opportunities do I get back into? Do I search for new clients or reinvent things and do something entirely new?

Not being in a committed relationship also puts me back in a position where I could almost go anywhere in the world, which is actually scary as hell. The decisions are paralyzing.

We’ve all had experiences like these—it was actually another breakup over three years ago that pushed me to move overseas—and I’ve had countless emails from readers in similar situations, who also experienced a breakup, or some other big life change.

But these big changes that we experience—losing someone you love (through a breakup, the death of someone you care about, or otherwise), having your career or your business thrown in disarray, experiencing a huge change in your living situation before you’re ready for it, trouble in your family, misunderstandings with your friends, and many other similar things—they can also bring out massive fears that—if you don’t overcome them—will put you in a rut for months or years, and may destroy you.

We may feel fear because of an experience that has happened in the past which triggers fear in the present. We might feel fear of uncertainty, or fear of the unknown. Or, we may even be frightened of doing what we’ve always wanted to do with our lives—a kind of nervous excitement, if you will.

[…] Fear is debilitating. It keeps us at a distance.  It stops us from moving forward.  It holds us back.

Our natural instinct when we begin to feel fear is avoidance.  Many people will go to unnatural extremes to avoid their fears, rather than dealing with their fear, and moving forward.”

–Brooke Ferguson

The Fear of Uncertainty

I am a firm believer that the only thing that holds you back from getting the things you want in this life is yourself—or, to be more precise, your fears.

Fear is a product of our evolution—it’s a survival response, a remnant from caveman days when we needed to remain alert and move our asses to avoid getting eaten by sabertooth tigers. But life in modern society is pretty cushy, and that inherent fear and anxiety response isn’t so useful anymore. At least I haven’t come across too many sabertooth tigers.

You’re never going to completely remove the fear. But you must master the fear if you want to be successful in life and attain your goals.

Most of us fear failure in some form or another. A lot of people stay in their 9-to-5 jobs because they fear the unknown—not having that paycheck to rely on, or they fear their own ability to go out and find enough paying clients to make a living. I experience that fear every month! Or you might fear that people will think your idea is stupid, that no one will buy. People will laugh at you because you choose to walk a different path—the unconventional path.

“Most people will choose unhappiness over uncertainty.”

–Timothy Ferriss

But it’s not going to kill you to fail. Ask anyone successful how they got there, and they will undoubtedly tell you about the many, many failed ideas and failed attempts they made before they became an “overnight” success.

Failure doesn’t have the same sharp teeth and claws that it used to. If you’re trying to do big, remarkable things in business or in life, then failure is unavoidable. It’s part of the journey, part of the learning process. And in fact, failure is only going to teach you what you didn’t know already, and it will teach you lessons to apply in your next attempt at success.

One lesson that really made a huge impact on me early on, from Ramit Sethi, is that if you’re not failing at a few things each month, then you’re not trying hard enough. Ramit keeps a folder for failures, and he’s a New York Times bestselling author now.

Mountains from Molehills

Any big life change is going to feel like an insurmountable goal before you actually achieve it. The more you think about it without taking action and getting started, the more you will build it up to be a huge challenge in your head.

I remember before I finally pulled the trigger and packed my bags to live abroad in late 2008, I was scared shitless about leaving my comfortable surroundings. I thought I might end up spending a year in Asia in complete solitude. Boy did I turn out to be wrong though! I have friends now that I would never have back home—millionaires, media personalities, nightclub owners, authors, folks from all industries and from every corner of the world.

my 2nd day in Bangkok

I made it out to be a much bigger obstacle in my head than it really turned out to be. There were plenty of challenges, as I arrived in Beijing, China, just as the Bangkok airport was closed down by political demonstrations, and they wanted to turn me around and send me back to California.

But once I was moving towards my goal, once I was on the road traveling, I was surrounded by a completely new world—foreign languages I didn’t understand at all, different social norms—and it forced me to be resourceful. I had to learn and overcome the challenges, and in fact it increased the rate at which I was learning new things and becoming more resilient.

How to Royally Fuck Up a Sure Thing

Alright, so how to actually deal with the fear…

First, I want to tell you how not to deal with your fears. This is something that I’ve probably done over and over again, and one of these days I’ll have to learn that if I want a different outcome, I have to change my behavior. But I’ll share it here so hopefully you can learn a lesson from my failure.

So to go back to the breakup, a huge fear that I’ve recognized in myself is the fear that I’ll never find the kind of companionship I want—someone to share my life with. I’m not ready to settle down in one place, and I know I’m not mature enough to get hitched just yet, but I’m pretty serious when it comes to dating, and I’m looking for the right woman to join me on my unconventional journey through life—with all the ups and downs of travel and business thrown in there.

I tend to be extremely loyal when I find someone that fits—sometimes too much so. But a common fear that crops up in my relationships is that my other half isn’t as committed to the partnership.

In Nikki, I found someone who was exceptionally like-minded—she also enjoys the unleashed travel lifestyle and has the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. Very rare, but we understood each other pretty damn well. We made an incredible couple, and had a brilliantly fun time, something I’ll always be thankful for. We were almost sickeningly cute at times, I’m sure.

The huge mistake I made, though, was letting the fear take control at the first sign that something was wrong. Seth Godin calls it the lizard brain—the fight or flight tendency.

When we fought, all my biggest fears came out: that she would leave me, or maybe that I wasn’t good enough for her, and that even if we did work things out, get through the argument and come to an understanding, eventually there would come a time when I wasn’t able to keep her happy and the relationship would fall apart anyway.

So rather than fully committing myself to working things out, getting through the argument and working at it to come to an understanding, which is the mature thing I should have done, I let my past experiences dictate my behavior, and I acted out of fear. I said things I didn’t mean. And at the end, I was the douchebag who walked away from her, because I feared she would dump me, and I was desperate to avoid that pain (real or imagined).

I feared a certain outcome, so rather than working hard at it and being there the way I should have, I overreacted out of fear and prematurely severed the relationship because I feared an unknown future. When I realized what a mistake I’d made, I spent a week or two trying to persuade her back with logical reasoning. This is exactly the opposite of what you should do. There’s no reasoning with someone to love you; I’d already lost her trust.

“Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit.”

–Peter Ustinov

Moral of the story: if you really want something, don’t let fear take the wheel and go into fight or flight mode. Don’t react and be a jackass when you fear an unknown outcome. Instead, stay reasonable, keep a cool head, hang in there and keep working hard, taking the steps necessary toward what you want. Because you never really know what will happen—you can’t predict the future—but a lot of people sabotage themselves, almost subconsciously, so that they don’t have to experience failure if they don’t get what they want.

This applies to relationships, but also to pretty much everything else too. Don’t do this!

Keep Your Options Open

No matter what fear you’re facing, the biggest element is that we all fear we will be ruined if we fail. Life will be over!

But that’s just not true. What you need is to figure out your options if everything goes horribly, a backup plan, if you will. A lot of times we have these fears because we don’t know what alternate options we have. So you need to spend some time and think about your options.

Tim Ferriss calls it fear-setting: you need to spend some time and think about your options if the worst case scenario happens. Try writing down exactly what would happen in the absolute worst case, if you completely and utterly fail at your goals. Then map out as many paths to recovery as you can, or alternate solutions to achieve your goal.

A few weeks after my breakup, I sat down and put together a mindmap with some of my biggest fears right now at this stage in my life: what direction to go with my business, money troubles, my fear of loneliness, and yes even the fear that I’ll never find the Mrs. Right.

Once I did this, I actually realized how many friends I had coming through to visit, how much fun was in store, I realized how many different business opportunities were already open to me, and new income streams I could start if I put in the effort, I even realized a lot of the positive things about my breakup and being on my own again. It made a huge difference in my attitude, and gave me the energy to look for new possibilities and keep pressing forward.

Once you define your worst possible outcome, and brainstorm solutions for it, you’ll see that in most cases failure will be much easier to come back from than you might fear. This should help remove a lot of the uncertainty for you in any area of your life.

Surround Yourself with Good People

I was exceptionally fortunate that I had a good friend not far from where I was: Brooke Ferguson was just a few hours away in Krabi, Thailand. I took a bus to see her, she helped me get my feet back on the ground now that I was homeless, she listened to all my braindump about what had happened, gave me lots of helpful insight, and we even got some momentum going on an exciting new project.

Several friends have actually come to visit in the last two months: Craig Gonzales, who wrote here about friendship and location independence recently, Colin Wright, Carlos Miceli, Ross Hill, Dwight Turner, Matt Goult, and others. Some were there when I needed someone to discuss my breakup and my fears with, and slowly, through many conversations, I was able to learn some important lessons and understand my mistakes a bit better.

Markus from LivingOnImpulse.com & Dwight from InSearchOfSanuk.com

Some of them were there when I just wanted to go out for drinks and a fun time. A couple joined me on the renowned rock climbing routes in Railay Beach, Krabi (which itself, like skydiving, deals with my fear of heights. Staying active, or getting involved in a new activity can be a great way to challenge yourself in new ways and overcome unique challenges that you can then also apply in other parts of your life. Like losing a toenail after four hours of climbing, and then having to climb through pitch black caves and abseil down a 100-foot limestone cliff barefoot!)

abseiling barefoot over West Railay Beach

A rare few will excel at helping guide you through your own mental process, which is exactly what Markus Urban was able to do with me when we met for a few days of food, drinks, adventure, fun, and deep conversations.

Don’t compound your fears by staying isolated from the world. Often, if you can talk things through with people who you trust, they’ll help you see new things you didn’t see on your own. Getting the support of good friends, or family, can help infuse you with the courage you need to overcome your fears. And remaining present, honest and open to old and new people around you will frequently present new opportunities that weren’t there before.

Stare Fear in the Eye

It’s likely that what you fear most is what you must do. Steve Pavlina says that whatever you fear is not really an obstacle, but a challenge that you must face:

“The reward for facing fear is that you get to be fully alive. When you turn towards your fear, you feel the breath of life blowing straight at you, and it’s very refreshing. You feel awake and energized. It’s not that you become an adrenaline junky. You simply realize that you can’t let fear stand in your way if you want to live your life consciously. Being afraid of something is no excuse for not doing it.”

–Steve Pavlina

All the big things you want to accomplish will stir up your fears to some degree, and it’s only by confronting those fears head-on that you’ll ever overcome them and achieve anything remarkable. If something seems impossible, then break it down into smaller parts, and start today on the first one that will get you going the direction you want to go.

By breaking down your huge fears into small pieces and taking action every day, you’ll start to build up resilience and tenacity in the face of those fears. And every time you have a small breakthrough or a victory over something you fear, you’ll gain more and more momentum to continue on and take on bigger and bigger challenges.

I finally decided to take initiative on a big, impossible dream I have of hosting some kind of an entrepreneurship, personal development and lifestyle design summit in the Southern California desert—a sort of unconference and retreat with inspiring, like-minded people who want to create radical change in their lives and build meaningful businesses.

As soon as I started sharing this idea with the right kind of people—a few folks who I really look up to and a few individuals who crossed paths by serendipity and shared an understanding of what change I want to make in the world—I started to get positive feedback from some who are also interested to participate and make something happen, which has given me new motivation to put in the attention and effort and make this one of my central projects in the coming months. (More on this soon, but if you want to learn from and collaborate with some remarkable people for a week in Palm Springs, say around mid-April when Coachella Music & Arts Festival is on, drop me a line.)

And in the dating arena, I’ve simply forced myself to keep being social, going out and meeting new people, bonding with new friends, and already I’ve found that there are plenty of great women out there to meet and plenty of potential for new relationships when the time is right, and maybe my huge fear that I’ll spend eternity alone isn’t true after all.

Are You Avoiding Doing Something Out of Fear?

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

–Wayne Gretzky

Consider what you have to lose by not taking action. Will you get another chance at this? Are you happy with things as they are now, or are you miserable? Will you choose unhappiness over uncertainty?

The key to achieving your wildest goals in life is to overcome the fears that hold you back, and to question your assumptions. The more certainty you require in life, the more you will be let down and unhappy. The people who succeed are the ones who accept that much of life is uncertain, and every day will serve up new challenges. Sometimes you’ll feel prepared to handle them, but most of the time you probably won’t. You must learn to adapt quickly to change, seek out how you can turn uncertainty to your benefit, and stop being a victim—but instead start looking for the lessons you can learn from life’s challenges to make you stronger.

Here are four lessons I’ve learned as I’ve overcome big challenges and faced my fears:

1. If you feel pulled towards something, embrace it and race toward it.
2. Big life changes are never as scary as you make them out to be in your head at first.
3. No matter what happens, you will adapt to new surroundings and new things in your life surprisingly quickly.
4. Even if your plans don’t unfold how you want them to, at the very least you will experience growth and learn valuable lessons along the way.

The willingness to risk the comfort of the familiar in order to find your true happiness is the path to living a remarkable life.

“Winners expect and embrace failure as something that will remain constant throughout their lives. No matter how successful they are in whatever they do, they will have the failures to go alongside it.

Every winner out there has had to first become a Master of Failure before enjoying the winning side of life.”

–Kevin Abdulrahman

There always have been and always will be a small subset of the population who lead remarkable lives. They choose not to allow fear—of the unknown, of uncertainty, of failure—to hold them back from doing big things. They take action in the face of fear. The question is: will you choose to be one of them? Will you overcome your fears and live a remarkable life?

If So, the World Is Your Oyster!

Image: Anton Balazh

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: How to Keep Kicking Ass When You Lose Everything

I’ve been living in Bangkok, Thailand, for seventeen months now. It’s a big, hot, polluted city—a developed metropolis in the middle of the developing world where ancient tradition meets cutting edge technology. Bald-headed, orange-robed Buddhist monks wander the streets toting the latest iPhones; gray-haired Alabama exports sport handlebar mustaches and transgendered girlfriends; angry rioters blockade major city streets, while next door at the bar locals and expats alike look on with cocktails in hand.

If there’s one word to describe this place, it is contradiction. You will see the Old juxtaposed with the New, the East juxtaposed with the West. Thailand a beautiful tropical destination that feels a bit like the Wild West meets The Fifth Element.

I came to Thailand in 2008 after a bad breakup (two actually), quitting my office job, and many months of stagnation and boredom with my suburban existence in the States. I wanted to live for a year abroad, somewhere as different as I could possibly find. I wanted to create a location-independent lifestyle, free up more time to read, learn, travel, and work on personal projects, test my self-reliance, expand my understanding of other cultures, and of course lounge on the beach.

Getting Marooned in Asia

The day I flew out of San Francisco, November 25th, 2008, was the day that PAD “Yellow Shirt” protesters closed down the Bangkok airport. My connecting flight from Beijing to Bangkok was “delayed indefinitely”. Since I had not planned on stepping foot outside the airport, I had no visa to stay in China, and the immigration agents there were not the most welcoming people. After 3 hours, I managed to negotiate a 24-hour stay and a hotel for the night, courtesy of the People’s Republic. That night foreshadowed the next week of travel though: no one spoke a word of English; I ate a pack of Ritz crackers for dinner and shared three Heinekens with another stranded traveler; the protesters’ sit-in at Bangkok’s international airport lasted for ten days.

My year abroad certainly didn’t start off according to plan, but after three nights in Hong Kong and a redirect through Malaysia, I was in beach paradise in Phuket, riding around on the back of motorbikes with new Thai friends, wandering around breathtaking Buddhist temples and watching beautiful sunsets. Then days later, I was at the Pama Resort on the beach in Rayong—with my good friend Dwight Turner, his buddy Dylan Wei, and a busload of Chinese tourists—eating a full seafood barbeque spread on the beach, dancing, and singing karaoke on stage. Only in Southeast Asia.

I’ve been sick on a twelve-hour overnight bus (the worst kind of sick!), with no running water, no toilet paper, and no sleep. I’ve been on the long road to Laos when our car suddenly broke down. I’ve been in upscale nightclubs when the police have stormed the place at 1am looking for some Thai mobster or other. I’ve been in the thick of it when protesters close down my neighborhood for days on end and clash with soldiers and riot police—Molotov cocktails, petrol bombs, tear gas and bullets flying. I always manage to find myself in the middle of the action somehow.

Why Thailand? Why Now?

This guide may not come at the most timely moment for average travelers, with recent violent riots in the streets of Bangkok and international travel advisories warning against visiting Thailand right now. But I know there’s nothing average about you guys. And besides, Thailand isn’t a place for anyone who’s looking for anything average.

Political unrest is a fairly normal thing in this part of the world. I don’t recommend anyone go following the demonstrators around town, and I don’t take any liability for anyone who can’t keep their wits about them when traveling, but you can bet that travel to Thailand will be on SALE for the next few months.

The Thai people definitely are some of the friendliest people I’ve come across in my travels to 20+ countries, and they will take very good care of you for the most part. It’s not a perfect place—nowhere is—but the cost-of-living and traveling is low, entertainment and incredible food are easy to find, and friends are very easy to make.

Bangkok attracts millions of tourists each year—foreigners looking for everything from the hedonistic to the sacred. This part of the world is the only place I’ve been where you will see monks and prostitutes on the same street corner. It might be a little bit too much for some, but others thrive on the energy here. Life in Thailand always keeps you on your toes!

Increased freedoms, choices and opportunities are what drive people to cities like this—from the low-income farmers in the countryside to the European and American expats. And as my friend John Berns has said, Bangkok almost feels like it’s experiencing a bit of a renaissance right now—there are a lot of creeps in this town, but there are also innumerable creative types out here trying to make the world a better place or start big things in one way or another. I’ve never met so many really smart, really motivated people in my life—something I’ll go more into in future posts…

Suffice it to say, if you’re a bit adventurous, a bit entrepreneurial, or just want to experience a walk on the wild side, Thailand is a perfect destination for anyone who wants anything from a great 2-week vacation to a 3-month mini-retirement. Or more. (I’ve got several friends who originally came out here for an “8-week trip” that turned into 8 years!)

When to Come to Thailand

Thailand’s tourism high season is from October to April, when the weather is generally at its coolest and driest. Accommodation is at its most expensive, and tourist destinations are most crowded of any time of year.

Starting in May or June through about September is the rainy “monsoon” season, but don’t let that name scare you off. Rain comes in heavy downpours, but most days, it will only last for maybe an hour or so in the afternoon, and the rains are rather warm. If you’re not put off by a bit of a drizzle, they’re actually quite refreshing. Monsoon season is also typically the low season when the fewest tourists come out here, prices are at their lowest, and it’s easiest to get around.

So, in other words, NOW is the time to come to Thailand if you want cheap prices! It’s the best time of year to spend weeks or months with friends down at the beaches on the Andaman Sea, for example. Check out this video to see some of the great adventures I had with friends down south and look for the stunning hotel room I got for just $18 US per night during low season:

Getting Here & Getting Around Southeast Asia on the Cheap

Almost anywhere you plan on traveling in Southeast Asia, the cheapest flights all come in through Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport (code BKK), the biggest international hub in the region.

If you spend wisely, you can easily take a three- or four-week flashpacking trip through Thailand and airfare will be your biggest expense for the whole trip.

Kayak.com is, in my opinion, the best airfare aggregator that finds the cheapest flights all around the world. It doesn’t pull information from all the smaller carriers around the globe, but it will frequently find the best fare or at least give you an idea what the prices should look like. Forget Orbitz.

The cheap air carriers out here in Thailand are AirAsia.com (by far the best), Tiger Airways, and Nok Air—you can frequently fly to most locations throughout Thailand for $50 or less depending on when you book, or even jetset to neighboring Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, and so on for very cheap. Avoid Jetstar Airways.

What to Pack for Your Trip to Thailand

Pack light! You don’t need much. I have dozens of friends who have lived out of one backpack for 6 months, and keep in mind that I moved to Asia for a year and a half trip with only two bags. Keep in mind that Thailand is a tropical country where you rarely need any cold-weather clothing or jackets. Laundry is very cheap and you can purchase anything you need over here, so pack less than you think you will need.

If you want to visit Thai temples (wats) you should bring one pair of lightweight long pants (and women need to cover their shoulders and arms).

There are 7/11′s on every street corner where you can get snacks, basic toiletries and household items. Tesco Lotus is a good chain to find cheap food and household items, and there are plenty of inexpensive, fairly good-quality clothes to be found among the street vendors at Khao San Road, Chatuchak weekend market, and the innumerable street markets that crop up all over Bangkok.

Don’t forget to barter! It’s a way of life in Thailand. This won’t work for food most of the time, or in nicer hotels, department stores, etc. But if you’re buying goods on the street, ask their price and then start your counter offer at half what they quoted you.

Surviving Your First Day in Thailand

Flights coming from the US frequently arrive in Bangkok around midnight, and it’s handy to have a room booked for at least one night if you are arriving in Bangkok directly after a long haul flight. A taxi from the airport to downtown will only be about $10–15 or so, with highway tolls included. One important note that many foreigners miss: NEVER get in a taxi that doesn’t have the meter on. If the taxi drivers quote you 300 or 400 baht to get where you’re going, ask for “meter?” Tuk tuks aren’t equipped with meters, but you can bet if they quote you 300 or 400 baht, they’re scamming you.

From the airport, there is also a cheap shuttle bus that will take you directly to the Khao San Road area with cheap backpacker hostels.

Here’s a few places I’d recommend:

• HI-Sukhumvit
• Lub d Hostel
• Sawasdee Hotels
• Diamond House
• Or search here to book accommodation all across Thailand & Asia

Another wise idea if you are traveling with friends or meeting anyone while you’re here is to get a Thai SIM card for your cell phone. SIM cards and refill credit are very cheap here, and you can find them in most 7/11′s all over the country.

Also if you are like me and use your smart phone to connect to the web a lot, check out Matt Goult’s 4-step guide to get unlimited EDGE/GPRS data on One-2-Call here in Thailand.

Be Prepared for Challenges

If you’ve never been to Asia before, you are going to be waay overwhelmed when you land in Bangkok. Lots of people, lots of cars racing around ignoring red lights and turning 3-lane highways into 5-lanes (but thankfully much fewer accidents than I’m used to seeing back home in California), lots of smog, lots of crazy things you’ll see. It’s a different world than the West, so just be prepared for that.

It is not like you’re used to back home. Even though Bangkok is a huge modern city, wi-fi can be harder to find than anticipated. Power will go out, water won’t work all the time, things will break. Nothing works 100% of the time. So just be prepared for that, leave enough time to get things done and get where you need to go.

As my buddy Jonny Gibaud says, pedestrian crossings really are just decorations, and about 110% of the cars will not stop for you under any circumstance, motorbikes frequently use the sidewalks, and all sorts of other crazy shit, so stay alert when you’re wandering the streets. “Police are abundant in Thailand and especially in cities such as Bangkok. They seem to be everywhere but are not seen to serve any real purpose apart from pulling over foreigners and fining them for being alive.”

Learning to use the bathroom will be difficult. Do a Google search for “Asian squat toilet”. Trust me. Everything is different and new here. You’ll feel like an infant all over again!

There will be huge lingual and cultural barriers, you will experience many misunderstandings. But everyone is awesome. People are friendly. Keep a smile on your face, roll with the punches, and be ready to expand your comfort zone and your ability to overcome challenges. I have never felt threatened in this country the whole year and a half I have lived here, and it’s easy to make friends with travelers and expats.

Almost Anything Can Be Had

All of that being said, a lot of people make travel in Thailand sound harder than it is though. For all of its challenges, Thailand truly is a fantastic place—the people are generally very friendly, not confrontational at all, they will laugh off misunderstandings (so you should too), and for the most part they will take very good care of you.

Thailand is a place where I would venture to say you can find almost anything you want to buy (baby cobra snakes anyone?), and have nearly any experience you can imagine. You can get anything here. There is certainly a dark side to BKK if that’s what you’re looking for, but this site doesn’t deal with that. There are plenty of other places you can look that stuff up if it’s what you’re interested in.

Bangkok has some of the best nightlife in the world, and it’s easy to find yourself smoking cigars with the club owners, hanging at model bars, rooftop parties, or comped Tiesto shows. The more you get to know people, the more opportunities will be available to you, so keep an open mind and make friends!

You can order McDonald’s delivery all night, you can hire the motorbike taxi drivers outside your hostel to help you with almost any task you can imagine, you can get someone to wash your laundry for $2, you can find maids, traditional Thai massages, fine suit tailors and personal drivers for a fraction of the cost you’d expect in any Western country.

Lastly, as my good Thai friend Tiam once reassured me, the law is flexible. All the rules get broken here (just watch how people obey the traffic laws), so if you make a mistake—like overstaying your visa by a week or two—don’t worry too much. It’s a completely foreign idea to us Westerners, but almost anything can be negotiated, and people want to help you if you’re willing to help them.

A Word on the Thai Language

Thankfully for English speaking travelers, Thailand and most of Southeast Asia are actually very easy to get around with little or none of the local language. Many people in Bangkok and other cities speak at least some English. With that said, the more you know coming in, the better, so be prepared.

There will be loads of confusion. There are a few important pleasantries I’d recommend learning before you come here that will make life a little easier. In Thai, you almost always end every sentence with a polite word. For men, you end everything with “kup”; for women, you end your sentences with “ka”. See below:

• “Sawadee kup”(male)/”Sawadee ka” (female) – “Hello”
• “Sabai dee mai kup/ka” – “How are you?”
• “Korp khun kup/ka” – “Thank you”
• “Tao rai kup/ka” – “How much is it?”
• “Mai pen lai kup/ka” – “No worries” or “It doesn’t matter” — that’s the attitude out here. As I said above, don’t take anything too seriously.

Thai is a tonal language, with five different tones—all five can give a word different meanings. But don’t worry too much—just be willing to try speaking and laugh it off when you make mistakes. Subscribe to the awesome, free Learn Thai Podcast, listen to the first few episodes on your flight over here, and you’ll already be ahead of most tourists who come out here. Get the Lonely Planet Thai phrase book from the iTunes store if you carry an iPhone or iPod with you, which you can consult if you get stuck and need to communicate with someone (it has audio). If you’re staying in Thailand for a while, find a Thai friend to teach you or search online for inexpensive courses you can attend.

Thai Food

Eat the food from street stalls! It’s cheap and delicious, and there’s nothing wrong with eating at a sidewalk or alleyway vendor in this country. A lot of places, you can find incredible edibles on the street 24-hours a day. And don’t just stick to Pad Thai! Mark Wiens, the king of foods, has an excellent list of 100 Foods You Must Eat in Bangkok Thailand. Try the curries, the soups, the duck, look for Chinese and Korean food, Indian and Arab food.

Take the BTS (the mass transit skytrain in Bangkok) to Nana Station and visit Sukhumvit Soi 3/1, where you’ll find rows of Middle Eastern restaurants with incredible naan bread, hummus, shwarma wraps, lamb kebabs, and shisha pipes.

For the most comprehensive & thorough education on Thai food you’ll ever see, check out Mark’s exceptional Eating Thai Food Guide, which will give you the complete menu of Thai street food you’ll find around the country, including photos, recipes, ratings, phonetic instructions on how to order in Thai (and how to write them in the Thai language), and even recommended restaurants.

Other Destinations Around Thailand

1. Ayutthaya: The old capital of Thailand is a day trip from Bangkok, full of ancient ruins, Buddhist temples, and Buddha statues to explore. It’s very much like a miniature version of Cambodia’s Angkor Wat temple. Read more here.

2. Chiang Mai: Mountainous, beautiful, lots of festivals. You can go elephant trekking and take a nice Thai cooking class. I know there are plenty of nice hostels and internet cafes, and it’s cheaper than Bangkok. Take the overnight sleeper train from Bangkok. Also see Chiang Rai and Pai (a hippy town with bungalows on the river) while you’re up north.

3. Krabi province: If you’ve heard the good word about Phuket, I say give Krabi province a try instead. Absolutely stunning white sand beaches, this is literally my favorite place I’ve been. Stay in Ao Nang or Krabi Town for a cheaper stay. Take a longtail boat from either one out to Railay Beach or to one of the nearby islands. With reggae bars, rock climbing, snorkeling, scuba diving, fire dancing on the beach, it’s pretty hard to go wrong. If you wanna see my favorite place out of 25+ countries so far, check out my Railay Beach Krabi travel guide.

4. Phuket: If after you’ve checked out the Krabi province and still want to see what Phuket is all about, then make sure you check out Marriott’s Phuket Beach Club for an accommodation option. It’s a friendly, safe resort with inexpensive timeshare rentals that will provide you with a few restful nights before trekking on. It’s also located right on Mai Khao beach, a mostly undeveloped and isolated beach. Though a bit more touristy than it has been in past years, the relaxed, somewhat more isolated beaches in the north, including Mai Khao and Nai Yang, as well as Rawai and Kata in the south, are still beautiful places to visit and recommended if you decide to venture into Phuket.

5. Koh Lanta: This is right next door if you travel down to Krabi. There are tons of islands down south in the Andaman Sea (Koh Phi Phi, Koh Tao, Kho Phangan, etc.), but we recently had an incredible stay at a beachside bungalow resort in Khlong Nin beach on Koh Lanta for just about $12 a night. Check out my friend Chris’ Koh Lanta Beach Guide at AmazingLanta.com.

6. Koh Samet: Not quite the same as the sandy beaches and crystal clear waters of the islands in the Andaman Sea, but Koh Samet is a weekend getaway and just a short 3-hour trip from Bangkok by bus and ferry. Check out Stuart’s Koh Samet travel guide at TravelFish.

7. Angkor Wat: If you want to travel outside Thailand while you’re here, I’d highly recommend Siem Reap, Cambodia where you can see Angkor Wat—the massive ancient capital with the ruins you’d recognize from movies like Tomb Raider. It’s beautiful, breathtaking, a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and the city Siem Reap is gorgeous, quiet and traveler-friendly.

IMPORTANT: Thailand Travel Visas

If you arrive to Thailand without arranging a visa in advance, most Western passport-holders will automatically receive a 30-day stamp upon arrival at the airport. This can be extended for an additional 7 days at an immigration office in Bangkok or other parts of Thailand for 1900 baht. Any time you arrive in Thailand by air you can get this 30-day stay, but technically speaking, you are only allowed to do this twice in any 6 months.

If you cross the Thai border overland from somewhere like Laos or Cambodia, you will be given ony a 15-day stamp by default.

The most useful visa for longer stays is the 60-day tourist visa, which you can apply for in your home country or any neighboring Asian country for 1900 baht. The easiest places for a visa run are to Laos or Cambodia, where you cross the border and stay for two to four days while a 60-day tourist visa is processed. You can also extend the 60-day tourist visa for an additional 30 days at the immigration office in Bangkok or other parts of Thailand for 1900 baht. So, you can effectively use tourist visas to stay in the country for 90 days at a time and then travel to a neighboring country, visit the Thai embassy or consulate, and return with a new tourist visa which you can again extend for another 90 days. Read more on visa runs from Migrationology.

You will pay a visa fee of about $25–$35 US at immigration to enter Laos or Cambodia.

Check thaivisa.com and review the forums for detailed info on visas and updated reports from others about local Thai embassies. This is THE place to find info about visas.

A Few Unique Social Norms in Thailand

Thai people are very welcoming, understanding, and forgiving, but you’ll definitely get better treatment if you observe a few basic social rules. The most important thing to bear in mind is the “mai pen rai”, no worries attitude. Remember you’re on vacation, keep a smile on your face, and take it easy! Getting overly angry will usually not get the same response as it would in the West, whereas keeping your “jai yen”, or cool heart, will yield the best results for everyone involved.

• Don’t touch anyone on the top of the head, especially elder people. For Thais, the top of the head is a sacred place.
• Don’t point at anything with your feet or put your feet on top of a chair, desk, etc. The feet are considered the dirtiest part of the body, so definitely keep them away from monks, Buddha statues, and images of the King.
• Women are not allowed to touch monks at all. So no reaching out to shake hands, and don’t sit next to them on the BTS skytrain. Learn what the Asian “wai” is.
• It’s not the norm to tip in most places throughout the country, although if you receive spectacular service it will be gladly accepted. Many restaurants already include a 10% VAT fee.
• 10 Thai Customs To Know Before Visiting Thailand

While Thailand is a very open-minded and tolerant culture, keep in mind that in public, Thais are fairly conservative. Be respectful and wear long pants long sleeves when you visit palaces and temples. Don’t show too much skin, and don’t assume it’s alright to practice topless sunbathing on the beaches. It’s also best to keep the necking and public displays of affection to a minimum when you’re out and about.

Other Considerations

Banking and Cash in Thailand:

The exchange rate is currently about 32.24 baht to $1 US.

It’s easiest to just bring your bank/ATM card and just sucked up the fees (150 baht to use the local ATM plus typically $5–10 international fees depending on your bank). I try to withdraw about $300 (10k baht) at a time to minimize my fees. If you plan on doing extensive international travel, it may be worthwhile to look at a bank like Charles Schwab, which reimburses you for all fees on their checking accounts and has no international fees.

Shots or Vaccinations:

You do not require any specific shots or vaccinations to enter the Kingdom of Thailand. There are some border areas that the CDC considers questionable for malaria, but the medication here is cheaper. Be aware, malaria pills will give you some freaky David Bowie dreams.

Local Medical Coverage:

You can walk in to the hospital, clinic, and pharmacies all over Thailand. Over the counter medications, prescriptions, and almost every medical service imaginable is incredibly cheaper than in Europe or the US. You can get x-rays or see the doctor for less than $10, so if you have trouble finding traveler’s insurance (which you will with travel advisories right now) I wouldn’t worry about your health. People flock to Thailand for medical tourism reasons because they have some of the most affordable healthcare in the world. You can see the eye doctor or the dentist and get service for pennies on the dollar as well, typically all very high quality.

Do You Want MORE Info on Living & Traveling in Thailand?

Please share your feedback and if you find this useful. If you want to know MORE about things like visas & how to stay long term, finding free wi-fi, coworking offices in Bangkok, networking, finding jobs, long-term accommodations, renting houses & apartments, clubbing & things to do, and even dating in the Land of Smiles, if I get enough feedback I may consider putting out a much more detailed white paper for living & working in Thailand that would go into much greater depth for under $10 bucks.

And for expats living here or travelers who’ve been to Thailand before: what advice would you add?

More Thailand Resources:

• All about stunning Railay Beach and my home, Ao Nang, in Krabi province
• Chris Mitchell’s thorough guide 55 Tips To Help You The First Time You Travel To Thailand
• Migration Mark’s exceptional Eating Thai Food Guide, with a complete directory to traditional Thai food & street food, and recommended restaurants
• Another gem from Greg Jorgensen on CNNGo: World’s Greatest City: 50 reasons why Bangkok is No. 1
• From Matador: 10 Thai Customs To Know Before Visiting Thailand
• Search here to book hotels and backpacker hostels all across Thailand

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: 27 Tips for First-Time Travelers to Thailand

You’re already en route to your thrilling lifestyle so why are you still giving the same way? In the footsteps of Jesus, Ghandi, Spiderman and all four Ninja Turtles, here are three steps to make your giving as revolutionary as your lifestyle.

Stop Giving Only When It’s Convenient

The template lifestyle dictates that you should probably begin thinking about what you can give back a few years before you expect to die. How much have you bought into that mentality? Have you repeatedly postponed giving until you have more money, more stability, and more success? My first big project last year was to design a fundraiser for Bangkok’s Refugee Center. I ended up throwing an art show that provided much needed funds for the center and got more people in the city talking about my initiative. However, had I let the unpredictability of my personal life govern the decision to be involved, it would have been scheduled for 2030. To play a role in social change, we can no longer conceptualize giving the same way we think about clipping our toenails or doing our taxes. Break the mold and transform giving from a mundane task to a part of your thrilling lifestyle.

Embrace Risky Giving

As a society we have bought the idea that giving should be feel good and secure. Sometimes it can be, but we are wrong to believe putting others’ well being before our own will be all smiles and rainbows. My hunch is this is because we’re not giving for the right reasons to begin with. I cringe when I hear, “Give and you WILL RECEIVE.” How much of what you give is steeped in what you’re hoping to receive? Are you doing it so more people will buy your product or read your blog? In reality, the people giving the most are hardly recognized or rewarded. Stop and think about your teachers and I know you’ll get my point. Why then do you expect some selfish reward for doing what we know is right? Really want to be an unconventional giver? Try this:

Give when no one is looking. Give and expect nothing. Be risky, be taken for granted and give purely.

Give From the Bottom of your Hurt

Your parents tried it. You tried it. So where did giving from the heart get us? Well, besides forcing smart non profits and NGOs to scramble, rearranging budgets or compromising their services for overpaid marketers who know how to tap into our vanity. To our detriment we’ve created an environment where cause marketers have to dupe us into repeatedly buying a latte laced with ‘feel good’ to do something noble like saving the rain forest. It works, so everyday we fall out of bed and into line for innumerable magic lattes until we’ve purchased such a monstrous caseload of feel good that we honestly believe we can end poverty without ever changing our daily routine. Nothing wrong with a laced latte, right? But, if you’re reading this it’s because you’ve already fallen off the bandwagon. So I challenge all former bandwagon riders to start giving from the bottom of your hurt. You don’t have to be hungry for long to have enough of an idea of what starving might be like. Likewise, you don’t have to travel to countries where every meal is an appetizer just to realize more should be done to relieve the suffering of those less fortunate than us. Pain is universal. Give when it hurts and because it hurts.

Dwight Turner is the crazy changemaker behind grassroots volunteer organization In Search of Sanuk. Thrilling Heroics Consulting is a regular supporter of ISOS and fully sponsored his December teaching initiative in the Bangkok slums. Find out more about his project and begin your unconventional giving by donating today.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: 3 Ways To Be An Unconventional Giver: What Jesus, Ghandi and Spiderman Knew

For readers from the States, I wish you a happy Thanksgiving! A few months ago, I was thinking about all the individuals who have helped shape the course of my life and the person I am today. I’ve been extremely fortunate to have the guidance of some brilliant minds and to surround myself with motivated, creative, innovative people.

They say your character and your achievements are influenced most by the people you surround yourself with. There have even been studies that show your income bracket is likely to be equal to the average of that of your five closest friends. So who are you surrounding yourself with?

Today I wanted to share my gratitude to my many teachers, mentors, role models, and friends who have influenced my life and given me their support. It’s important to acknowledge those who help foster your abilities and empower you to pursue the life you want.

Alec Hodgins

A French Canadian who taught English in France for years and then migrated to the US to teach French! I was lucky to be in his class for three years in high school. Alec was the most influential teacher I ever had in school, always advocating the unconventional path. He was the one who inspired my fascination with world cultures, languages, and travel. My first travel abroad was on a class trip with him to Cannes & Paris, France, and he first got me drooling over photos of Thailand when he took his wife and son there in 2000.

Lesson learned: You don’t have to color inside the lines all the time.

Alan Haynes

My photography teacher in high school, again for three years. In another life, I was a professional photographer (now it’s mostly a hobby, but I have a travel photo site coming soon). Alan connected me with my very first job, working in a darkroom, and showed me that it was possible to earn a great living if you split your time as an artist and as a teacher, to pass on your craft to the next generation.

Lesson learned: It’s okay to pursue your creative passion professionally.

Nicole Pefley

I met Nicole in middle school and our paths have intertwined ever since. She’s been a two-time Coachellian with me, we have a shared love for travel, French, music, and other assorted weird experiences. After high school, she lived in Paris for many months, and then spent a year studying in Brazil, so she was a great example for me to follow when I chose to live abroad for a while. Recently, she’s followed in Alec Hodgins footsteps and began teaching French at our old high school.

Lesson learned: We’ve both found you really can be a drifter for a few years after school, explore your interests, and eventually land on your feet.

Ramit Sethi

I’ve mentioned Ramit a few times recently. He was the first big blogger I reached out to when I started building my online presence in 2006, and I found out we’re from the same town! He’s a perfect role model for gen-y bloggers and entrepreneurs—he’s a year older than me, a graduate of Stanford University, and a successful tech startup co-founder. He’s worked with bigshots like Seth Godin and eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, and now he’s a New York Times bestselling author!

Lesson learned: Nobody’s going to give you handout. But there’s no harm in asking for what you want.

Jeffrey Skoll

Jeff Skoll was the first president of eBay and founder of movie production company Participant Media (responsible for bringing An Inconvenient Truth to the world). He’s been an active voice at Stanford’s Center for Social Innovation, and took his wealth from his success at eBay to become a philanthropist and support innovative entrepreneurship and social change with the Skoll Foundation. I’ve never spoken to Jeff, but he has always served as a great social entrepreneur role model for me.

Lesson learned: You can make a damn good living and make a difference at the same time.

Warren Buffett

The “Oracle of Omaha” is known around the world as one of the world’s most talented investors and money managers, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and the richest person in the world (up until 2008, worth about $62 billion). Buffett started out with the money he earned as a newspaper boy to buy his first assets, and despite his now immense fortune, he still lives in a home he purchased for $50K in the 1950s and embraces a frugal lifestyle. In 2006, I had the opportunity to meet him briefly, just weeks after his announcement that he’d be giving away 85 percent of his fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Lesson learned: If the wealthiest investor & philanthropist in the world grew his business from just a few dollars from his paper route, you can too.

Rajesh Setty

I connected with Raj through his blog Life Beyond Code in my early days of blogging. As a serial entrepreneur, he tends to be involved as a co-founder, investor, or board member in about eight companies at any given time. He shares his wealth of business experience and motivational wisdom through his blog, Twitter, speaking engagements, and his books, and he was a huge influence on me when I first started my freelance side business which later grew into Thrilling Heroics Consulting.

Lesson learned: Business isn’t about a product, it’s about the people you work with, the relationships you build, and the dedication you show to your customer.

Timothy Ferriss

My interest in coming to Southeast Asia was fueled by reading Tim Ferriss’ inspiring NYT Bestseller The 4 Hour Workweek. Ferriss noted that Thailand and Argentina were two of the world’s best remaining destinations where Americans can easily stretch their dollar, and that if you spend the time to build a business that you can run from anywhere, you can easily leverage the idea of geo-arbitrage—earning in a strong currency while you live somewhere with a low cost-of-living. Though I’ve never met Tim, his ideas and experiments have certainly influenced a lot of my business decisions since reading his book!

Lesson learned: You don’t have to wait until retirement to create the lifestyle of your dreams. Also, nobody ever said you have to follow the rules.

Jacqueline Novogratz

Founder & CEO of Acumen Fund, a nonprofit venture fund that invests philanthropic capital and trains the next generation of business leaders in South Asia and East Africa to build thriving businesses focused on delivering affordable healthcare, water, housing and energy to the poor. She delivers a few incredibly pursuasive TED Talks and is a shining example of some of the social entrepreneurs that are trying to lead social progress for the developing world. (Side note: Jacqueline is married to TED‘s founder Chris Anderson, another inspirational figure who has proven that that ideas can change the world. I’m excited to bring Chris’ vision to Thailand in Febraury with TEDx BKK!)

Lesson learned: Entrepreneurial approaches can be applied to solve the problems of global poverty.

Matt Mullenweg

At just 25-years-old, Matt Mullenweg has developed a company that is changing the way businesses interact with their clients online. His company created the WordPress blog platform, which makes it easy for anyone to get started publishing online, and which is what I have built my two businesses around—Thrilling Heroics Consulting and FreelanceWP—to help make online publishing more accessible to everyone and help innovators and changemakers spread their message to the world. Matt is a huge advocate of open-source development, which is making great software more quickly and easily possible, and transforming how we think about ownership.

Lesson learned: Share your best ideas with the world freely to empower the largest possible community, and it will come back to you many-fold.

Paul Dickey

Paul joined E*Trade after high school and became senior internal auditor, working around the world and overseeing a team of employees with advanced degrees. We met in college when he returned to get his own Bachelor’s degree, lived together for nearly a year, and traveled to Spain together with friends. Paul led a campaign to implement leadership studies at Sac State, was president of several student organizations, and together we attended many entrepreneurship conferences, organized monthly Saturday art walks in Sacramento, launched the U.S.’ fourth university Toastmasters chapter, and networked with tons of other entrepreneurs. He’s got a few business plans laid out, a submission with the patent office, and real estate property.

Lesson learned: Set your life goals and manage your time appropriately, and you can maximize your involvement in different entrepreneurial opportunities to guarantee your success.

Chris Guillebeau

After Tim Ferriss, Chris Guillebeau has perhaps been the most influential writer encouraging the masses to think differently and pursue unconventional, remarkable lifestyles. Chris is on a mission to travel to every country in the world (he’s already visited 122), and since starting his blog The Art of Nonconformity a little under 2 years ago, he has managed to create a full-time income for himself just from his writing projects. He even has great tips on how to travel to rogue states and “off-limits” places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Burma, Libya, Syria, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and North Korea. I got the chance to meet him on his way through Bangkok in February, and have often been inspired by his thoughts on entrepreneurship, success, and changing the world.

Lesson learned: You really can go anywhere you want, and create your own wealth along the way.

Dwight Turner

Dwight and I met briefly in college. When I learned he had taught for a year in Thailand, we became fast friends and eventually both ended up back in Bangkok together. Dwight’s In Search Of Sanuk is a grassroots charity organization that makes it easy for anyone to contribute their time or donations to make a difference for orphans and refugees here in Thailand. He housed me when I first moved out here, has supported me through a lot of the challenges of getting used to expat/entrepreneur life, and together we’ve done a lot of traveling, volunteering, and bringing cool people from different walks of life together for the monthly Bangkok Tweetup, charity mixers, and other social events.

Lesson learned: It’s easier than you might think to mobilize a community to create social change.

Vanessa Rubin

An incredible young woman I was lucky to meet this year here in Bangkok—Vanessa is an aid worker who has spent nearly a decade working on humanitarian projects (frequently as a food & hunger advisor) in places like Nepal, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, & Bangladesh—she’s full of life, an avid rock climber, and earlier this year she was filmed for the BBC’s TV series Extreme Dreams on an expedition to scale Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador. She came to Thailand to review progress made by Care International since the 2004 tsunami.

Lesson learned: Always reach for new heights and seek ways to improve the lives of others, but never neglect yourself either.

Larry McKibben

My dad has been the biggest supporter of my unconventional entrepreneur & digital nomad lifestyle. Though I’ve made plenty of mistakes along the way, he has often been the one to encourage me and give me the pep-talk I need. Although he didn’t finish his college degree the first time around, he has had an extremely successful twenty-year career in retail sales and training and quickly worked his way to earning an envy-inducing salary. He’s always been dedicated to his family and a great example of a hard worker.

Lesson learned: With enough dedication, you don’t have to let perceived barriers-to-entry prevent you from being successful.

So who are the teachers that had the most impact on you? Who are your mentors? What supportive friends and role models are you thankful for?

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Show Thanks For Your Teachers, Mentors & Role Models

I’ve talked before about the impact Dwight Turner is making in Bangkok—making it easy for people to volunteer and contribute to charitable causes in Thailand. We have gone to hand out food to the homeless near Democracy Monument here in Bangkok, we’ve taken the great kids at Chonburi Children’s Center to the beach, we’ve volunteered with the infants and toddlers at Friends For All Children (F.F.A.C.) nursery, we’ve held events to raise money for an urban garden installation project here in Bangkok and for medical aide for refugees. Dwight’s hard work has even earned him the attention of CNN’s new local Asia site.

I’ve met incredible people with touching stories. I’ve made incredible friends with some of the other volunteers.

To commemorate September 11th this year, In Search of Sanuk hosted Bangkok’s Twestival celebration. Twestival is a Twitter-inspired social event where attendees can meet other Twitter users (much like our monthly Bangkok Tweetup), but also be a part of a global awareness and fundraising campaign for charitable causes around the world. We raised money for two orphanages near the Burmese border—Baan Unrak and Baan Dada.

The event was spectacular. Over 350 people came out to party on the Fraser Suites’ poolside rooftop bar and support our cause. People recorded and shared our social media-powered event live. We raised over $2400 US, which can go a long way in Southeast Asia. The founders of Digital Democracy even showed up to interview volunteers Jen, Danielle, and myself about emerging technologies in Thailand and about how the global Twitter event was helping make a social change:

So here’s the secret: Some of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had have been volunteering with children throughout Thailand.

A few days after the event successfully wrapped, Dwight and I took a 7-hour van ride to hand-deliver donations and visit the two children’s homes with our travel buddies Mark, Joel and Agnes.

Baan Unrak and Baan Dada educate and empower orphaned or otherwise impoverished kids—not only Thais but also Karen and Mon refugees who’ve been driven from their homes and persecuted by the Burmese military dictatorship. The children are instructed in playing musical instruments, sewing, fixing motorbikes, art, languages and technical skills. They’re taught to respect all people, creatures, religion and to practice vegetarianism. The homes also provide jobs for refugees and local families who help care for the children, assist with farming, construction and weaving projects.

Hanging out with kids like these is a transformative experience. They are some of the poorest people in the world, often living in crummy conditions, many have lost their families, yet they are the most cheerful and gracious little people you’ll ever meet.

Words cannot describe, so I’ll let this video do the job for me. This is a montage of many of the great kids I’ve had the opportunity to share time with while helping out at Baan Dada, Baan Unrak, F.F.A.C., Chonburi Center, and more.

Whatever you do, watch this video:

Spending time with children in need will change your life. Once you begin to understand the loss some of them have experienced, the disadvantage they are at—and yet they still exude love—it should cause you to reevaluate how you look at your own life. You can’t help but smile around some of these kids.

The only activity I’ve found yet that is guaranteed to keep a smile on my face.

Find children in need (they are everywhere, unfortunately). Go and give generously with your time and any other resources you can share.

—

This message is dedicated to a gracious, playful little tyke who lost his life way before his time. Ali Baba lost a battle with disease on Thursday, September 17th, just two days after we said goodbye to him and the other children at Baan Dada. The loss was unbearable and affected a lot of us. Rest in peace, friend.

Ali Baba

If you’d like to make a donation on his behalf, the home is building a new medical clinic and needs your help. You can sponsor a child’s food and healthcare needs for three months for only $187. Donate to Baan Dada.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: My Secret Recipe for 100% Guaranteed Happiness

Today I’d like to highlight someone who’s definitely living a thrilling life—making a huge difference in the world and serving a great example of how to choose the path less taken. Dwight Turner is a close friend whose passion is to help the less fortunate in any way he can, and he runs an organization here in Thailand called In Search Of Sanuk, where he promotes worthwhile humanitarian causes.

Sanuk is a Thai word roughly translated as fun or enjoyment. Sanuk, however, is much more. This value permeates Thai society giving people a jovial, lighthearted outlook on life. We combine this aspect of Thai culture with our goals to help needy people. To us, sanuk is a lifestyle. This lighthearted outlook naturally translates to those we’re trying to reach and becomes a powerful mechanism of hope and healing for all involved.

Dwight worked as an English teacher in Thailand for about two years off-and-on, and he was my only contact in Thailand when I first came out to Asia in 2008. We currently both live in central Bangkok, and Dwight spends the majority of his time promoting good causes and organizing mixers and fundraising events to raise money for charity projects around Bangkok and throughout the region. I do my best to help him promote his events, but he’s the mastermind—the real passion and drive to create change around here. He has worked with Burmese migrants, Balinese orphans, refugees, and much more. He’s the real deal.

Doing Good and Having a Blast at the Same Time

Together, Dwight and I host monthly Bangkok Tweetups—tech-centric Twitter meetups for charity. People get together to have some dinner and a few beers, meet interesting new folks (expats and locals) from around Bangkok, and a portion of what they spend on food & drinks goes to support In Search Of Sanuk projects in Thailand.

Ryan, Dwight & the Lub D staff

To recognize World Refugee Day on June 20th, Dwight hosted a Taste of Sri Lanka dinner at the Lub D hostel, attracting people from our Tweetups, from Facebook, and Couchsurfing. Everyone mixed and mingled, had some delicious food cooked by Tuan, the cook at the local refugee center, and proceeds went to support the medical needs of asylum seeking refugees.

And just recently, along with the good folks at Green Networking Days Bangkok, Dwight co-hosted a huge nightclub event at Fraser Suites called LUSH, Bangkok’s Green Night Out. There were over 250 people in attendance at this spectacular upscale rooftop bar, everyone danced and drank and enjoyed the DJ music, and we were able to raise 35,000 Baht (over $1000 US) for In Search Of Sanuk’s Urban Garden Project to put vegetable gardens in the Bangkok Refugee Center and slums.

Cody, Pom & Mint at LUSH

ISOS’ events allow people (especially young people and travelers) to do things they’d already want to do—get together with friends, go out dancing, grab dinner and drinks, or attend music & art events—and easily contribute to making a positive difference at the same time. I think this is a world-changing idea, and I know Dwight will leave a big impact on the world.

I’m sure there are people doing this elsewhere, but I’ve never witnessed someone so dedicated to empowering others to make a change. I’m excited that my lifestyle gives me the time to invest in travel, hanging out with friends like Dwight, and participating in good causes.

Announcement: My Charity Commitment

For a long time, I wanted to contribute to something like 1% for the Planet, Kiva.org, or local charities. When I visited Cambodia, I really felt compelled to contribute to causes in this region. One day I realized, ‘Hey I know Dwight personally, I trust him, and he’s committed his life to doing good for others!’ So I decided to work more closely with him. We’re making plans to travel to neighboring countries across Southeast Asia every three months and volunteer for good causes wherever we go. And starting this week, 5% of my business profits will go toward ISOS projects. Anyone who signs up for my consulting and services will help us make a difference.

Improving a Broken System

Sadly, the state of philanthropy and volunteerism in Thailand is pretty convoluted and decentralized. Dwight works painstakingly to get non-profit organizations and NGOs throughout Thailand collaborating with each other and to turn volunteer opportunities into something more organized than they already are, so that people can more easily contribute and make a difference.

When I’m in the US, watching mainstream media, it feels like there is a 24-hour-a-day bad news feed directly into your brain. There is the war in the Middle East, the ongoing argument over global warming, shrinking resources and a growing population. Watching the news makes people afraid and helpless. In the face of this negative hype, I think most folks tend to retreat from the “real world.” We look for ways to escape (me included): You go see the new Terminator movie. You go get a drink downtown with your friends. You play online games for hours on end. You do your job, you go home… But we ignore the genocide, hunger and poverty going on around the world. We even stay selectively ignorant about the issues in our own backyard. Like Dwight says in a recent post, maybe we are Over Entertained and Under Challenged:

Consider what avenues exist to discuss helping the less fortunate or marginalized in your community. What are they? Are you a part of the discussion? I fear so few of us are not even having these discussions. When they do occur, it happens in niches so isolated that they’re inaccessible to both other groups having similar discussions or people who are not members of these segmented communities.

It’s my passion to change this where I can.

LUSH mixer at Fraser Suites, Bangkok

In Search Of Sanuk makes it easy for anyone to get involved and support good causes by making it fun! If you want to volunteer, Dwight makes it easy, but if you want to make contributions without having to go out of your way or spend a lot of money, we also host mixer parties, art shows, donation drives, and other fun events in Bangkok to raise money (and awareness) for local charity projects. If you’re not in this part of the world, you can still show support by following the ISOS blog, connecting with Dwight on Twitter, signing up for our services, and helping us spread the word.

Dwight is a shining example that you can have fun and make a difference at the same time! He’s a selfless, hard-working guy who genuinely cares about making the world a better place. He understands that not everybody is able to or willing to make the same commitment, so he does his best to enable others to contribute in simple and fun ways. Bangkok wouldn’t be the same without him.

Photos by Sascha Steinhoff.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Having Fun and Making a Difference

UPDATE May 10: This contest is now closed. The winner will be announced via Twitter & the blog soon. Thanks to all for your participation.

I’ve been back in the States for a few weeks this month—my only brief trip home this year—and it’s been a lot of fun catching up with friends and going to the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in the Southern California desert. But I had very mixed feelings about coming back to the U.S. right now, and my visit has been a little bittersweet.

The U.S. has been hit hard by a down economy, and California is showing visible signs of the recession. Restaurants are empty. Small businesses are closing their doors. A lot of folks are looking for work, a lot are depressed, a lot of people are stagnating.

In this economic downturn, it’s time to take your reputation, and your career, into your own hands. There is no such thing as job security anymore. Pensions and benefits can be taken away at a moment’s notice. And even your retirement savings can’t be relied upon these days.

I believe that entrepreneurship, as risky as it can be, is truly the best solution. As a freelancer or business owner, you take your destiny into your own hands. And if you prefer the “security” of a full-time job, these days you should at least develop a second, side income stream, and actively manage your “employability”. That means staying sharp on developments in your field, keeping your resume fresh, and regularly adding people to your professional network. You should never quit job searching really, because the unfortunate reality is that everyone’s job is disposable.

It’s funny—in conversation you notice there are fundamental differences in the way employees and entrepreneurs think. I won’t say one is better than the other, but I think at least a little bit of entrepreneurial thinking is good for everyone. It keeps you on your toes and makes you realize that you can create your own prosperity if you try hard enough. My mission here at Thrilling Heroics is to help people break out of conventional thinking and pursue their potential, so I expect you guys to be able to hear me say that, or else you wouldn’t be my audience!

Anyways, I’m working on a few things to help everyone kick ass at life just a little bit more. My mission this year, in everything I do, is to empower as many would-be freelancers, entrepreneurs, and other do-gooders to take back their power, to realize they don’t have to be just a cog in a wheel and take what life gives them. You can build an awesome business, you can live a remarkable life, and you can do anything and go anywhere you want! You just have to work for it.

Here we go:

Discount Social Media Consulting for New Clients

It’s no secret that I provide social media consulting and blog development services for select web entrepreneurs and professionals. Just this month I helped Kare Anderson—a dedicated blogger and author who already kicks ass even without my help—launch her new site HowWePartner.com. And I helped coach Eileen McDargh—a professional speaker and management consultant—on introductory ways to utilize social media more effectively for her business. Eileen was completely ecstatic and said this after our first hour together:

“In just one hour, Cody cut through the chaos and confusion of social networks, showing me what I needed to do and—even more importantly, what I did NOT need to do. It was very valuable and worth the time.”

My fees are typically somewhat substantial, because I try to filter out only the most dedicated and remarkable clients, and dedicated people tend to have money to spend on their remarkable projects. The amount of attention and commitment I give to each client makes the investment worthwhile. My job is to follow industry trends in the social media and blogging space, filtering through the noise to find the most important solutions for my clients. I maintain a wide knowledge base and an active network in the blogosphere so that I can provide my clients with relevant news and resources, software and tutorials, and even introduce them to like-minded professionals and key influencers in their niche, to establish authority on the web and improve their business.

Because we’re all feeling the negative effects of this economy, I’m offering a small discount on my consulting for new clients right now. If you’ve got something important to say, I want to help you get the right web technology and social media strategies in place to increase your online exposure. Add me to your team and leverage my expertise in the following areas:

• WordPress
• Blogging
• Social networks
• User-friendly, accessible web design (XHTML, CSS, PHP)
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Personal branding
• Online project management & collaboration tools

I usually bill $95 per hour for my consulting time. But if you book an Introductory Blog & Social Media Consultation with me in the month of May, I’ll give you your first hour of consulting for just $75. I’ll talk with you directly via phone or webcam to understand your specific business situation and your online marketing objectives, and help point you in the right direction.

An Awesome FREE WordPress Theme in the Works

There is a sizable market for my premium web services. But I realize there are also several important demographics out there who can’t afford pricey web consulting and development work, including young professionals like myself who are interested in personal branding and establishing their reputation on the web, micro-business owners and other solopreneurs who are tightening their belts right now.

As a low-cost alternative for these rockstars in training, I’m currently building a killer app—a premium, all-in-one blog design, which I’ll release as a free WordPress theme. “Thrilling Theme” will be my masterpiece. It will serve as the framework for my future web development projects, and it will have everything you could ever dream of! The free theme will include:

• Multiple color schemes and style options to choose from
• An easy way to upload your own custom logo or header image
• Integrated Twitter updates, Flickr photos, and more
• Easy insertion of your Google Analytics tracking code, your FeedBurner RSS feed, etc.
• And tons more. Please share your ideas in the comments!

For do-it-yourselfers, the theme will be available as a free download. For individuals and small businesses that want some basic help getting started with Thrilling Theme as the template design for their site, a basic setup & customization package will be available for a nominal charge. (We’re talking about a complete social media platform—possibly the framework for your online business—for less than 400 bucks!)

What About for Non-Blogging Nerd Types?

Additionally, I’ll be doing as much as I can to provide free, valuable advice on this blog to help as many people break free as well—talking about going solopreneur, building a strong reputation on the web, and taking your business location-independent if you desire. Blogging and leveraging social media has allowed me to make awesome friends in all corners of the globe, and I’ve even attracted clients from five continents! My only desire is that I can help you guys experience similar success.

I have a few projects on my back burners, some things that have been marinating for a while. In the coming months, I look forward to teaming up more with great folks like Jun Loayza, Jonathan Mead, Carmen Isais, Mark Weins and Tom Barrett to deliver some fresh, unique perspectives and experiment with some new ideas.

Locally, I’ll continue to work with Dwight Turner of In Search of Sanuk to host charity events and fundraisers in and around Thailand, and I hope to provide discount services to many more non-profits this year. I’ve just partnered with Fusion International on a new project to help them relaunch and revitalize their website focused on victims of extreme poverty, conflict and internal displacement. When you support this site, do business with me, or tell people about Thrilling Heroics, you’ll help me continue to support good causes, and promote events like our Bangkok Tweetup for Charity.

The Part Where I Ask for Your Help

In order to empower as many people as I can this year, I need your help to reach the biggest audience possible. What can you do? You can subscribe. You can tell people about my mission and about ThrillingHeroics.com. You can check out my company, Thrilling Heroics Consulting. But I’ll go a step further: if you blog about my mission with link to this post by May 10th, you’ll be entered for a chance at a FREE 1-hour Blog Consultation. It’s simple:

1. Write about my mission to help as many people become Rockstars as possible with discount consulting. Write about the upcoming free Thrilling Theme. You can even write about the competition itself.
2. Include a direct link to this post or to ThrillingHeroicsConsulting.com
3. To make sure I get your submission, leave a comment on this post and include the URL for your blog post about this competition.

On May 10th, I’ll choose one commenter at random to receive a free consultation with me by phone or Skype. You’ll get a full hour to ask me any questions you like about blogging, social media, and WordPress.

Thanks for staying with me this long. Forget the crummy economy. Let’s all combine forces to do some good this year. Check back soon for more on living a remarkable life.

Feature photo credit: Elmo Keep

Can’t get enough Thrilling Heroics? Follow @codymckibb on Twitter.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: I Want to Make You A Rockstar!

How do you create fun in your surroundings, when you’re battling uphill struggles of all kinds, against anger, sadness, stress. If you’re in a rut at work, or depressed over the crummy economy or your sad pension fund, how can you remember to keep smiling each day? Joke around with coworkers at the office, pop in a comedy movie at the end of a long day, or get out and go goof around at the park!

In Bangkok, most large city parks hold join-in aerobics classes at 5 or 6pm each day, with dozens (sometimes hundreds) of people following an instructor as loud music plays from speakers throughout the park. The other day my friends Dwight and Mark were in the central Lumpini Park where they came across an admirable older Thai gentleman. This guy was not following the group…

This guy knows how to have a good time! Look at him, it’s as if he came to this park with a purpose, wearing his booty-shakin’ pants. He’s in his own world, giving it all he can, out there looking like Ricky Martin. He doesn’t care what anybody else thinks, he’s having a great time! After filming him for several minutes, the guys decided they just had to join in. And this older man didn’t stop! He went right back to it! The next day, with several more friends, we all started a booty-shaking class of our own at our local park. Just to be totally silly and goofy and make people stare.

Keep Your Happiness Everyday

In Thai, the word for fun is sanuk, and folks like to have a lot of fun in this part of the world! People are frequently smiling, enjoying social time together, joking and laughing with each other, and horseplaying around. I think it’s their “mai pen rai” attitude. When communication barriers get me overly confused, my Thai friends frequently tell me “Don’t think so hard.” When I’m stressed out with work, it’s “Relax!” or “Not so serious.”

Don’t take yourself so seriously. If you don’t get it, mai pen rai, it doesn’t matter. No big deal.

One of my favorite things is when I call my pay-as-you-go mobile phone top-up service, it always reminds me “Remember to keep your happiness everyday!”

I don’t think I need to prove the emotional and mental health benefits of joking, laughing and being happy; you can find the scientific facts elsewhere if you really want to. But I think a lot of us get caught up in our daily lives and forget that we’re not robots. I think a lot of us are stressed out by our jobs and don’t have the time to have fun. But remember that smiling and feeling good gives your mind and body a chance to relax and refresh.

So how do you do it? Creating fun in your surroundings, in your daily life, is actually really easy. While building a company, wealth, or healthy habits feels like a lot of hard work, it’s not really any “work” to have fun! Do something you wouldn’t normally do.

• Take someone up on an invitation you wouldn’t normally say yes to. This Friday I was invited to a Bollywood-themed party with a girlfriend here in town. Mostly Indian families and several NGO types and aid workers; not really my crowd by definition. But I had a spectacular time, meeting new people and learning about their professions, trying wine and delicious Indian food, and even learning authentic, campy moves from a Bollywood dance instructor!
• Go with the flow. I got stuck in the rain twice last week. And I’m talking about crazy flash thunderstorms (nearly monsoon season here in Bangkok). Rather than running for it, we just sat down for street food under a tarp and waited it out with a few beers. Eventually we had to get to the pub, but we sure had a fun time running through puddles and getting drenched. Don’t fight it, just accept it!
• Make fun of yourself. Just like my story above, go do something you love and embrace it entirely. Most of us wouldn’t go to the park and dance like we just don’t care. But maybe we should? Matt Harding has the right idea, interacting with all kinds of different cultures around the world, and dancing like a complete goof the whole way!
• Go take goofy pictures with your friends. I do this all the time, but it is especially fun if you are lucky enough to go on vacation, or visit museums and tourist spots with some friends. Make funny faces or poses. Pretend you’re something you’re not. Just for fun. We especially like to pose with the ancient ruins, pretending we’re pushing over fragile walls or doing yoga with the Buddha.

Some people will get really grumpy when you try to have fun. But mostly, you should ignore them. These are frequently people who forgot that they’re not robots. It is important to be respectful, but as long as you’re not doing something destructive or dangerous to others or yourself, don’t take yourself so seriously. We nearly got kicked out of Ayutthaya once, the ancient Thai capital near Bangkok, for taking silly pictures. I know the rules one observes in a temple or in the presence of a Buddha statue and I was doing my best to respectfully observe them. I was just having fun also! But one of the guides thought differently, and that’s fine. So we relaxed it a bit to appease the gatekeeper.

No matter what your monk says though, I’m pretty certain that the Buddha would have wanted you to smile.

Adapt that to whatever your personal beliefs are, and it still holds true.

###

If you liked the video above, please give it a 5-star rating or favorite it on YouTube, or click through to see Mark’s post and give it a thumbs-up on StumbleUpon. These guys did a great job slicing this video together and with this Thai gentleman’s help, they’ve reminded us all to keep having fun! Go check out Dwight’s site In Search of Sanuk and Mark’s site Migrationology.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Are You Creating Fun in Your Daily Routine?