Since we’ve started telling people about the trip, we’ve seen the Six Degrees of Separation at work. I am inundated with offers of introductions to people in other countries, and ex-pats in the US keep popping up.
For instance, this week I’m attending a personal safety class from a man hailing from South Africa, and I’m reliably informed that his wife is a phenomenal entrepreneur. Travel safety, interesting people, and a woman entrepreneur…all things I need to know.
Another woman tells me of great contacts she has in Hong Kong and how she will be happy to connect me.
Yet another friend is an editor who is going to help me put some of my intellectual property into a form I can sell online to help finance this trip.
A new contact in New York has introduced me to several websites to plant the trip as well as enhance the research for my book proposal.
You know, I was a little bit scared to start telling people about this great trip. One reason was a fear that it would negatively impact my current business or my husband’s job before we leave, and another reason was that my friends and family would think I was crazy or irresponsible. Or that I possibly had more money than sense (which might be true, but sadly not because I have a lot of money!).
This is another lesson in the power of intention and how stating what you are going to do will make it happen. Keeping it in my head allows me to create all kinds of scenarios that really aren’t there, and I’m finding that I’m quite the internal storyteller. Making it real gives it really only one story – the one that is happening. So I can now concentrate on that real story instead of the crazy imaginary ones in my head.
So, here’s to wishing for more interesting people to cross my path as I continue to talk about this trip and my intentions for a book and a successful conversion to an online business.
About Betsy
The people that you meet in planning for the trip are great, but nothing compared with the people that you meet when you’re travelling. Some advice. Talk to as many people as you can, and ask them about themselves. People love to talk, and you will learn a lot more about a place from the citizens that from any guidebook.
And do yourself a favor. Take a picture with everybody that you spend any amount of time with. Don’t take a picture of them; take a picture with them. Those pictures will be the most treasured souveniers that you will have, even more than pictures of yourselves standing in front of something important. I have pictures of myself in front of the greatest places in the Western world, but my favorites are pictures of friends I made just sitting in a pub. I really wish I had more of them.
Joe, this means a lot coming from you. I know you as one of the friendliest guys on the planet – the type that would soon know everyone at the pub. And you are endlessly curious about other people. Great advice, and I will definitely put it in practice.