I’ve been all over the world. So far in my life, I’ve spent meaningful time in over 20 countries. I’ve lived or worked in as many states in the US and have visited them all. In my lifetime I’ve been pretty poor, financially speaking. I grew up at the far south end of middle class, very often well into the poverty suburbs. My family spent a lot of years living in a bunk house with no indoor toilet, making our way on my father’s stable hand wages. I’ve been homeless a couple of times, too. Not the modern interpretation of the couch-surfing “homeless” with a soft place to crash and a friend’s fridge to raid, but no-shit living on the sidewalk someplace homeless. I’ve also done really well at times. I’ve had to start over more often than I care to admit, but I’ve hit some real high notes. I’ve started companies and flown them directly into the ground. I’ve started others and landed lucrative contracts and been able to pay myself well. I’ve been to war, to disasters, to regions of catastrophe and human suffering. I’ve been to the coolest places you can imagine and seen the stuff they make movies and postcards about. I’ve been very fortunate in all of this because it has given me a life of perspective. It’s given me the experiences and the personal ups and downs to be able to relate to most people in most places, even when our lives are very different in the moment. Being on the move, having several passports full of stamps, having spent my youth trying to satisfy an insatiable wanderlust and thirst for adventure gave me insights there’s simply no other way for a human being to develop. Looking back, it’s given me the single most useful lesson I’ve ever learned. Here it is:
Happiness
Happiness
Happiness
I’ve been all over the world. So far in my life, I’ve spent meaningful time in over 20 countries. I’ve lived or worked in as many states in the US and have visited them all. In my lifetime I’ve been pretty poor, financially speaking. I grew up at the far south end of middle class, very often well into the poverty suburbs. My family spent a lot of years living in a bunk house with no indoor toilet, making our way on my father’s stable hand wages. I’ve been homeless a couple of times, too. Not the modern interpretation of the couch-surfing “homeless” with a soft place to crash and a friend’s fridge to raid, but no-shit living on the sidewalk someplace homeless. I’ve also done really well at times. I’ve had to start over more often than I care to admit, but I’ve hit some real high notes. I’ve started companies and flown them directly into the ground. I’ve started others and landed lucrative contracts and been able to pay myself well. I’ve been to war, to disasters, to regions of catastrophe and human suffering. I’ve been to the coolest places you can imagine and seen the stuff they make movies and postcards about. I’ve been very fortunate in all of this because it has given me a life of perspective. It’s given me the experiences and the personal ups and downs to be able to relate to most people in most places, even when our lives are very different in the moment. Being on the move, having several passports full of stamps, having spent my youth trying to satisfy an insatiable wanderlust and thirst for adventure gave me insights there’s simply no other way for a human being to develop. Looking back, it’s given me the single most useful lesson I’ve ever learned. Here it is: