Lessons from the Journey: Misadventures Produce Confidence

From my own 193-country journey to the stories of many other people who were kindly willing to share, The Happiness of Pursuit attempts to extract and convey the lessons of modern-day quests. This series explores some of these lessons.

Lesson: Misadventures produce confidence.

At nearly every stage in my journey to every country in the world, something went wrong. I became stranded, was nearly deported several times (and then actually deported once), screwed up my travel plans, and generally ca...