Chris Guillebeau's Blog, page 47

Let the Wave Crash Over You: A Letter for My Brother

Chris & Ken in the early years (ages 7 and 2)

Dear Ken,

When I look back at all the memories we shared together, there are so many that stand out.

I tend to think of our childhood, which was not particularly a happy one for either of us—but my memories of you and me are consistently happy. I remember when we lived in different states and sent things back and forth to each other in the mail every week. We talked on the phone a lot then, too, but having something physical arrive in the mailbox...

The Fear of Losing Prestige

Chiara Cokieng, born and raised in the Philippines, has been on a journey of multiple career changes. After graduating from a prestigious university program and landing a nice gig as an international consultant with assignments in America, she then quit her job to work on a business idea.

The business idea didn’t pan out, at least not right away—so she took on a new role as a full-time employee for a startup. She plans to see this commitment through, but eventually wants to go back to her o...

How to Start a College: Introducing The Wayfinding Academy

Link: The Wayfinding Academy

Crowdfunding: Read more and Support the Project

Most of us know that traditional higher education, especially in North America, doesn’t work for everyone. Far too many students struggle, wander aimlessly, go into debt, or do all of these things.

The Wayfinding Academy is a new answer to the age-old problem of “What should I do with my life?”

WFA is founded by Michelle Jones, a longtime friend who’s been a college professor and also served as the WDS Magician for...

Pioneer Nation Returns in October: Here’s How You Can Join Us!

Pioneer Nation tickets go on sale next Thursday, August 13th

Last year we debuted an all-new event to serve independent entrepreneurs and anyone who felt underserved by existing business conferences. We called it Pioneer Nation—and the first gathering was a tremendous success.

We’ll be returning in October (just two months from now!) for our second edition. If you’d like to hang out in a mountain resort an hour from Portland, Oregon and learn new skills for taking your business to another...

Surfing the Entire West Coast of the Americas: A Quest of Love and Discovery

This is a traveler case study. ( Read others or nominate yourself . )

Conscious traveling, a quest to surf the entire west coast of all the Americas, a van, and a dog: Jade Heilmann’s experiences on the road were too good not to share.

Introduce yourself!

I’m Jade. Together with my better half (aka Gabriel), our Westfalia (aka BigBlu), and our pup (aka Phi), we make up the We Travel and Blog team. Currently, we’re on a mission to surf the whole west coast of the Americas, from Tofino to Tierra d...

24 Hours of Flights in London Airspace (To All 5 Airports!)

The UK National Air Traffic Control Services (NATS) handles over 2 million flights in UK airspace every year. Of those, over 1.2 million arrive at or depart from one of the five main London airports.

I could look at flight paths all day long, and this video makes it easy.

Oh, know what else I realized? I’ve flown in and out of Heathrow dozens of times, if not hundreds. I’ve been to Gatwick at least a handful of times. I went to Stansted at least once, long ago on a trip to Eastern Europe,...

What Happened at WDS 2015? Unfiltered Attendee Reviews, Round II

Here’s Round I.

After spending hundreds of hours in preparation and then hosting a week-long adventure for thousands of awesome people, I don’t usually say much about it afterward, at least not on the blog. I’m a writer who doesn’t do a writeup.

Thankfully, our attendees do a much more thorough job—and wouldn’t you want to read the uncensored and unfiltered reviews anyway?

Every year we see hundreds of blog posts from attendees. Here’s the first second round of unfiltered reviews and opinion...

You Can’t Live As If You Only Had Three Months to Live

It’s a challenging thought: “How would you live if you learned you only had three months left?”

Most of us would probably make some changes, or at least we’d think long and hard about what really matters.

If your job sucks, you’d probably quit. You might travel to that place you’ve always dreamed of. You might pursue a long-time dream that you never got around to until now.

And you’d almost certainly aim to restore harmony in any broken relationships, and perhaps say farewell to as many fr...

What Happened at WDS 2015? Unfiltered Attendee Reviews, Round I

Every year after WDS we receive hundreds of blog posts, reviews, and writeups from attendees. Here’s the first round of unfiltered opinions on a variety of topics related to the whole event. Check them out and decide for yourself what WDS is all about!

How WDS Changed My Life (by David Ryan) The Hit List – World Domination Summit 2015 (by Theresa Reed – The Tarot Lady) Finding My Voice at WDS 2015 and Part 2 (by Julie Spezia) World Domination Summit 2015 (by Melissa Feineman Suzuno) Thank Y...

Sometimes It Doesn’t Work, But You Still Have to Try Anyway

You always hear about the people who took a chance that paid off. You always hear the try, try again stories—those case studies of overcoming what seems to be an insurmountable challenge.

You know how the story goes: so-and-so encountered failure a dozen times, but on the thirteenth attempt, they made it!

Then so-and-so says, “Thanks, everyone. I’m so glad I kept going. Victory was never guaranteed, but look at me now.”

Sometimes, though, you head into a situation knowing that there’s a hi...