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Travel

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8-Hour Flight Delay, Good vs. Great Work, etc.

Greetings again from Bangkok, where I'm approaching the end of my latest trip around various parts of the Asia-Pacific side of the world. Coming out of the Maldives the other night, I got stuck for eight hours. Eight hours! Here's the lesson from that experience: no eight-hour airport delay is ever announced as being eight hours. It's always two hours, then one hour, then another hour, and so on—giving you false hope while sitting on hard metal chairs all through the night ...

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Travel

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Tips for Stress-Free Travel

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The title of this post is somewhat of a misnomer: I almost never experience travel that is truly stress-free. For starters, not all travel can or should be predictable. Sometimes the unexpected is better than the planned.

Secondly, not all stress is bad, because some of the most challenging times in our lives are the most stressful. No risk, no glory—that kind of thing.

Yet, when heading out into the world, it helps to control as many variables as you can. I'd rather experience travel stress related to something fun than something preventable that was my own fault. With that in mind, here's a primer on low-stress travel—and your contributions are welcome too.

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Et Cetera

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Update from Manila about Everything

Greetings, friends and readers. A few days ago I went to SFO, then I went to HKG, and then at 11pm local time (after 20 hours of travel), I made it in to MNL — also known as Manila, the Philippines. From here I'm jumping off to Papua New Guinea, but hold on a minute. The last time I was in the Philippines, I was about eight years old. I lived here from 1984-1986 as part of my first big jump in cross-cultural life. I have vague memories of riding jeepneys, eating chicken and rice every night, and occasionally starting small fires in small trees. Twenty-something years later, and here I am again. I don't eat chicken or light trees on fire these days, but I'm still happy to ride around in jeepneys. Fun times! Even when I'm jet-lagged.

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Life

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The Small Man Builds Cages for Everyone

Every year I choose a personal theme, and in December I decided that 2010 would be the year of SCALE and REACH. Thus far, it's been an accurate prediction—some days it's all I can do just to try and keep up. Lately, though, I've been thinking more about EMPOWERMENT than anything else. Empowerment, as I think of it, is all about the beautiful principle of transferring knowledge and helping people consider possibilities that previously seemed out of reach.

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Work

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Case Studies Needed for Empire Building Kit

Greetings, friends and readers. After an extended stay at home in Portland, I'm now preparing to head out again. Over the next two weeks I'll be simultaneously traveling through Asia and working on my most detailed business project of the year. It's called Empire Building Kit, and the goal is to help people build a sustainable business in less than one year by doing one thing every day.

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Profiles

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By Any Means Necessary

February is Black History Month in the United States, where we recognize the achievements of African Americans and honor our culture of diversity. A lot of attention during this time is focused on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and rightfully so. Above my desk is one of his most famous quotations: “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is this: what are you doing for others?”

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Et Cetera

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Site Update: February 2010

Greetings from home base in the great Portland, Oregon. Yesterday I ran 10 miles, a fact I was happy about until I went to a dinner party and met an ultrarunner who runs 80 miles a week. She also has two young children and a full-time job. I felt suitably shamed. Ultrarunners and any other endurance athletes out there, you have my respect ... but not my company for training runs.

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Profiles

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Art and Plumbing: The Indispensable Interview with Seth Godin

It’s no secret I’m a big fan of author and change agent Seth Godin. I’ve been reading his books since my years in West Africa (2002-2006), and he continues to produce excellent work almost every day on his great blog. I had the chance to speak to Seth’s “Alternative MBA” group last year, and when the invitation came, I rearranged my schedule and dropped everything to fly to New York. (Never pass up a major opportunity for personal growth.)

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Life

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What You Don’t Do Doesn’t Matter

Coming home from a recent trip, I thought about bringing flowers. Wouldn’t that be nice, I thought. I imagined the flower buying, the flower delivery, the credit in the relationship account produced by my thoughtful action. When I finally made it off the last flight and the train ride to the transit center, I was tired. I remembered the flowers, but then decided: I’ll do that another time. Then the other day, I thought about something I had promised to do for someone else a while back. Several times I had thought about doing it; my intentions were good. But yet, nothing happened.

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Life

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Before and After

In 2004 I went to Liberia for the first of five visits. It was a pretty crazy place at the time, having just ended an 14-year series of civil wars a few months before I arrived with a small assessment team. The streets were patrolled by U.N. tanks, the only electricity was provided by private generators, and the non-functioning lampposts were covered in bullet holes ...

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