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

Over at Digital Nomad Academy today we’re putting out another great piece of free content, a report full of Digital Nomad Case Studies—experienced, successful people from all different backgrounds, some single, some with partners, some with families, all running different kinds of mobile businesses in different parts of the world. (Note: if you want to be sure to get this free report and you’re not already on the DNA email list, then just tell me where you want me to send this in the form halfway down this page and I’ll send it out today.)

I’ve been running a location-independent online business for nearly 4 years now, and I’ve been asked time and time again why I don’t have a product or a coaching program of my own yet about the digital nomad lifestyle I live.

For ages, I thought I didn’t have time, or that I was too busy with my own client projects.

But a few friends and I got together and finally started to bring things together, and they kicked my ass into motivation mode. One day I asked you if you’d be interested in learning how to become a digital nomad. And lo and behold, between email messages, blog comments, survey responses, and more, I’ve received hundreds and hundreds of enthusiastic responses from around the world!

I just didn’t anticipate a response like this. This is the biggest idea I’ve ever put out there, and it’s had the biggest reception! Your surge of support was encouraging and exciting and unreal and inspiring and overwhelming and humbling and scary.

And for the first time in a very long time, I got really excited about something new.

Readers sent in 220+ detailed, lengthy, thoughtful, amazing responses. In your survey responses, you told me what you wanted in a Digital Nomad training program.

You said you want one-on-one coaching. You want an incredibly selective application process. You want case studies of those who’ve been successful. You want direct access to them. You said you want supervision, and marketing advice, and troubleshooting guides, a yearly conference, and so many more great and helpful things.

In addition to the exclusive business course we’re building, we also promised to share a bunch of cool free resources, and dozens and dozens of people wanted Digital Nomad Case Studies. So today, if you are on our DNA list, you can get a free report with profiles of several top digital nomads:

Cody McKibben from Thrilling Heroics

I’ve traveled to 25 countries, including all of North America, France, the UK, Spain, Turkey, Greece, Switzerland, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, and more. I’ve been running my web development and online marketing company remotely from Southeast Asia for over two years now. You know me. Let’s move on…

Brooke Ferguson from Business Backpacker

Brooke was running her own business consulting company in Northern California when she decided to move her clients online and work remotely. She continues to coach clients one-on-one to turn their businesses into something that support their ideal lifestyle. All while blogging, rock climbing on the weekends, and earning her Divemaster certification. Brooke will serve as DNA’s curriculum director, and brings to it her comprehensive, all-inclusive self-mastery and business building system which she developed over the course of four years working with clients one-on-one.

Dan Andrews from Lifestyle Business Podcast

Dan and his partners have a series of niche manufacturing businesses with offices in San Diego and the Philippines, and has become a leading authority on outsourcing. He is based in Manila, and has spent significant time in Boracay, Dumaguete, Manila, Cebu, and Puerto Galera, Philippines, as well as Thailand and Bali. Meanwhile he co-hosts the #1 podcast for lifestyle designers and lifestyle entrepreneurs, The Lifestyle Business Podcast, and sponsors the Tropical MBA internship program.

Corbett Barr from CorbettBarr.com

Corbett started a major Silicon Valley tech company, raised $3 million in venture capital, had employees and the whole bit, when he and his wife decided to take a six-month sabbatical to Mexico. Now he has built his own small business around ThinkTraffic.net and his personal site, earning over six figures a year and spending half the year at home in San Francisco and half the year either in Mexico or elsewhere. This summer they’re headed to Croatia.

Adam Baker from Man Vs. Debt

Adam, his wife Courtney, and their two-and-a-half year old daughter Milligan spent over a year living and traveling abroad, in Australia, New Zealand, and Thailand. They spent a year preparing for their trip, selling all of their possessions, and paying down $18,000 in consumer debt, so Adam brings a lot of insight into personal finance and minimalism. Now they’re voyaging out from home state of Indiana to wander around the United States in their newly-purchased RV.

Nora Dunn from The Professional Hobo

Nora had a successful financial planning practice in Canada when she realized her life’s dream to travel extensively around the world was passing her by. In 2006, she sold everything she owned to travel the world full-time and has already set foot in 15 countries while she works as a freelance travel writer. Her travels have taken her to Hawaii, across Asia, Australia, throughout Europe, and now she is starting the new year in New Zealand.

Jeanne Dee from Soultravelers3

The “Soultravelers3″ are a digital nomadic family into their fifth year of an open-ended world tour. They were living the American dream, with a large, ocean-view California country home, but when they had a child in 2000 they decided that a permanent travel lifestyle would give them more time for bonding and freedom. They’ve raised their daughter to be tri-ligual in Chinese, Spanish and English, and they’ve now seen 38 countries on 5 continents, usually spending their winters in Asia (they are currently in Penang, Malaysia), and summers in Europe.

Andrew Hayes from Sharing Travel Experiences

Andy launched two online ventures at once. Sharing Travel Experiences is an online travel lifestyle magazine where he puts to use many of the skills he developed when he used to do a lot of writing for clients, and Travel Online Partners is a tourism marketing company that he has spent time working on while he’s been in Spain, Canada, and California in the last year. He is also an iPhone app developer and a published travel author.

Michelle Dale from Virtual Miss Friday

Michelle is a mobile entrepreneur, mother of two, and the virtual assistant behind VirtualMissFriday.com and VirtualAssistant-Live.com. She left a high-paying job in the banking industry and left the UK to move to Egypt for two years. Since then, she took her VA business from a one-person operation to a 6 figure offshore company while living in Luxor and in a few different parts of France. Michelle currently lives in Spain, and will be making her way to Italy later this year.

Drop Your Email in the Signup Form Below to Receive Your Free Digital Nomad Case Studies Report

(Note: If you’re already on the DNA email list, you don’t have to sign up again, you’ll be getting this in your email inbox very soon.)

But people didn’t just want case studies of successful nomadic entrepreneurs. You asked for direct access to them. You said you want supervision, and marketing advice, and troubleshooting guides, a yearly conference, and so much more.

Looking at all the feedback to what we’ve been bringing together at DNA made me realize the immensity of what we’re about to do. Nothing like what we’re about to at Digital Nomad Academy exists. There is no rulebook for what we’re going to put together for our students there. And we’re going to blow every other product or community in this niche out of this universe! (Sorry guys)

This is going to be so much bigger than I had originally imagined. I’m going to need to cancel some plans this year, stop doing my normal client work for a few months, and pour my time and energy into DNA. This will be an undertaking for all of us because we’re not just talking about a 6 session class, followed by some Q & A sessions. We’re talking about a comprehensive all-inclusive training program.

All of the individuals profiled above will be Digital Nomad Academy Faculty Members.

That means they will each participate on weekly coaching and mentoring calls, and you’ll get the chance to ask them your questions directly.

Not only that, but this is just the first round of faculty announcements. We’ll have many more successful online entrepreneurs, nomads, and niche experts involved to contribute to the vast amount of knowledge and training we’re putting together for you at DNA over the course of 2011!

Do You Want to Learn Directly from These (and Many More!) Successful Digital Nomads?

If you do, then here’s what I want you to do next: drop your email in the sign-up form up above on this page and we’ll send you the free report “10 Real-World Digital Nomad Case Studies” (as well as my last freebie, the Digital Nomad 101 Resources Guide), and you’ll get a chance to learn more about how you can be mentored directly by myself and all of these experienced nomadic entrepreneurs and many MORE!

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: 10 Digital Nomad Success Stories, and How You Can Learn From Them…

World Cups, World Championships and Olympic Games—all great sporting events worth seeing live. Although I don’t closely follow sports myself, everyone enjoys a major sporting event—especially when you get to witness them firsthand as you travel the world, and they offer great opportunities for travelers to connect with new friends internationally and at home—so with the kickoff of the 2010 World Cup in Johannesburg today, I wanted to feature this guest article from Di Fly. [–Cody]

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For all of the advantages of watching great sporting events from the comfort of your sofa, nothing can quite compare to witnessing top athletes compete to the highest levels of excellence in real life. Whether it’s watching the lightning pace of a 100-metre runner or the supreme skills of a daring football winger, experiencing sport at the actual event is a unique opportunity that should not be missed.

Here are five top sporting events you will definitely want to savour in person.

FIFA World Cup 2010 – South Africa

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The 19th World Cup competition is shaping up to be an absolute belter. The first competition to be held on African soil is the most anticipated sporting event of the year. The usual bunch of contenders will be fighting for football’s most esteemed trophy including Brazil, Italy, Germany and Argentina. Who knows, England might even have a chance this year.

FIBA World Championships 2010 – Turkey

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If you want to see some of the greatest stars of the NBA play basketball but don’t fancy a travelling all over America, why not take a holiday to Turkey this year? 28 August sees the start of the International Basketball Federation World Championships, which this year will be held in the fabulous Eurasian country. Current Olympic champions, the USA have a point to prove against current holders Spain – this will be a spectacular event.

IRB Rugby World Cup 2011 – New Zealand

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The Rugby World Cup returning to New Zealand is like the Olympics coming back to Greece. Regardless of the origins of the game, no nation embodies rugby more than New Zealand, and the All Blacks will surely be favourites to lift the trophy on home turf. The 2011 World Cup will be the biggest sporting event ever held in New Zealand and a true spectacle to behold.

FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships 2011 – Italy

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Beach volleyball is just like normal volleyball but with sand and skimpier uniforms. The Beach Volleyball World Championships occur every two years and the venue for the 2011 tournament is Rome. America and China are the teams to watch, but there will be plenty of hot action from the likes of Brazil, Sweden and Norway also.

The 2012 Olympic Games – London

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Two years until London hosts the Olympic Games for the third time and already the anticipation is building to fever pitch. The excitement in England’s capital is palpable and the greatest congregation of outstanding athletes ever seen will be present for the 30th Games of the Olympiad. 43 world records were set in Beijing in 2008, and the 2012 Olympics will surely see more records smashed as athletes reach new heights of sporting supremacy.

Will you be attending any of the World Cup matches in South Africa or basketball Championships in Turkey this year?

Feature image by vramak.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: 5 Top World Sporting Events You Won’t Want to Miss

Matt Kepnes is a young twentysomething from Boston who fell in love with Thailand in 2005, decided to leave his job and go traveling for a year in 2006, and well, never came home!

He put all his energy into finding a way to support a long-term traveling lifestyle and now he runs the hugely successful website NomadicMatt.com, where he shares his travel adventures and helps others learn how to live the nomadic life too. Matt recently got back from a long trip to the US for his birthday and then traveling through Spain, France, Belgium, Holland, Sweden and Austria, and I finally had a chance to sit down with him here in Bangkok to get his story about living the mobile lifestyle.

Matt also runs How to Travel and Backpack the World on a Budget and shares how you can earn a reliable income while you travel in his recent ebook How to Make Money with Your Travel Blog, released in May.

In the video below, Matt shares more about his book, as well as:

• What he was doing before he started living a nomad lifestyle & what inspired him to travel
• His travels throughout Thailand, why he loves it here, and some favorite spots
• His favorite city in the world
• How NomadicMatt.com generates $3000+ per month in income
• His philosophy on how to make money online with ebooks, affiliate sales, private advertising and Adsense sites
• About the June 2010 Travel Blog Exchange
• La Tomatina festival in Spain
• and more!

If you’re interested in Nomadic Matt’s ebook, How to Make Money With Your Travel Blog, now is the time to get your hands on it—it’s on sale through Christmas for just $17 (rather than the normal $27). He breaks it into six sections:

1. Starting a Blog—Basic but necessary information about picking a niche (what are you an expert in?), choosing what kind of travel blog to have (there is more than one), and the number of websites to run.
2. Installing Your Blog—All about choosing the right website name, picking a WordPress theme, and installing SEO plugins.
3. Getting Traffic—How to use sites like Stumble Upon, gain followers, find other bloggers, and use Twitter and Facebook to your advantage to build a community around your blog.
4. Search Engine Optimization—Detailed information about SEO, how it works, site optimization, link building, and where to find those valuable links.
5. Monetizing Your Blog—Covers the main types of advertising, which work best for different sites, how much to charge, and where to find willing advertisers.
6. Putting it All Together—What to expect from all of this and how to best utilize your time.

Or if you want a simple guide to starting your travels, download his How to Travel the World on 50 Dollars a Day guide for just $14—It will easily pay for itself as you travel cheaper, travel longer, and he includes over $1,000 of exclusive money saving discounts and coupons for accommodation, hostels, travel packages, tours, excursions, and transportation around the world.

Want more? Also check out Matt’s guides to How to Teach English Overseas and his $4 How to Build a Blog guide.

Find Matt at NomadicMatt.com, on Twitter, and on Facebook. If you have questions, please leave ‘em in the comments, and thanks for watching.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Nomadic Matt Shares How to Make Money Blogging & Earn a Location Independent Income

Feature photo by chanchan222

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

A few years back, I came across a useful magazine article that included an incredible list of tips for frequent travelers. Being a little bit of a world traveler myself, I quickly copied over much of the author’s guide onto my laptop for future reference. I couldn’t remember where I had found the list list until now, but a quick search produced 21 Rules of Stress-Free Travel from Best Life magazine a while back. For some reason, my list has 22 tips, but regardless of where that last one came from, it’s a great resource either way. Things will start to change in the years ahead as the price of fuel continues to rise and cheap airlines may not be so cheap anymore, so take advantage of inexpensive travel while you still can. There should be something for everyone. Here is my redux of Peter Greenberg’s travel tips:

Booking Your Flight

1. Talk to a Real Person – Use online travel portals like Orbitz or Travelocity to figure out what you want on the web, then use gethuman.com‘s guide to call up, skip the automated phone system, and see if there are better deals by phone.
2. Start with the price – Don’t answer the question “When you do want to travel?” Instead say “Before I answer that, can you just go to your screen and punch up all the published fares on that route? Now scroll down to the bottom of the list. What’s that fare?” Work your way up that list till you find what you can stand. Go ahead and book the lowest fare you can, but then you have 24 hours to go to the web and see if you can book a better deal on kayak.com, farecast.com, or airfarewatchdog.com. For last-minute flights, try lastminute.com.
3. Pick the safest seats – On a 737, sit as far toward the rear as possible. 747, rows 61 through 64, closest to the windows. 757, window seats mid-plane, in front of the wings. MD80, near the emergency exits right above the wings, mid-plane.
4. Research your flight – The U.S. Department of Transportation publishes lists of on-time records each month. Also see flightstats.com.
5. Mail your luggage – If you need more than a carry-on, ship it to your hotel with FedEx, DHL, UPS, luggageconcierge.com, or luggagefree.com. As little as $40 per bag, if it’s worthwhile for your trip. Airmail your laptop to your destination and it’s also a good way to prevent Homeland Security from copying over all your financial records and email history.
6. Ignore departure times – Instead, if you call the airline, ask for the tail number of the aircraft assigned to your flight, and ask where that aircraft is.
7. Go where you’re not supposed to go – With no bags to check, if you’re on an early morning flight, have your ride drop you off at the empty arrivals area. In the evening, get picked up in the empty departures area.
8. Undress for success – Place everything metallic—watch, keys, coins, jewelry, pens, chains, etc.—in ziplock bags and place them in your carry-on.
9. Ignore the departures board – Just read the departures board for the gate number, then go to the arrivals board. If some other flight is arriving at your gate, you know your flight will be delayed.

10. Invoke rule 240 – If the flight is delayed or canceled for any reason except weather, if you invoke rule 240, the airline must endorse your ticket over to the next available flight (on any carrier, not just their own next flight). This won’t work on Southwest or JetBlue however.
11. Get rid of pain in your ears – Take an antihistamine, and use a spray nose decongestant 30 minutes before take-off to prevent the tubes in your ears from closing up. Repeat 30 minutes before landing on flights longer than 4 hours.

Finding a Hotel

12. Never call toll-free numbers – Never call 800 numbers for hotels, call the hotel directly. Don’t ask for reservations, ask to speak to the manager on duty or director of sales. Now you can negotiate. And thank this person if you see them when you are there.
13. Call during football – Call at 4pm on Sunday to make your reservation, when the hotel revenue manager is gone.
14. Negotiate your phone bill – Phone and internet charges are negotiable. Before you take your room key, ask the front desk if you can bundle services for a flat fee of $10 or $15 for unlimited internet and domestic long-distance calls. (This also applies to other charges like resort fees or gym use.)
15. Stay below the eighth floor – They say this can be important for fire safety.
16. Follow the booster pumps – When you check in, ask the front desk to call engineering and find out what floors the booster pumps are on. Ask to be on a floor with pumps and you are guaranteed a decent hot shower any time of day you need it.
17. Ask about construction – Also ask the front desk clerk how close your room is to construction. If you don’t ask, you might get stuck next to the renovation.
18. Let the concierge help you – They’re very connected, and can help with rose petals on the bed, emergency cuff links, a bottle of champagne or that hard to get romantic corner table in the restaurant. Look for their email on the hotel’s website or call in advance to establish a relationship. A $20 tip is appropriate for a good hookup.
19. Germproof your room – Always pack sanitizing wipes. Use them on the TV remote, phone handset, doorknobs, and toilet seat. Pull off the bedspread and throw it into the corner of the room. Never look at it again. Never touch it again. Lastly, turn on the hot water in the bathroom, and place the water glasses under that faucet for at least three minutes. (I don’t know that this is very water-saving friendly, but I guess those glasses are dirty!)

Renting a Car

20. Think locally – Instead of using an 800 number to reserve a car, try rentalcars.com for comparison prices. Rent a car on a Saturday—many cars suddenly become available when weekend customers don’t show up.
21. Take pictures – Use your digital camera or cell phone (with the date and time stamp turned on) to snap a few quick shots of the rental car’s dings and dents. Show them to a rental-agency employee, and get their name before you leave.
22. Get your own gas – Don’t let the rental company charge you $7 per gallon for gas. Fill up the tank before you return the car. Check gasbuddy.com for the cheapest gas on your route, and get traffic info from traffic.com.

One last tip that I’ll reiterate is always check Kayak.com for the best prices! The site lists airfares, hotels, car rentals, cruises and more, it’s a free service, and it basically aggregates information from all the other online deal listing services like Orbitz, Travelocity, etc., to show you where to find the lowest prices. I used it to get cheap tickets in Spain, and I highly recommend it for any traveler.

Share your own travel stories if you put any of these ideas to use, or if you have your own tips. My dad asked me for some pointers on finding affordable airfare a while back, so I’ve been meaning to share that for quite some time. Look for more thoughts on getting the best air travel prices soon.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: 22 Awesome Tips for Travelers

Last time I wrote my travel journals, I left you with my New Years adventures on Ibiza, the serene little Spanish island in the Mediterranean known for its gorgeous beaches and incredible dance music, which has inspired the global house music scene. We then returned to the mainland, checking in to the five-star Hotel Arts Barcelona. Fancy place, but you can read my last Spain post for more on my thoughts about the Hotel Arts…or to catch up on the story so far. Anyway, I’ve been swamped with work, drama, setbacks, and moving for the last month and half (!). We apologize for the technical difficulties, but I’ll finally share the rest of my trip through Spain and Washington, D.C. with you today:

Jan 3: Thursday, while trekking across town for Paul’s misplaced passport, he and I met the El Diablo himself on La Rambla. The Devil first tried to fool with us, but then kindly gave us directions to the Picasso museum. However, as it started to rain, we retired back to the hotel for the night.

Jan 4: Friday, Paul and I enjoyed a café con leche across the street from the towering Sagrada Familia church, a Gaudi design that has been under construction for 125 years through the contributions of the public. Paul treated us to a fun bus tour that circles the entire city. But, it’s eye-opening how much of the city we had seen already with a few locals as our guides! We got off on Diagonal avenue for an €8 buffet (way cheap for 3 plates of food!), and later that night we met up with Tim and his French friend Nathalie at an Irish Pub in the Ramblas. Besides two others, there was a red-headed American gal tending the bar—turned out she was an expat from Southern California working to finance her stay here in Catalonia. Again, it’s funny how many people you find from back home when you’re half-way across the globe! Late that night, it was too late to catch the metro, so on our walk home, after all the Guinness had made my stomach rumble, I decided to give a Spanish Burger King a try. Can you believe a simple whopper will cost you the equivalent of about 5 bucks in Spain! No fries, no drink…just a whopper.

Jan 5: Saturday was Three Kings Day as the locals refer to it, the Catholic Epiphany. We completed the second leg of our city tour, scoping out Parc Guell again, the Palau Reial, the F.C. Barcelona Stadium (a.k.a. where BC’s soccer team plays, for you beginners), Montjuic mountain, the facilities built for the 1992 Summer Olympics, and the Palau Naçional museum.

I guess that traditionally, in Spain, Three Kings Day is when children would receive their Christmas gifts. It makes more sense really, framed within a Christian viewpoint, that the three kings would bring gifts, as opposed to a jolly old fat man in a red suit. I don’t really remember him in the nativity story! So, we joined a few local Catalonian gals—Meye , Iva, Joanna, Núria—that evening for the Three King’s Day parade that snakes through Plaça Catalunya. It’s more for kids really, but around here it’s apparently huge, and pretty fun to see, as a visitor.

Later, we all enjoyed the finest sampling of local Spanish tapas and wine that €20 can buy, at La Vinateria del Call in the Barri Gottic (Meye knows all the best local spots!), followed by a few drinks at the popular nearby DJ bar and disco.

Jan 6: Sunday morning was Tim and Paul’s time to say goodbye and catch their planes home. It was a pretty decent day, so I voyaged over to the beach near Villa Olympica for a while, then I strolled through the Museu Picasso, with great collections not only of his own work, but also many pieces from his private collection of other artists’ work. It was very interesting to see where he got his inspiration! Finally, I enjoyed some prime people watching in the nearby Parc de la Ciutadella. It’s a huge city park—the kind I only wish we had back home. There are people walking dogs of all breeds, lovers basking together, joggers, bicyclers, elderly men enjoying a quiet solitary walk, peddlers, ganja dealers, parrots, peacocks, and a city zoo! Parents playing tag with their kids, young men playing soccer in the wide alleys, a father playfully wrestling with his toddler son, hippies jamming in music circles, and street performers practicing their juggling techniques. It’s an interesting collage of people of all different demographics. Much like Balboa Park in San Diego, it’s the kind of peaceful, pretty, lively place you want to spend all your lazy Sundays!

Later that night, I met Meye at Plaça Molina near her home at north end of city. As a Barcelona native, she had said earlier that the lookout point atop Mount Tibidabo is the best place to see the whole city, so we made the drive to the top to see Barcelona glowing in the night. Tibidabo mountain overlooks the entire city, and has a glimmering church at its summit. It was a great spot to take some of my last photos of Spain. Afterward, we chatted more about travels and business (she operates her own business called MascotRaceClub) and enjoyed some warm coffee at the Mirablau cafe on the hillside overlooking the city streets below.

Jan 7: For my final day in Barcelona, I spent the afternoon sunbathing, reading, and trying not to stare at the topless runner that kept racing back-and-forth across the beach at Villa Olympica! Later, I continued my book from the park bench and did some more people watching at the vast Parc de la Ciutadella again. Not as many people playing and enjoying the sun’s rays as a Sunday, but still a great place to enjoy the good weather. But, I couldn’t stay long; I had to catch the Renfe train across town to get to the airport. It’s time to go back home.

Jan 8: Originally, I’d hoped to catch a friend or two as I passed through London on my way home, perhaps grab a pint with Sarah and crash with Farmer Tom. But, unfortunately engine trouble set us back two hours, and by the time I got through the customs queue in London, I knew it was too late. They have university and work in the morning, so I gave up and spent a long, sleepless night at a Heathrow airport cafe. I finally arrived in Washington, D.C., where my cousin Ian was awaiting my arrival at Georgetown University. We borrowed his housemate’s SUV, drove over to Capitol Mall, and checked out the Lincoln and FDR memorials by night.

Jan 10: I got the chance to meet my colleague Karen Seeh, a successful nonprofit and sustainability consultant who I’ve worked with online several times but never met in person yet. Later I joined Ian and his friends for a fun evening at the nearby Georgetown pub and piano bar with fellow grad students.

Jan 11: Ian and I explore Capitol Mall, including the White House, the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, the Nation’s Capital, and the Washington Monument. Later, we go for some great music and good vibes in the Adams Morgan neighborhood with Karin and Amanda, a few lady friends we made at the piano bar the night before. Nicole, who spent a year in D.C. as an intern for National Geographic, gave me all the hip tips about the nightlife and music scene in town, and the Adams Morgan is a trendy part of town with great dub music and lots of hoppin’ night spots.

###

Also, I just couldn’t help but share Nicole Pefley’s awesome list of awesome things to do in Washington, D.C., because it should benefit others just as it benefited me! I didn’t have time enough to utilize the whole list, but all her hard work shouldn’t go wasted. Let me know if you try out any of these places and enjoy it! Signing off. Here it is:

Top 12 Badass Washington, D.C. Nightspots

by Nicole Pefley

1. Tryst – Adams Morgan (on the main drag 18th st.) -Chill coffee
   house by day with cozy furniture, hip bar with great dub by night.
2. The Diner – Open 24/7, great alternative if you still haven’t eaten
   (they’ve got whatever you’re craving, I guarantee it), cousin and
   neighbor of Tryst. There’s a whole slough of sweet brunch places on
   18th, as well as where most of the Ethiopian restaurants are. GO TO
   ONE. They’re cheap, tasty, and have amazing jazz. Just ask your cab
   driver.
3. Old Glory – Georgetown. Good atmosphere
4. Blues Alley – GTown. Solid blues joint with great jazz too. Show up
   in advance (1 day prior) to buy tix (See also Madam’s Organ in Adams
   Morgan)
5. 18th St. Lounge – Fruit Loop (Dupont Circle) – Tucked in a narrow
   doorway by a mattress store. The best lounge in D.C. Period. Dress for
   it.
6. Cafe St.Ex (as in St. Exupery, author of Le Petit Prince) – 1847
   14th st. NW. Great Belgian beer, Samba and Bossa Nova beats
   sometimes–great vibes always.
7. Cafe Citron – Dupont – nice happy hour that turns into a hot salsa
   club later
   (see also Habana Village in Adams Morgan)
8. Capitol City Brewing Co. – Cap. Hill – Great brewpub with a good
   happy hour, inexpensive and extensive menu, across from Union Station
   in the historic Post Office Building
9. Hawk and Dove – Cap. Hill – Free food at happy hour and good
   political buzz- need I say more?
10. The Front Page – Dupont – Waaaay too many nights here. Another
    killer happy hour hang.
11. Union Pub – Cap Hill – 201 Mass Ave NW, Where I got my first DC
    buzz. Every night has a different happy hour deal. The brews are
    great, like the food, and on thurs. when I was there any beer was $1
    for the ladies. Worth investigating!
12. Tune Inn – Cap Hill – 331 Penn Ave SE – My favorite D.C. dive, bar
    none. Which is appropriate, since it’s really not much of a bar.
    Dingy, with good late night burgers. And check OUT those bathroom
    walls! Scary, but good times:)

And would it be an email from me to someone traveling to one of my
favorite cities without recommending at least one (ah hell I can’t
help myself) restaurant?

• Mai Thai – my fav Thai place in D.C., in Dupont on P st if I
  recall. Lovely interior, bitchin drinks and ridiculously good prices
  for the stylish and beautiful Thai interior. Enjoy what tastes like a
  $40 dinner for $20.
• Les Halles – 1101 K St. – A French bistro place serving those
  working-class unforgettables, steak, fries, salad, anything else
  French you may be craving, and even the finer things like pate foie
  gras with calvados. Won’t break your wallet either. Did I mention the
  great wine list? I should.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Our Journey Through Spain Comes to an End; and a Brief Visit to the Nation’s Capital

Sat, Dec 29: After cleaning up the apartment and preparing for our flight to Ibiza all day, we caught up with Meye once more this evening, to give her a piece of climbing equipment that Ryan had left for her as a gift. The four of us wandered a off the beaten path to Granja Dulcinea—one of the two chocolateries in the area most popular with the locals. We waited in line for a half hour and then sat down for some xiocolate and churros. Delish! Meye says we must come and meet up with her again on our return trip—5 January is the celebration and parade on the eve of Three King’s Day—when children in Spain traditionally received presents (as opposed to Christmas day).

We rushed out of town to catch our 9:55 PM flight from Barcelona to Ibiza. And while we didn’t know it at the time, it turns out that we boarded the wrong train, even after we could reasonably gather that two metro workers had pointed us to it. It was the most crowded train I’ve been on—the guy who conveniently placed his ass in my face for the majority of the ride definitely needed a change! We still thought we were heading in the right direction toward the airport, but once it got to about t-minus 30 minutes, we were worrying: shouldn’t we be there by now?

It was at this time that Paul also realized he had misplaced his passport, and was frantically searching his bags to find it. After looking through everything twice, he was fairly certain he had left it hidden in our apartment. Moral of the story: don’t hide your passport away like your secret stash kids, you might forget it if you’re leaving in a rush! So we’re tripping about if Paul would even be able to board the flight with us or whether he would have to catch up a day or two late. Meanwhile, it turned out that no, we weren’t on the way to the airport, we were on the way to the absolute middle of nowhere! It seemed reasonable that a free train to the airport would be so busy, but why everybody in Barcelona goes here in the middle of the night, I will never know! And not only was this the middle of nowhere, but it was pretty ghetto too! Oh well, so now it was blatantly obvious that we were not going to make it to the airport in time to catch our scheduled flight—we waited patiently for the return train and used Tim’s Blackberry to search the net for solutions to our little predicament. Over the phone, Clickair (a subsidiary of Iberian Airlines) told us they wouldn’t refund our tickets, but if we came in they would give us a 20% discount on new tix. Oh well, 500 bucks on my credit card well spent! It’s not a true adventure until something goes wrong.

We spent several hours running around Barcelona like chickens with our heads cut off—only chickens with 40 pound packs on our backs—and we missed the 11 PM ferry to Ibiza by a matter of minutes. We missed the internet cafe. So we grabbed a pizza at a local vendor. Que pasa nada. Plan D: we finally gave in to our destiny, checked our bags at the Hotel Arts across town (where we’ll stay next week), and decided to stay up all night and catch the 6:45 AM flight in the morning. No point trying to find reservations and sleep at this point. At about 1 AM we went to Shoko Restaurant & Lounge Club across the street and enjoyed some DJ music for a while. I also struck up conversation with these three local hotties—Yanina and Lupe were two of them, don’t remember the third’s name—a big accomplishment for me with my extremely limited Spanish. Anyways, with them on our arms, we easily got into the big disco next door, Catwalk, and danced until 4:30 in the morning.

Sun, Dec 30: We taxi’d it to the airport by 5, and Tim and I bought new tickets for the 6:45 plane, but Paul had to track down the policia and fill out a lost passport report to get approval to travel without it. Then the fuckers took my laptop lock! Because, of course, laptop cables pose a dangerous terrorist threat to Ibiza! In summary, we barely made the 6:45 flight, but at last we were all on the same plane and destined for the Balearic Islands!

This is why we were meant to be on this plane! There was this incredibly gorgeous Barcelona girl and two friends that I took a seat right next to. Smokin’ hot—easily a 9 or 9.5 if you ask me. So when the time was right, and I finally grew a pair, I leaned across the aisle and asked them about themselves and for tips for a first-time trip to Ibiza. Jennifer, Ester, and Maria. Turns out that Hottie has a house in Sant Antoni, the other side of the island from Ibiza Town, and I got the scoop on what beaches and sunset bars to look for. I also left with two of their phone numbers, so it all worked out alright. Maybe we’ll catch up with them for New Year’s Eve…

We checked into the Hostal Parque. The streets were dead at 7AM, but it turns out that our hotel is right in the center of the winter-time action. Plaça del Parque fills up with locals enjoying coffee and lunch in the afternoon, and lights up with a carnival and live music at night. And we have a balcony that overlooks the whole square and the old town—Dalt Villa, very pretty by night.

Later that night, we spent a few hours wandering around looking for this place Bar Incognito with Lori, a gal we had met at the nearby internet cafe. Lori is from San Francisco, and she’s on a month-long hiatus from work as sadly, she just had a miscarriage—traveling on her own to work some things out before she goes back to real life. Bar Incognito turned out to be VERY incognito, and unfortunately closed for Sunday night. But at least we found the location for clubbing tomorrow night, and some good restaurants on the marina. Back at Plaça del Parque, it definitely seems as though we picked a good central spot with lots of cool-season traffic—we came back to find some pretty cool live music and relaxed at Cafe Bliss on our square for some late night chorizo & wine before calling it a night.

Mon, Dec 31: I met up with Lori for some brunch at Cafe Bliss again, and for some sightseeing. The two of us hit a few clothing shops, where she helped me pick out two nice designer shirts in the local style, and then I joined her in the hot tub back at her fancy hotel the Royal Plaza. Later Tim and I spoke with Ester, the reception girl in our hotel, who helped us find a primo spot for New Year’s Eve dinner. After sharing some holiday sangria, the three of us walked across the marina, where we dined at Trattoria del Mar, an Italian resto right on the water. For 95 Euros each, we were served a fine seafood dinner—caviar, oysters, crab cake, prawns, tuna, and more. The Spanish tradition is to eat 12 grapes when the New Year starts, one for good luck for each month of the year. And of course there were the normal noisemakers, hats, masks, silly string, and kisses on the cheek.

Once dinner died down after 1AM, we went to Pacha, one of only two of the big clubs open for New Year’s Eve. Everyone was supposed to be there. And everyone was! We waited in line for a while to get in, waited even longer in coat check. Pacha’s supposed to have 15 bars, and all of them appeared to be open. I don’t even know how many dance floors, but this place was pretty huge, and cavernous. It was multilevel, and seemed to burrow down into the earth. The music was good. Dancers were amazing. We somehow bumped into a few gals from the US and chatted for a while. All good times, and we ended up back at home and in bed by about 5 or 6. Just in time to get four hours of sleep and go back out again in the morning!

Tues, Jan 1: After a little shut eye, we had a morning glass of champagne to ring in the new year, and caught a taxi to the next club. That’s right, the dancing goes all night, all day, and all night again for New Year’s here on Ibiza. We arrived at DC-10 by about 11AM—the earliest I’ve ever been clubbing. This is the all-day hotspot that all the locals recommended, where the party starts at 6AM and goes until 3AM the next day. And slowly but steadily, everyone came out in style, with their sunglasses to protect them from the sun’s penetrating rays, and with tequila/orange in hand. It was a very interesting mix of all demographics. We met this one gent Alberto, a friendly, gentle guy probably in his 40s that spoke flawless English. Several telltale signs gave him away as one of the bigger drug dealers at the venue, but he was very relaxed and nonaggressive, and actually held a very interesting conversation with us about his experiences in the US, about education, and spirituality. Interesting dude!

Later, we finally had some blue skies and sunshine and were able to explore the Dalt Villa, the old walled village just adjacent to our square, toped with a centuries-old Catedral at the top of a hill. Tim scaled the crumbling ancient wall, and as we climbed up to the beautiful vista point, my camera batteries powered down! The view was spectacular, but I was almost regretting it—almost wanting to turn back, afraid to finish the trip because I had no way to capture the amazing shots of the bay, the cliffs, the ocean, and lighthouse. This is what the Balearic islands are all about! The weather was absolutely perfect. The three of us sat on the edge of the wall and enjoyed the chill, relaxing sound of the waves for about 15 minutes. We kept pressing towards the cathedral at the summit, and we later found some fun local kids that played around with us for a while. A wonderful, beautiful last afternoon on Ibiza.

Wed, Jan 2: Wednesday morning, we were scheduled to fly back to Barcelona, but I woke up at about 5 AM with food poisoning. I won’t go into details, but this was one of the worst days of my life. Tried to make the best of the afternoon by chatting with Ester at the front desk while the guys went out shopping as we waited to leave for the airport. I had to work hard for it, but we finally arrived at the Hotel Arts in Barcelona—very primo, on the 21st floor overlooking the sea and the city, and with a killer Bang and Olufsen sound system to enjoy our chill Ibiza CDs on.

Thurs, Jan 3: Today was a day of rest, and all we really did was set out to retrieve Paul’s misplaced passport at the old apartment. It’s awful nice to have a free room at the 74th rated hotel in all of Europe (earned with Paul’s business travel credits), but the downside to staying at the Ritz is that everything costs money, and it’s out of our league! Can you believe, a bottle of Jack Daniels costs 120 Euros here!? Is that what it means to be rich? To be willing to pay an obscene, complete unreasonable premium on everyday things? It’s a great room, so I’m not complaining, but it’s kind of the place you go to stay in your safe tower, high above the city, not really to experience a place, but to grace it with your presence for a few nights and drop a few cool grand.

So, I broke the rules and bought some groceries and some Wok to Walk, which should last me a few days. There’s no kitchenette, but with a little ingenuity I can make meals for the next few days. Paul and I ran some errands while Tim went to pick up his French girlfriend, but the skies opened up over Barcelona and started pouring rain like crazy so I retired for the day to care for my upset stomach and brewing cold.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Balearic Adventure: Spain for the Holidays, Part III

I’m still traveling through Spain for the holidays, but I have some useful goal-setting exercises on the way soon! In the meantime, here’s some interesting material to keep your appetite satiated.

At the 2007 Entrepreneurship Week USA opening ceremonies at Stanford University in California, Carl Schramm (President and CEO, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation) surprised some of the audience when he said that 70% of college students will start a business at some point in their lives. Schramm said that while our grandparents had four jobs on average, over the course of their entire careers, Generation Y students in general will look forward to working 13 major jobs during their professional lives! And who is responsible for creating all those new jobs? Entrepreneurs, of course!

Schramm is author of The Entrepreneurial Imperative and calls entrepreneurship the US’ “competitive secret,” which allows us to stay ahead of developing nations economically (who knows for how long?). Startup companies “birth the new” and give security to others by creating jobs, and they posses the only key to creating wealth! They even facilitate non-profits and philanthropic ventures. This presents an interesting new way to look at economic models that I hadn’t approached before: without the for-profit businessman to virtually create capital, governments could not operate (there would be no one to tax!), and the non-profits would not have any money for their causes. Without individuals to start up businesses, there can be no government, no philanthropy, no charity…

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Carl Schramm on Entrepreneurship

Happy Holidays everybody. I wish you all the best and hope that you get a chance to spend some quality time with family and loved ones. If you haven’t heard yet, I am traveling in Spain for the holidays with some good friends, but I wanted to be sure to share my 2007 year-end wrap-up with you here on the blog. If you’ve got the time to visit, I thank you for reading!

Thrilling Heroics in 2007

2007 was a fantastic year for the blog. The site became an early participant in the Washington Post Blogroll program. And many things are still in development for the road ahead, but TH has recently been accepted as one of the first handful of Gen-Y career blogs to join the upcoming Brazen Careerist blog network, which should be a great opportunity. Over the course of the year, I also had the chance to interview several interesting individuals to get their perspective on leadership and success, so that Gen-Y readers can learn from their experience!

Thrilling Heroics has seen a lot of change this year as my personal interests and pursuits have evolved. The discussion is geared more toward personal and career development now than it was at the birth of this blog in 2006, but the central mission is the same: TH is a career-oriented resource aimed at college students and young professionals, with a strong focus on leadership, personal development, productivity, personal finance, entrepreneurship, and “lifestyle design,” with the purpose of inspiring and empowering readers to pursue their wildest dreams! In 2008, you can plan to see some further changes around here in content and design, and you will probably see a few guest writers. Click here to learn more about plans for ’08.

I also have to thank the readers, of course! Thank you for returning week after week. Thank you for your kind words of encouragement, for your patience with me as my direction and obligations change, and for sharing your thoughts on the discussions that take place here. Your comments and your supportive emails keep me going, and they keep the dialogue here interesting! In the next year, I hope to build more community here for you young readers, so please help us to grow the community by sharing the URL with your family, friends, and colleagues. Also, if you are a regular visitor, consider subscribing to the RSS feed to make life easier on yourself. Get posts delivered to your email inbox only when there is fresh new content, so that you don’t waste time visiting the site when there’s nothing new!

Best Posts of 2007

There were 102 posts this year, with over 6,800 unique visitors to the site. We made it onto Tom Peters’ homepage, Yahoo! Finance, and Consumerist.com, among others! This could not have been possible without you, the reader. Thank you! Here are the blog posts that caused the most buzz around the blogosphere this year and inspired the best conversions. Please take a moment to look back at the best of 2007:

Top 10 Most Popular Posts in 2007

1. Learn To Build A Brand That Shouts Distinction, Commitment, and Passion
2. Interview with David Anderson, Founder and CEO of Green Options
3. How To Use Your Peers For Fun And Profit!
4. Karen Seeh, Corporate Sustainability Strategist, Talks About Social Enterprise and How to Break In
5. Global Marketing, Six Sigma, and The Donald: An Interview with 23-Year-Old Personal Branding Expert Daniel Schawbel
6. Six Simple Money Tips to Get You Back on the Financial Track
7. Warren Buffett on Doing What You Love
8. Interview with David Anderson of Palo Alto Investors
9. 17 Ways to Think Your Way to Wealth!
10. Bright Young Minds: An Interview with Duff McDuffee of Falling Fruit TV

2007 Women & Business Interview Series with IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com

• Interview with Michelle Goodman, Author of The Anti 9-to-5 Guide
• Interview with Julie Jansen, Career Coach and Motivational Speaker
• Interview with Alexandra Levit, Author of They Don’t Teach Corporate In College
• Interview with Anya Kamenetz, Author of Generation Debt
• Interview with Pam Slim of Escape From Cubicle Nation

A Few More Notable Posts

• It’s Time for Some Thrilling Heroics: Commit to Pursuing Your Wildest Dreams with Me in 2008!
• The #1 Skill You Need to Succeed at Anything: Learn to Build Relationships
• 10 Great Ways to Distinguish Yourself from One of Silicon Valley’s Top Entrepreneurs
• The Need for Corporate Partnerships
• Keep Your Brand Current
• I Have A Dream…

Happy Holidays!

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: ThrillingHeroics.com: The Best Posts of 2007

Wed, Dec 26: This morning Tim and Ryan set out to make a local climb, so Paul and I ran a few errands. We paid a visit to a local Barcelona Starbucks for a coffee just off La Rambla (again, the main street in downtown B-town), and discovered that Starbucks uses the same numbers pretty much everywhere you go, regardless of what currency you’re playing with! Actually, I think my coffee was about 10 dollars. Paul exchanged some cash and I stopped at an ATM to pick up some Euros to pay the rental agent. Then we spent an hour at a nearby internet cafe to email family and post photos, while Paul Skype’d his new girlfriend, “the last girl he ever wants to kiss,” in Shanghai! Haha, go Paul!

We got back to the apartment to find Tim had returned home early (apparently he’d gotten a late start and ended up at the wrong metro stop, not to mention that he’s coming down with Bronchitis), so we all relaxed for a while, enjoying some Spanish television and the balcony, and then the three of us went out and caught the metro to Park Guell. Park Guell is a destination at the north end of town that had been recommended to me by every person who’d been here to Barcelona before. Apparently, the landscape architecture was designed by the famous local artist Gaudi, and the park’s central attraction is a great mountaintop vista of the whole city of Barcelona. So, we raced up about a dozen sets of outdoor stairs and escalators on the hill up to the park, hiked around for an hour or two, and Paul was given some unsolicited advice by a Japanese tourist he asked politely to take our photo: she exclaimed, “What background? You want this?! This is NOTHING!” while Tim and I burst into laughter!

Park Guell

I began to feel a pain like no pain I’d ever felt before in my right foot. My shoes are broken in pretty well, and I guess the sole of my shoe has worn down into a funny, uncomfortable shape that is extremely hard on the arch of my right foot after 6 hours of intense dancing and 12 hours of extreme hiking around, so I was limping pretty badly by the time a cafe busboy in the park (actually, a 50-something-year-old man that some spiny, mean creature must have crawled up into and died) got pissy at me for putting my foot up on one of his chairs! Laughs all around, again.

We dined with two local Spanish girls tonight. Meye (“may-yai,” short for Mercedes) is a friend that Tim and Ryan made while on their climbing expeditions—a really neat, very generous Barcelona woman, she runs her own company creating designs for pet accessories—and graciously invited us to her B-town flat for the evening. And Barbara is a younger friend of hers who is also into climbing and apparently an anthropology grad student in town (pretty cute, too). We made ourselves at home, and the six of us shared some great salad, chorizo, pasta, wine, and lots of Spanish sweets, and then shared several stories until about 1:30 am! They were really welcoming and great fun!

Dinner at Meye’s flat.

Afterward, we hired Jason Statham from “The Transporter” to taxi us back home to La Rambla, where he quickly shrieked, “Close the doors!! Aaaghh!” as we were attacked from all directions by African hookers at 2 in the morning! Oh, the adventures of international travel.

Thurs, Dec 27: After I finally rolled out of bed in a stupor and poured a cup of coffee, Paul accompanied me over near Plaça Catalunya to check out the local clothing & fashion shops. I bought some hot new shoes in the local fashion—interesting how Reeboks, Converse, or Adidas here go for about 120 Euros, which is a crap ton in US dollars, but I got these real decent Euro-style shoes for a cheap 42 Euros! Much easier on my foot. These boots were made for walkin’!

Ryan’s been working on some application essays for medical school, so when he returned from the internet cafe, we rented bikes around the corner to tour around the city for an hour. The four of us cycled down to the marina (remember, we’re here on the northern edge of the Mediterranean Sea) and followed the beach to Port Olympia, where we saw the amazing hotel we’ll be staying in on our trip back through B-town—the Hotel Arts Barcelona, by Ritz Carlton! (Five stars, rated like 76th in all of Europe! Thanks for that, Paul!) I had a blast cruising around on bikes with the guys, seeing the beach, all the local sailboats and yachts, and people watching. I visited the supermercado for some milk and 7-up (the water here tastes horrible, unfortunately).

Biking on the Barcelona boardwalk

The Hotel Arts Barcelona

We then hiked a few blocks to the open-air market looking for fresh meats, cheese and bread. At a stop for some seafood appetizers and a drink, we met two nice gals who work in London—one from New York and one from New Zealand. It was neat to hear a native English-speaker! There’s not a lot of them here in the off-season, and I don’t speak Spanish well!

Sadly, it’s Ryan’s last night with us, so the four of us went for a fancy dinner right next door at a nice resto called Biblioteca at about 11pm. Paul had had a few drinks, and was becoming a mild handful giving everyone the 20 questions on camera and talking at length about Shanghai, all in good fun, but a little tiring nonetheless. Oh well. I had duck with a red wine reduction and potatoes, for the first time in my life. Also had a bite of pigeon for the first time! Mmm, street birds! We went to the bar down the street from us, but I needed some air after a while and eventually later on, back at the apartment, got into the inevitable confrontation you get into with extended travel partners with Paul. It was a-okay though, as it’s one of those experiences that makes you closer to the other person afterward, and the two of us ended up going for a 3am walk all the way back out to Port Olympia—which is almost completely silent and dead at this time of morning, much unlike the buzzing part of town we’re in. Now, I’m downloading Moroccan rap & dance music to the laptop.

Fri, Dec 28: Today is a rest day. After staying out until 6 in the morning all week, I’m feeling pretty tired, so I slept most of the day today and tried to preserve my energy. I’ve been writing, emailing, and working from the apartment. And reading my Vagabonding book. It’s just me, Paul, and Tim now. We did go a few metro stops down to visit the post office so Tim could ship some climbing equipment back to the States. It’s funny how the simplest activities can become such adventures when you’re in a foreign culture!

Paul then convinced us to wander toward the local Arc de Triomf, we had a cafe con leche & pastry along the way, and wandered through the park. As we wandered back, Paul & Tim went to a Che Guevara exhibit at a nearby museum, but I was out of steam and header back to our flat. I passed out while the guys got Chinese food. Then strangely, I was restless all night (!), and stayed up chatting on AIM, messaging on the Ibiza discussion boards, and writing New Years resolutions.

Barcelona’s Arc de Triomf

Sat, Dec 29: I’ll be doing chores most of the day today in preparation for our 9:55 pm flight to Ibiza tonight. I’ve got to have a few coffees to feel alive, get my laundry washed, clean up the apartment, and pack my things. So, nothing too exciting, but I’ll report from Ibiza as soon as I can.

Check out my Flickr photostream for more photos!

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Spain for the Holidays, Part II

The advent of a new year is a great time to reflect on all that you’ve done over the past 12 months and take what you’ve learned, and build a roadmap for the coming year and beyond. Freelance Switch has a fantastic article to help freelancers apply what you learned in 2007 for continued success in 2008, asking “What have you achieved this year? In relation to what you’d planned to achieve? That you’re most proud of? Despite difficult challenges?” But it’s a great opportunity for non-freelancers too—to stay motivated about their past successes and set some future goals! Apply the 80/20 rule to your personal and professional life—what is getting you closer to the lifestyle you want, and what isn’t? Focus on cultivating the things that ARE working for you!

After some intense goal-setting, I set several resolutions for myself in 2007. I told myself, “This is going to be a good year,” and it has been. Nobody has perfect follow-through, but because I got clear on what I wanted to do with my time and focused my energy towards those ends, I achieved 8 out of 10 major goals this year:

1. I stepped up my exercise routine. Unfortunately I didn’t cultivate the running habit, but I did start cycling with friends and at my peak, I’ve been exercising about three times per week.
2. I registered three web domains. One for my personal homepage, one for the Thrilling Heroics blog and community, and one for my web design services, which I have been too busy with referral business to develop a website for!
3. I read 11 personal development book books. A vast improvement over the average of two books per year that I have read in years past, and this number excludes fiction and pleasure reading. My top recommendations include Tom Peters’ The Brand You50, Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, Penelope Trunk’s awesome guidebook, Brazen Careerist, and of course Tim Ferriss’ life-changing book The 4-Hour Workweek. I’m also right in the middle of Vagabonding, an incredible guide to extended world travel (perfectly suited for my trip to Spain).
4. I started working as a freelancer! I have not incorporated a full-fledged business yet, and I haven’t donated to 1% for the Planet yet, but I have been doing web design for the last four months and am working solely for myself now.
5. I kicked ass at reflecting at the end of each week and planning goals for the next week! I co-founded Career MasterMinds, to meet each week with other students and young professionals and share our accomplishments and goals for the week ahead. It has been a very rewarding experience, knowing that the support system we have all worked to set up has helped a few of our members find new jobs and has helped all of us focus our energy and our direction.
6. I donated about $300 to charity this year, in particular to the Save Darfur Coalition.
7. I became a better networker and public speaker by synergizing with my peers, e-networking via my blog and LinkedIn, and by participating on the leadership team of a new Toastmasters chapter at Sac State.
8. I purchased carbon offsets for my car through TerraPass.

What major goals did you accomplish this year? What notable improvements did you make in 2007? Or what important lessons have you learned that you can apply to your future personal development? Please share!

And start thinking about those New Year’s Resolutions! While resolutions are somewhat cliche, the New Year does offer a great opportunity to set some personal milestones and objectives. Get clear on what you want to do in 2008, and focus your mental energy and your time toward achieving those goals, and you’ll have a more productive year! So next week, we’ll do some goal-setting exercises and I’ll share my 2008 resolutions as an example.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Perform A Year-End Personal Development Review for Continued Success