First Opportunity

As I’ve talked to people about my trip, I’ve repeatedly said how I anticipate opportunities to present themselves as a result of what I’m doing. I always said how it’s hard to put a specific timeline on my trip because it could be dramatically changed based upon those opportunities. It could last a week, it could last a year. I just don’t know. However, I didn’t quite expect to have opportunities come to me until AFTER I’d started my trip. So, the phone call I got last Saturday came as quite a surprise to me.

In order to best introduce this, lets talk about what I’m looking for in an opportunity or in a new “life” for me. My main goal is to be an entrepreneur, and so any job I do get I want to contribute to this goal. I also want to enjoy what I do. By analyzing what I’ve liked/disliked about my post-graduation jobs, I think I’ve come up with a checklist of things I need in a job to really love it.

1. I want to live where it’s warm. I lived in AZ for high school and my first 2 years of college and so I got spoiled. Two years in Provo was enough cold for me. I just want to live where it doesn’t snow.

2. Performance-Based Compensation – I don’t really like working for an hourly or salary wage. I want to get paid what I’m worth. If I work hard, I want to get paid based upon that hard work. I think hourly jobs can lead to a lazier mentality. At least for me. Also, as an entrepreneur, this is a good thing to learn and get used to.

3. Authority to implement change – This one is big. A lot of sales jobs give me the ability to make lots of money, but don’t allow me to implement change. I like to be efficient. I like to fix problems. When I see a problem that could be fixed in a business, I want to have the authority to implement a solution. I want to be able to give feedback that improves the companies I work for. I often am excited about creating systems that will encourage more efficiency in business. This is one of the things I look for that is the hardest to come by as a “recent grad”.

4. Variety in task – If I do the exact same thing every day, I tend to struggle. The task can even be similar every day, as long as the situations and problems continue to change.

5. I want to avoid the application process – I know a lot of people might think this is unrealistic, but I hate going through the application and interview process. I want somebody to offer me a job because they know me and they can see the potential that I have. I don’t want it to be because I look good on paper and I interview well. Which, I do consider myself to be good at interviewing. I’d much rather work for somebody for free for a week or two and then have them offer me a job, rather than go through a series of interviews and applications to find a job.

So really, those are the main things I want. I’ve realized that all of these things are important to me. So, you’re probably wondering what the phone call was that I received. Well, I received a call from a cousin of mine last Saturday. Him and his dad had been reading up on my blog about my trip and my different ideas, and they thought I might be a good fit to work with them. I didn’t know anything about their company or what they were doing before we had this conversation.

So, their company name is Despain Craftsmanship. Basically, they do wood repair and restoration for commercial buildings. It was started by my uncle and was fueled mostly by word-of-mouth. Once my cousin decided to get into the business a few years ago, it has started growing much more rapidly. Well, they’ve expanded the business into Las Vegas, and they’d like me to be in charge of Sales and Marketing of their office down there. Also, they are wanting to create a replicatable business model that they can then franchise out.

It sounds like a great opportunity and appears to meet all the criteria that I’m looking for. There is a huge potential for the business in Las Vegas because of all the repair and maintenance that could be done on Casinos. They’ve already done work on the City Center and Venitian in Vegas, and they are getting great feedback from those projects. I like that with this job there would be a lot of flexibility to fix and improve things as I see fit. I would also be able to be an integral part of learning how to grow a business. Very valuable experience. It actually seems like with my experience, it’s a greater opportunity than I really deserve.

Although it looks like a great opportunity, I still want to gain experience from traveling and having this adventure. So, I’ll be working with them for a week or two so we can see if it’s a good fit for both of us. I’m going to hitch a ride to Vegas and start working for them next Monday. If it’s a good fit, then there is potential for a long-term position in the future. It’s just funny because I really didn’t anticipate finding an opportunity so quickly that I was interested in.

So, now that I’ve started this blog and got my hopes all up to travel around and experience life, I don’t want to give it up for a job so soon. If it really is a great fit for both of us, I’m sure we’ll be able to work something out so that I can still have the experiences I’m looking for. I’m really hoping that Vegas is just the beginning of my journey…

Parallels Between My Trip and Entrepreneurship

This is a topic that I’ve been thinking about for a while now, and I have finally gotten around to writing about it. One of the main reasons I’m going on this trip is because I want to be an entrepreneur, and I think this trip will help me develop entrepreneurial skills. So, in this post I’m going to talk about how this trip is similar to entrepreneurship.

1. Thinking vs Doing – This is one of the big challenges for wanna-be entrepreneurs. A lot of people talk about ideas they have for businesses they want to start, but they just talk about them. In order to be an entrepreneur, you have to get into the habit of DOING stuff, rather than just talking about it. Well, with this trip, it could be the kind of thing that I just talk about and never do. Lots of people think up cool ideas for trips or other things, but they never follow through. That’s why it’s important that I actually get out and do it.

2. Don’t Have to Have Everything Planned – This is similar to the last post, but there’s an important distinction. The reason lots of people struggle with doing things, is because they want to have every possible problem solved before they face it. When people ask me about my trip, they often ask what I’m going to do in certain situations when they come up. Now, I’ve thought about lots of different things, but there is no way I can plan for everything. There will be experiences that I couldn’t anticipate or plan for. As an entrepreneur, that’s something I’ll have to get used to. You have an initial idea, and you make plans on how to execute that idea. Then, you just start doing stuff and learn as you go along.

3. Adapt – These parallels are kind of making a progression because they build on one another. When an entrepreneur has an idea and starts doing things to make that idea a reality, he needs to be open to adaptation. Many successful businesses came about after an entrepreneur saw an opportunity, and adapted his existing business idea to go after that opportunity. I have a specific plan and purpose in mind. I’m going on my trip to explore cities, jobs, and companies. However, maybe once I get out there, I’ll realize that my survival is taking up a lot more time than I thought. Well, then I’ll have to adapt my purpose and goals for the trip based upon that experience.

4. Risk – We all know that entrepreneurs take risks, and they have to get comfortable with that. Their taking financial, emotional, and personal risks when they try to start businesses. Well, on this trip I’ll also be facing a lot of different risks. I’ll be facing the risk of not having a place to stay, not having enough to eat, not having any friends, and not being able to get to where I need. These are risks that scare a lot of people, and I’ll be honest, I’m scared of them too. However, I also think that where there is a great risk, there is also a great reward. As I get comfortable with risks on this trip, I think it will help me be able to face risks later as an entrepreneur.

5. Creativity – As entrepreneurs face different challenges the have to continually adapt and think of new solutions to problems. Lots of times, this requires a great amount of creativity on their part. An entrepreneur can face funding constraints, talent constraints, and time constraints. They have to learn how to be creative in order to accomplish their goals. I will face very similar challenges on my trip, and I’ll have to be creative and think of ways to overcome them. How will I make money? How will I find places to stay? How will I get to where I need to go? I may find that my initial ideas on how to accomplish these things may not work. Well, then I’ll have to be creative and think of quick solutions to my problems. Especially since I don’t have a home to go to at the end of the day.

6. Leverage – Entrepreneurs learn to leverage others time, money, and talents. An entrepreneur really is a master at finding the right talents, people, and abilities to make a business happen. It’s not uncommon for entrepreneurs to get people to work for free for a long time. Now that’s some impressive leveraging ability. I’ll also need to learn how to use leverage on my trip. I’ll try to leverage the power of my own network, of the people I meet, and my followers online. Almost every day I’ll be relying on my ability to leverage others and their assistance on my behalf.

7. Sell Yourself – If there’s one thing I hear a lot, it’s that as an entrepreneur, you have to sell yourself. Leverage has a lot to do with your ability to sell. You need to convince people of your idea, your ability, and your vision. Only by successfully selling yourself will you get the help you need. I’ll be doing the same thing. My survival is completely dependent on my ability to sell myself. Every amount of assistance I get will come from my ability to sell me. I’ll try to convince businesses to come let me shadow, people to give me rides or couches to crash on, and somehow convince somebody to give me money, for whatever I decide to do to get that.

8. Have a vision – Entrepreneurs have to have a vision of what they accomplish and be optimistic through their challenges in order to succeed. They will face many setbacks and challenges, and only if they have a vision and the optimism that they can be successful will they be able to make it through. I will definitely face some hardships and struggles on my trip, and it is only through my optimism and my vision that I’ll be able to keep going in spite of them. I can give up anytime I want, so it will really be my vision of what I want to accomplish that will keep me going.

9. Overtake Your Life – I’ve heard that starting a business can be extremely overwhelming and often takes over your life. You eat, sleep, and drink your business in order to make it a success. Well, my trip will be the same way. I’m basically eliminating all options to ever get a break from my trip. I won’t have a car, a house, or a regular job. I will always have to be thinking and trying to come up with ways to make my trip work. So, I guess you could say I’m jumping in with both feet.

Ok, well, I’m sure there are other parallels, but I think that is sufficient. These are just some of the main parallels that I’ve thought of, and it can give some insight into why I want to do this trip.

No car, and first interview…

Ok, so, a couple posts ago I was trying to decide whether or not I should bring a car with me on my trip. After thinking about it some, I decided that I definitely didn’t want to bring a car with me. However, then I started thinking of selling my car. I mean, one of the main reasons I was thinking of bringing a car is so that once I decide to stop in a place, I can live there. I wouldn’t need to arrange to get my car or anything else. Well, if I sell my car, the same thing would be true. I would still try to do the trip without using my money, but then if I end up wanting to live some there, I could use the money from selling my car to get transportation.

So, I wasn’t completely sure whether or not I wanted to sell my car, but the idea of having no possessions that would restrict my freedom appealed to me. I felt pretty good about it, so I decided to list my car for sale on Craigslist and KSL.com. After I had posted the car(I also posted my road bicycle), I started getting a bunch of calls from people. This is when I realized that I really didn’t want to sell my car. It made me really nervous to talk to people about it, and so I figured I should take it off the market. It didn’t last too long, but at least now I know that I don’t want to sell my car.

Now I’m back where I started. I’m not bringing my car with me, and I’m not selling it. I’ll still be doing my trip just like planned. I’ll hitchhike around the country by starting out with no money. Should be a good time.

I also talked to a reporter from the Deseret News today. It was a phone interview, and it was pretty fun. The part I found interesting were the questions she asked me. Most of my friends want to know what I’ll do in certain situations and the purpose behind the trip. She didn’t ask me at all about WHY I’m going on this trip. She asked more questions about what other people thought, how I got the idea, what I would do every day, etc. I guess it was interesting because she seemed to have less emotion connected with her questions than most people do. I guess reporters probably have to do that. Just get the facts and not get emotionally involved into the stories they are reporting on.

Anyway, she says that she will need to talk to her photographers and see if any of them are available to come and take pictures of me. They are busy during this time of year, so if none are available, I just told her I could have a friend take pictures of me getting rides or something. I guess we’ll see how it goes.

Will Strangers Help Me?

I just decided this morning to quit my wholesalematch.com job. I just wasn’t feeling it, and I thought it would be hard for me to be mentally into my work. I would have liked to make some more money this week from my job, but it looks like I definitely will be going on this trip without any money. I think I’m just getting excited to go on my trip, and I didn’t think the money was worth the extra week at a job I don’t enjoy that much.

Now, as far as my beta-testing period has been going; I’ve been really enjoying it. Getting a ride around Provo is actually really easy. I think it will be even easier when I’m in a place where I don’t know that many people. I’ve only had two people say no to me so far, and I’ve been asking for rides every single day. I’m not extremely confident asking for rides because I’m just “practicing” at this point. I mean, I don’t like to tell people that it’s just practice, and that I really could be driving around in my own car. I’ll prefer it much better when I have to hitch hike out of actual necessity. I don’t really like asking for rides at night, so I’ll have to do my best to get rides during the day on my trip, because it just feels kind of weird asking people at night.

As I’ve been spending nights at different places, I’m realized that trying to stay at a different place every night is kind of unrealistic. I mean, I could probably do it, but I feel like I’m using somebody just for a place to stay when I only stay for a night. I prefer to stay for a few days because then I get to know people better and share more experiences with them. I think I’d like to stay with people for 2-3 days because after about 3 days I just feel like I’m overstaying my welcome. So, with every person I stay with, I should have a discussion with them about how long they will let me stay, and then I can make plans around that. I’m pretty sure the hardest thing on my trip is going to find different places to stay on a regular basis. So, I’ll try to schedule places to stay in advance, because that would be pretty nerve-racking if I don’t have a place to stay at night on a certain day.

One of the things I keep telling people about my trip is how I’m sure that when I meet people, tell them about my story, and become friends with them, that they will want to help me out. Even as I’ve been getting ready for this trip, I’ve seen how people are anxious to help me out. A lot of people don’t understand exactly why I’m doing what I’m doing, but it’s mostly kids my age that don’t quite understand. Suprisingly, most of the older generation seem to be more excited and understanding of the trip.

Anyway, there is this guy that I talked to on the phone a while ago from my phone sales job. I talked to him a month or two ago when I was really trying to figure out what I should do, and when I was analyzing whether I should go on this trip or not. Even though the initial purpose of the call was to sell him, he ended up giving me some good advice about my situation. Well, I sent him an email today to let him know what I was up to. He was very excited about the trip, and he gave me a generous donation, which I was very surprised about. It’s interesting to me because we’ve never met, and we had a thirty minute conversation a month ago. Despite that, he is so willing to help me out, and I feel like I could call him up if I ever get to his state. In reality, I anticipate lots of different things happening like that. I know that as I interact with many different people every day, I’ll often be surprised at the help that people will offer me after knowing them for only a short time.

Lots of people wonder how I’ll find places to stay when I don’t know anybody in a certain city. I explain how I expect people to offer help by just talking to them and telling them what I’m doing. From my own experience by knocking doors for two summers, and through my other experiences of meeting people at random events, I’m confident that people are much more willing to help strangers than most people think.

Now or Later?

The other day at work, I was talking with a guy who had signed up for coaching. Now, when people sign up with a coaching company, they usually make goals for why they want to make extra income. This guy had a goal to go golfing in all 50 states. I thought it was a cool goal, so I talked to him about it. The interesting part is how he thinks his goal is contingent upon making extra money so that he can afford to do it.

See, there is a saying that comes from Robert Kiyosaki that I really like. He says that you should never say that you can’t afford something. Rather, you should ask the question, how can you afford it? By telling ourselves we can’t afford something, it requires no further work or thinking on our part. Whereas if we ask HOW can we afford something, it inspires creativity and forces our brain to work and think of solutions.

So many times in life, we find reasons as to why we can’t do the things we want to do. We often look forward to when we can “afford” the life we want to have. It’s easy for us to always look forward to the future when times or situations will (we hope) be better for us. Unfortunately, postponing actions usually leads to never accomplishing those tasks. We continue postponing them till the time is right, but the time is never going to be perfect. But, if we force our brains to try and think of how we can do what we want right now, we can often accomplish our goals without waiting for something that may never come.

That’s part of the reason for my trip. If I had a million dollars, there are two things I would do with my time. I would want to travel and experience different places, and I would want to build businesses. Before, I always thought I wanted to work hard to make enough money so that I could have the freedom to travel and do what I wanted. But, then I realized that this is the best time of my life do something like that, and that I should try to figure out a way that I can explore without having the financial means I thought were necessary.

Now, I know the path that I have chosen isn’t necessarily feasible for everybody, but the point is that if we use our brains, we can think of ways to do what we want to do now, rather than in the unforeseeable future. So, I guess the question that remains for all of us to answer is what things in our life do we keep postponing because of financial or other limitations, and how can we overcome those limitations to do what we’d like to do with our lives?

Internet – A necessity?

I went to the mall today between my different jobs. I just kind of walked around and watched people. That’s always a fun pastime for me. Anyway, while I was there I decided to go to the AT&T store and explore my different options for the trip. My friend David Schmidt, who went from California to Rome, Italy without money, told me that having internet on my trip would be a great help. So, I’ve been trying to decide whether or not it’s a necessity. The more I’ve thought about it, the more I’m leaning towards having it on the trip. For example, while I was in the mall today, there were things that I could have been doing if I would have had internet on my phone. Without internet, I couldn’t really be productive.

The nice thing about not having a home is that I’ll just go wherever I want. If I have internet with me, I’ll be able to be productive no matter where I am. I can go to the mall or to a park and get things done. However, if I don’t have internet, I’ll always be looking for places where I can get access. Some of the things I’m going to want to do are to find places to stay(couchsurfing), know where I’m at and where I’m going with maps, update my blog and other social media sites, etc.

So, I guess I’ve now convinced myself that I need to get internet. Now, the question remains as to whether or not I should get a new phone. I have a Blackberry Pearl, and I got it around 2 years ago. The guy was telling me that the hardware will just be a lot slower than the newer phones, so I guess I should just try out the internet on this phone and see how much I like it.

The funny part about this is that on my trip I’m trying to have as little as possible. I’m minimizing the amount of clothes I bring and other accessories. But, among all of that, having the internet and  a cell phone seem to be necessities. It’s so funny how our world is so connected with the internet these days. Even without a guarantee of a place to stay or enough food for money, I’m going to have my cell phone and internet. Anything wrong with this picture?

Hitchhiking

Well, I have officially moved out of the Big Tan today and into my car. I put all remaining possessions of mine into my car, and thought that I wanted to live out of it. However, when I was talking to my friend Aaron Haslam, I realized the danger of using my car since it isn’t registered. I can’t afford to get a ticket at this time, so, I better not drive it around and park it on the street. It looks like I’ll be getting some practice this week in the art of hitchhiking. I borrowed a backpack from Aaron, and I’ll just try to leave my car in the parking lot of my old house, and make my way around town by getting rides from people.

I consulted Seth about his methods for hitchhiking, and he gave me some pretty good ideas. He said it is better to just go to a gas station and ask for rides, rather than sticking your thumb up by an exit. That’s what I was pretty much planning on doing anyway for my trip, but, it was nice to hear my plan confirmed. Also, for hitchhiking around a city, he said he just waves down cars and asks for rides. I tried it twice today, and it seemed to work just fine. The second guy I got a ride from told me that I should bring mace or something on my trip because of the danger of hitch hiking. It’s interesting, because I’ve always disregarded the worries that people have about hitchhiking, but, I wonder if some of those concerns are more legitimate than I’m making them out to be. So, I decided I’d like to make a study of documented incidences that have happened as a result of hitchhiking. So, if any of you can find any news stories or anything on the subject, please bring them to my attention. Just go ahead and post them in comments about this post.

Question to Ask

At church today my friend Aaron Haslam showed a “Mormon Message” in class. It is their newest one, and it’s about being thankful. How fitting, seeing as how it is Thanksgiving this week, right?

Well, this video has an awesome message and just makes me happy while I listen to it. But also, this video got me even more excited to go on my trip. It shows me how there is so much good out there, and how I can learn something from anybody. I’m excited to get out and about and interact with lots of different people. As I was thinking about this video, it also made me think about what kind of question I could ask to people. I think it would be fun to have a specific question that I can ask to every single person I come in contact with. Then, I could make a compilation of all the different responses that I receive from people. The main questions that I genuinely want to know are:

What do you for a living?
Do you love what you do?
Why or why not?
How did you get into your current vocation?

The first two questions are straight forward and are just yes/no questions, so those I could ask pretty easily. The second two questions don’t necessarily have simple answers. I’m excited to see how many people actually love what they do, and how they got into their jobs. I’m not sure if these are the questions I’ll ask everybody, but, this is what I’d like to know from every person I contact. I wonder if there is one question I could ask to get the answers I’m looking for. Maybe I’ll ask the question about if money wasn’t an issue, what would people do with their lives? It might be interesting to see how many of them are currently doing what they would be doing if they had more money. Hmmm. That might be a good one to ask. I’ll have think some more about that.

Computer Nerd

Well, I feel like I have so much to do before I go on my trip. So, I’ve been working hard these last days doing what I need to to be prepared. I’ve been shopping and trying to find the right sleeping bag, backpack, and camera for the trip. I think I’ve selected what brands and types of equipment I would like, and I wonder if I should wait until Black Friday to try and buy them. I’ve found some pretty good deals online, but I need as much money as I can get right now. I keep being surprised by the expense I’ll have before I leave. I want to pay for everything up front so that I don’t have to worry about any bills while I’m on my journey.

I got this blog up and running, but I think that I would like to do a Wordpress blog now. I just don’t think that Blogger is as robust and adaptable as I’d like it to be. So, I’m going to have to download Wordpress and figure out how to use it. The thing with Wordpress is that you have to have it hosted and so it’s not quite as user-friendly you could say. Well, it’s very adaptable if you know what you’re doing, but I assume there will be a learning curve involved.

While I was getting ready to get Wordpress setup, I realized that my hosting account had been suspended. It has been suspended multiple times because I get a bunch of spam on my forum. I’ve tried talking to the Romanian programmers that I used to build the site, but they hadn’t fixed it yet. So, I decided to go ahead and try to fix it myself. It took me all day, but I learned a ton. I learned about FTP, captcha, phpBB, and many other things. It is pretty elementary stuff to programmers, but I really enjoyed what I learned.

The interesting part is how I enjoyed working on the computer all day. With my jobs, I thought that one of the things I hated was the fact that I sat on the computer and inside all day. Well, I don’t think that’s necessarily the problem. When I was learning and working on my own project, I really enjoyed it and was satisfied when I got things done. I think the problem is me doing the same thing every day and working on projects for other people. I really think that I have to get involved in a startup on the ground floor to be excited about what I do with them. That’s probably why I’m excited about this trip. Because it’s my idea and my project. I might get sick of job-shadowing people, I don’t know.

It’s interesting, because I keep coming up with different ideas for my trip, but I know that things will change once I’m out doing it. I mean, I was thinking that I could probably make enough money every day by just singing and dancing with a hat for money. If not, I could also juggle. I might even be able to write song parodies about my trip and perform them. That sounds like a good idea, but is it something I’ll really want to do while I’m on the road? Maybe not. Well, I’m super tired from my computer adventures today, so, I’m gonna hit the sack.

Making the Plans

Well, while I was at my sales job today I just wasn’t feeling it. I already want to quit and just get ready for my trip. So, I think I’ve decided that I’m going to quit in two weeks so that I don’t have to pay for rent for the month of December. Then, I think I’ll live in Provo for another week and just couchsurf for that week. That will help me learn better how to use the couchsurfing website, as well as get some positive reviews for my couchsurfing profile. I’m excited, but I better work hard these next two weeks so I don’t have to worry about money.

The more I think about it, the more I’d like to try and get sponsors. I mean, even if I don’t get them, I’ll learn from the experience of trying to get them. I was wondering who the people are that I’m going to want to talk to and what not, when I realized that I could probably just talk to Brogg and ask him about it. Brogg started BBSC Endurance sports and I know that he’ll have experience contacting companies for sponsorships. The sponsorship amounts that I’ll be asking for will be so small that I’m sure companies will go for it. Either that, or they’ll wonder if I’m for real. That’s the bigger concern, that they don’t take me seriously. Oh well, somebody will I’m sure. If not, I’ll forge ahead anyway.

I’ve made some more definite plans about what I’d like to do on the trip. I’d like to make my trip a combination of two successful projects I’ve seen: LetMeStayForADay.com and OneWeekJob.com. I want to stay with a different person every night and go to work with a different person every day. I’m not going to set any restrictions on when I’d like to finish or not, because I’m genuinely going on a journey looking for occupations that I could enjoy or cities I might like to live in. Once I find what I’m looking for, I can stop my journey at anytime. However, I don’t want to make any decision until I’ve seen a majority of the U.S. and most of the major cities. Well, tomorrow I’m going to start calling companies for sponsorships. I guess we’ll see how it goes.