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Sometimes people ask about my qualifications.
It's a fair question with a simple answer: I have none.
There's absolutely no reason I should be doing pretty much anything I'm doing these days.
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Last month's low-cost travel hacking class filled up quickly, and I've had a lot of requests for another. This time, I'd like to do something different—the topic is: "Working from the Road: How to Make a Living While Seeing the World."
If you're interested, you can sign up here:
NOW SOLD OUT -- Thanks for your interest.
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I was planning to launch an online class today ("Working From the Road"), but when I heard the news last night, I knew it was better to wait. For those who are interested, we'll release the class tomorrow. Here at AONC, we never miss a scheduled post, so we're putting this up today.
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It was all going so well. I had made it to three island countries in the Pacific: Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and Palau. All of them were interesting in their own way, if a bit small. OK, small isn’t the word: they were tiny. There is literally one road in Majuru, the capital of the Marshall…
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Coming back on my final flight from the South Pacific last night, I sat next to a business traveler. In between Blackberrying and reading legal files, she gave me her brief attention.
She asked: "Do you travel for work?"
I said: "Not really. I travel for life."
"That's interesting," she said as she returned to her files.
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For the past three years, I've written at least 300,000 words for publication. It's not that difficult, and you can do it too—it mostly requires an ability to focus. If you don't have this ability at first, fear not: it's a learned process.
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Earlier this year I went to Austin to co-facilitate a discussion at SXSW with Jonathan Fields. Our topic was “Fear and the Art of Creation,” and we had a great crowd. Despite the challenging time slot of early Sunday morning, tons of people showed up and filled the room. I said a few things in an attempt to sound mildly intelligent (my secret: always be the opening act and get off stage quickly), and then Jonathan said some much more intelligent things. The image from this post includes a few of the stories we shared with the audience over the course of an hour (hat tip to Ogilvy Notes for the fun illustration).
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A common question in my Inbox reads something like this:
“I really want to pursue [activity, trip, or transition that involves change], but right now I can't because of [reason or roadblock]. I could spend the next [long period of time] preparing for the big change, but I worry if I wait, I may never do it. Should I apply myself for years to improve my situation, or should I find a way to do it now?”
Details vary, of course—but I hear versions of this question several times a day.
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My first observation on the region known as Micronesia is that it takes a long time to get there. With forced layovers, I'll finally arrive at stop #1 after 40 hours of travel—and I'm starting on the West Coast! Fortunately, I love travel and I'm excited. This is going to be a fun trip.
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If you're looking for a way to make extra money or start an all-new business, I'm working on a project that will help you do just that. Until then, the best ideas are usually free, and I learned long ago to give away as much as possible. To start with, read through all of these responses. Many of them won't work for you, but I'll bet some will. And here's another one, from me.
You can become a consultant for hire in less than a day—this post will give you everything you need to get started.
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Have you heard the one about the end of time? Yep—it's on the way.
Every day, we lose another 1,440 minutes that will never return. Farewell, minutes! Goodbye, opportunities.
The other day I noticed I had been thinking "I'll do that in the summer" about a lot of things.
Then I realized, hey, it's late August already ... seriously? How did that happen?
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All of my relationships have failed, but here's what you should do about yours.
I've never written a book, but here's a list of everything that's wrong with yours.
My business failed, but here's how you should run yours.
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Note: This post contains videos. If you can't see them, you can view the collection over here. After flying through the day and night via Hong Kong, Johannesburg, and Nairobi (yes, I'm perpetually tired), I made it to Kigali, Rwanda—the starting point for my latest trip. This was a special adventure: a visit to several countries in Central-East Africa, and my first time to trek into the forest of Virunga National Park in Eastern Congo.
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Friends and readers, greetings from Johannesburg airport, where I've just arrived from a week of gorilla trekking in East Africa. Life is good. By popular request, you're invited to join me for a one-hour online class on the basics of travel hacking: how to see the world on a budget. We'll discuss at least 8 ways to earn a free plane ticket in the next 60 days. Update: the class is now sold-out.
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It's a fairly self-explanatory question: what's coming up in the near or faraway future that you're excited about?
I'll start. In the short-term, I'm looking forward to getting home from another long trip. It's been fun, beautiful, thrilling, and exhausting. I live on the edges and sometimes they catch up to me. But that's OK, because I'll be happy to do it again soon.
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