My advice for people who are trying to make their way in a niche, whatever the niche may be.
- don’t be jealous of the success of others. Give praise where it is due and set about working even harder to catch them up.
- don’t big yourself up more than within the acceptable bounds of necessary self-promotion. If you begin to think that you are amazing, chances are that other people will start to think you are a prat.
- really try to help other people. Helping your rivals is not counter-productive. It is kind, it is good for the soul, and what goes around comes around. It certainly won’t set you back.
Do your little bit for good too. Or at least undo your bad.
- work very hard. Don’t pretend that you work very hard. Work harder than anybody else.
- work smart. Quality of work is far more important than the mere quantity of unproductive hours self-flagellating in front of a computer screen.
- don’t run before you can walk. Serve your apprenticeship. Life is not the X-Factor. Ranulph Fiennes’ speaking career began in village halls and at old people’s tea parties.
- see imitation as a compliment, competition as an incentive, criticism as a spur. Lose no sleep over the others. Just try your best to be better than them.
- learn from other people. Is your way the best way? Is it really the best way, or has it just become dogma?
- remember where you began. Be grateful for each small ascent up the slippery pole. Help other people climb the pole with you. Do not sneer at them and boot them back down.
- enjoy it. What’s the point of it all if you do not?
This month’s guest blog comes from Dan Harrison. Dan was a normal bloke with a normal job and normal life. Then he decided to cycle to Africa…
“About this time two years ago I glanced out of the window on the train to work and the idea hit me; cycle to South Africa. Now I’m doing it. I feel alive.
The big idea
Cycle solo across Africa; it wasn’t a logical thought. I pedal around London but I’m not a real lycra-loving cyclist. I’ve never been to Africa and I had a pretty cushy job – why jack it in? However, lack of logic wasn’t important; I was excited and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d got excited on the way to work.
Like most of my friends, I’d always wanted to work on something with humanitarian goals, go travelling again, and find myself doing what felt more like ‘me’.
This idea felt right; it got my pulse racing.
Getting to the start line
I didn’t know if it was even possible to cycle solo though Africa. Luckily I found Al Humphreys’ fantastic presentation to the RGS. I was inspired; if this young whippersnapper could do it, I reckoned I stood a chance.
The Explore Conference extinguished any lingering doubts. I met Dan Martin and many other truly incredible people. Their energy and ethos to just get out there and do it was infectious. I was going.
I made my plan, and committed to it. I would leave the following summer.
I told my boss and started working four days a week, using my ‘extra’ day for planning and fundraising. Little by little, with friends and family in support, the thought on the train became a reality.
Then on a fine August day last year I set off. It feels like the best career move I’ve ever made.
Time to be free
Looking back, perhaps the most poignant part of my planning was the lack of it. My route is vague and timings unconstrained. I’d taken note that Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boardman had constantly been racing against the clock on their ‘Long Way Down’ through Africa; not how I intended to do it.
I want to feel free, to wander, stop and savour what I see. For me it is about the journey, not the destination. My recent experiences highlight the reason why.
Three months ago I arrived in Damascus, intending to stay a few days… I’m still here. I’ve been helping an incredible group I met here to establish a new NGO: Bidna Capoeira – something I feel truly passionate about. This could be a project that changes thousands of people’s lives for the better, through sport, music and play.
It’s not for money I’m doing this: there is none. It’s the positive energy. It really feels like I have a home here, with friends I will keep for a long time. Had I had a timetable to keep I would have missed out on that joy.
The work on the NGO has planted a seed that I too may benefit from; setting up projects and teaching capoeira around the world. Insha’Allah.
What next?
I’m looking forward to getting back on the open road. I’ve arranged to visit several orphanages on my way through Africa and I will; my waypoints on this wandering journey.
How long will it take me to get to South Africa? I have no idea; one year, maybe two. When I start to run out of money, I guess I’ll have to find some work. And what happens when I reach Cape Town? No plans.
It feels like I’m living the way I should be and if I continue the future will take care of itself.
This is a time of my life that is changing me deeply. I don’t know where I’m headed but it feels like the right direction.
I am free.
…& you?
I write this story in the hope it joins other inspirations you have which one day soon reappears as an extraordinary thought that gets your heart racing.
If you’ve got an idea, don’t let it go. Tell your friends, ask anyone who can help. Pursue your idea. It is worth the effort, just to see how incredible your life could be.”
I recently arranged a fundraising event for Hope and Homes for Children.
The idea was simple: each speaker would have 20 slides, which scroll after just 20 seconds. This gives the speaker a mere 6 minutes and 40 seconds to speak. It is a fast, furious, fiendishly difficult speaking format that results in a fun, unusual, fascinating talk.
So for the next few weeks I’m going to ask you to give up 400 seconds of your Friday to hear some great stories.
If any of them move you to add a few pounds to our fundraising tally that would be fantastic. There is a donation widget below.
If you would like to be informed when the next Adventurers’ Pecha Kucha Night is organised simply add your email address here:
Today Jimmy Goddard shares the inspirational story of how he went from lying at the bottom of a Welsh cliff with a broken back to the summit of Africa.
A while ago I mentioned that I would be upstairs in the Iron Duke Pub, Victoria Station, London from 6.30pm on March 9th. My idea was that I would try to help anyone who was planning their own adventure.
It now seems that there may be quite a lot of people coming! This is great, but I need some help. If you have already done an expedition, or ultramarathon, or big journey please do come along as well and pass on your knowledge.
People helped me when I was getting started; it’s good to pass that on. You don’t need to be Ranulph Fiennes, but if you have something to offer, or if you just feel like a beer or two then please do come along!
- 6.30pm, Tuesday March 9th, Iron Duke pub, Victoria station –
January’s two microadventures touched on these two approaches. So I decided to try to list the appeal of both to help shed more light on “why” I do these things, and what the point of it all is.
Walking a lap of the M25
Curiosity: what would it be like? Is it possible to have an adventure in southern England?
Discovery: what are the place names that you whizz past on the motorway really like?
People: who would I meet on the walk? What would it be like to meet people from my own country when I was a stranger on a journey? This is one of the main appeals of foreign travel.
Amusement: doing things just for the fun of doing them.
Crossing Scotland
Wilderness: seeking solitude in epic landscapes.
Challenge: moving swiftly through difficult environments. Being physically fit.
Misery: overcoming tiredness and pain. The pleasure of finishing.
Variety: there are so many different ways of having an adventure.
I recently arranged a fundraising event for Hope and Homes for Children. A wide variety of adventurous souls kindly gave up an evening to help me out and share their story with the audience.
The idea was simple: each speaker would have 20 slides, which scroll after just 20 seconds. This gives the speaker a mere 6 minutes and 40 seconds to speak. It is a fast, furious, fiendishly difficult speaking format that results in a fun, unusual, fascinating talk.
So for the next few weeks I’m going to ask you to give up 400 seconds of your Friday to hear some great stories.
If any of them move you to add a few pounds to our fundraising tally that would be fantastic. There is a donation widget below.
If you would like to be informed when the next Adventurers’ Pecha Kucha Night is organised simply add your email address here:
Here Ben Clowes speaks about paramotoring in Venezuela.
(If you are reading this on Facebook please click here to see the show)
My desk-bound work has evolved over the last couple of years until it is now almost entirely dependent on Google products. That they are not only suberb, simple and ubiquitous, but also free, is quite amazing!
I thought it may be of interest to give you an insight into how Google has transformed the way that I work, making my boring days at the desk more efficient and so generating more time and money for me to go do the fun stuff.
I use Gmail to host all my different email addresses (email hidden; JavaScript is required etc.). They all come into one Gmail address. When I receive emails they are sorted, using Google’s Labels system, into folders such as ‘Urgent’, ‘Answer anytime’, ‘Website Ideas’ as well as a label for the month of the year I need to take action on the email.
So, if I get a talk booking for October I organise the event promptly and then file it away under ‘October’ and ‘Talks’ ready for the day of the event.
You can also search through all the emails you have ever received as easily as you can search for anything with Google. Invaluable if you suddenly decide you are off to Sierra Leone and want to find out if you have ever emailed anybody about “Sierra Leone”.
It is very easy to add new bookings and meetings that come via email to my Google Calendar which now runs my life. I relied on a little black diary and a pencil for years. There’s less chance of Google going bust and losing my calendar than there was of me losing my diary. On my calendar I have several colour-coded calendars; a normal calendar, a blogging schedule, an admin calendar and so on to help me see what I am supposed to be doing each day.
I used to use Blogger for my blog, but now have moved away from that to Wordpress. Blogger is a great place for people to begin from though.
I still use Google’s Feedburner for the RSS feed on my site (don’t know what RSS is? Click here), and I am continually trying to encourage people to sign up for the RSS feed. I’m not seeing a great take-up though. I’m not sure if that is something I am doing wrong or if RSS is just not that popular.
Far more successful is my monthly email newsletter hosted, of course, by Google Groups.
I have dabbled with Google Adwords and Adsense but have not found them very helpful or cost effective.
I use Google’s Blogsearch for keeping up with blogs relevant to what I do. I then use the Reader for gathering the sites that I find interesting and want to read regularly.
I use Google Alerts to keep abreast of topics that are of particular importance to my work, with Google trawling the web and keeping me automatically informed so that I do not need to waste so much time online.
The biggest recent change for me is the adoption of Google Documents. I do not use Word or Excel anymore. Everything is done on Google Docs now. My stuff is safer there than on my hard drive and is available on any internet-linked computer on Earth. It is also useful for sharing documents, for collaborating on exped budget spreadsheets or brainstorming new projects. It also allows my publisher to keep an eye on how my book writing is coming along! (Not very well…)
Google has not embraced social media in a big way (yet!), although I have been using Orkut (their version of Facebook) to keep in touch with people I met in India last year. I planned much of that India walk using Google Earth and Google Maps.
Are there any other ways that you use Google to help you?
What free sites have changed the way you work? I would add Skype and Twitter to the list… What about you?
Have your say in the comments.
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