Interview With The World Traveller and Entrepreneur Chris Guillebeau

Chris Guillebeau is a writer and traveller who leads an unconventional life and teaches others how to do the same.

He visited over 120 countries and his goal is to visit every single country in the world.

Chris has a very successful blog – ChrisGuillebeau.com – and he writes about travel, entrepreneurship, personal development and life design.

In his self improvement articles he focuses on the importance of not following the crowd and designing your life in a unique way.

1. You are obviously the person who found his life’s purpose. Can you share it with us?

It’s a fluid idea, but the way I think of it currently is like this: My purpose is to live a life of joy and gratitude, focused around the convergence of achieving big goals and empowering others to do the same.

The shorter version of what I do is to say “I help people live unconventional lives.” I try to structure a lot of my work around empowerment, which is basically helping people find what they love to do and then figure out a way to do it.

2. How did you find your life’s purpose? (As you may know, most people struggle to find it)

Two important things: first, I lived in West Africa for four years, volunteering for a medical charity. That experience was extremely transformative and provided a good foundation for my worldview. Second, after I returned to the U.S., I spent at least another year trying to figure out what I really wanted from life, where I could best contribute, and so on.

3. The number of countries you’ve visited is staggering. What is the country you liked most and why?

It may be staggering, but keep in mind I’ve been actively traveling for more than ten years now. I like different things about different places. It’s hard to pick just one, but among others, I really like South Africa, Macedonia, and Hong Kong.

4. How did you start your blog and why do you think it became so popular?

I started it in February 2008 after carefully thinking about what I had to say and what form the project would take. I think that readers were drawn to some of the ideas, maybe trying to find out a way they could do something similar or pursue their own aspirations. I also try to tell good stories, and people like stories.

But more importantly, I worked at it like a job, for at least 30 hours a week. I spent as much time connecting with people as I did writing, something a lot of bloggers neglect. After a few months it became a self-sustaining process.

5. What advice can you give to those people who still live conventional lives but want to break out of their little boxes?

Start by asking questions like a three-year-old: Why are we doing this? What’s the point? Once we realize that many of the things we do have no good reason or rationale, we can begin freeing time for the things that really matter. That’s the next step: figure out what matters to you. What bothers you about the world and how can you change it? What excites you?

If you think about these things long enough and start taking actions towards them (even small actions), it becomes addicting—and also contagious. (Simona Rich: What an amazing answer! Thank you.)

6. How did you start your own business and was it difficult to get it going?

You can read the whole story here. But in short, I needed a way to make money and so I found a way to do that. I don’t want to say it was easy, but it was certainly no more difficult than working at a job for someone else.

7. What would you say to those people who think that starting their own business is very hard and that they are almost guaranteed to fail?

I’d say that’s an odd perspective. If they are fixated on failure, what is to prevent them from failing at working for someone else?

I don’t think everyone should be an entrepreneur or otherwise work for themselves. But I also think if you want to create security for yourself, it will be much easier to do that on your own than by trusting in someone else. Your own competence is your best security.

8. Most people doubt themselves and end up following others. How did you start trusting your own judgement and not getting swayed by the opinions of others?

It was a process, not something that happened quickly. To start with, my Dad was very good at buying me books and encouraging independent thinking. Then, being self-employed for more than a decade now has given me confidence as well.

But I think I’m still swayed by the opinions of others somewhat. The key is to be aware of that and try not to give them too much weight.

9. I know that you personally work with people to help them achieve success. What are the biggest problems you’ve noticed that prevent people from achieving success?

I do try to help wherever I can, but I also have a guru-free philosophy. I don’t think any person is better or more enlightened than any other, and for the most part I don’t think we need mentors or guides to show us the way.

That said, it’s also fair to say that there are some common problems that prevent success. One is the difference between having ideas and executing them—I believe that execution is at least as important, if not more so, than the creative process. Another problem that is common to most of it is acknowledging and engaging with the role of fear in our lives. Many of us make all kinds of decisions out of fear, and we have to overcome that pattern somehow.

Speaking of fear, failure and success, I like this quote from JK Rowling: “If you are so afraid to fail that you live as cautiously as you can, you fail by default.”

10. What’s your personal success recipe?

I like one from Barbara Winter so much that I can’t think of anything better: “Get started. Don’t quit.”

11. What projects are you working on at the moment?

Every year I visit at least 20 countries, so that take a lot of time and planning. This fall my first print book comes out, so I’ll be visiting all 50 states in America to meet readers and raise money for our water project in Ethiopia. I’m also planning a major in-person event called the World Domination Summit. That will be June 3-5 2011 in Portland, Oregon and everyone is welcome! I hope to see you there.

Thank you so much for such an amazing interview. Your answers will definitely make some people question accepted rules and standards, and that’s a beginning of their personal empowerment. I hope that your book is going to be a huge success and I wish you all the best in your future projects!

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