Chris Guillebeau – The Quest-Driven Life
Good Life Project
Jonathan Fields / Acast
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 25 September 2014
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
10 years ago, Chris Guillebeau mounted a quest to do the impossible, to visit every country in the world.
Along the way, he’s been hassled, deported, detained, harassed and threatened. But, far more often, he’s been welcomed and embraced, discovered the brilliance of a deeply connected world, built a global community of unconventional adventurers and, maybe more importantly, he experienced how an intensely challenging, years long quest changes you in ways he likely never saw coming.
Turning 35, Guillebeau completed that quest in April 2014 and writes about this astonishing journey in his new book, The Happiness of Pursuit.
In today’s conversation, we explore this remarkable person and journey. We dive into what led him to mount a quest to do what only a handful of people in the history of the planet have done. We explore the how his experiences earlier in life shaped him and how his decade long quest changed him in ways he never saw coming.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Some of the greatest things that happened to me were actually the misadventures, as I called them. |
| 0:03.4 | Things that went wrong, not because I enjoyed them at the time when I was getting deported from |
| 0:07.7 | Eritrea, you know, when I was sleeping on the floor of airports in Central Africa or getting |
| 0:11.8 | in a car accident in Italy or different things that happened. I didn't enjoy those at the time, |
| 0:15.6 | but they gave me confidence, you know, they helped me realize I'm going to be okay. |
| 0:19.5 | Ten years ago, Chris Gillibot mounted a quest to do the impossible, to visit every country in the |
| 0:25.4 | world. Along the way, he's been hassled, deported, detained, harassed and threatened, but far more |
| 0:31.7 | often he's been welcomed and embraced, discovered the brilliance of a deeply connected world, |
| 0:38.0 | built a global community of unconventional adventures and maybe more importantly, |
| 0:43.6 | he experienced how an intensely challenging years-long quest changes you, in ways he likely never saw |
| 0:51.7 | coming. I'm Jonathan Fields, this is Good Life Roger. |
| 1:04.5 | My guest today is Chris Gillibot. Ten years ago, he began a journey that evolved into a quest, |
| 1:10.7 | to visit all 193 countries in the world, something only a handful of people in the history of the |
| 1:17.5 | planet have done and all before his 35th birthday. He completed that quest in April 2014 and writes |
| 1:25.2 | about this in an astonishing new book, The Happiness of Pursuit. In today's conversation, we explore |
| 1:32.6 | this remarkable person and journey. Fancy a fever tree and vodka. Yes, vodka, not gin, |
| 1:44.5 | because this is fever tree Mexican lime soda. Yes, soda, not tonic. With Mexican lime and Japanese |
| 1:52.5 | Yuzu for a zesty, refreshing lime soda, that's just sweet enough. Delicious with vodka or on its own. |
| 2:00.8 | Fever tree Mexican lime soda, mixed with the best. Now that hits the spot. |
| 2:07.7 | So you spent 10 years on a quest that puts you really in a league of only a handful of people in |
| 2:17.2 | history. What was your why and how did this evolve? So I began as a traveler. I just began as someone |
| 2:26.0 | who loved to travel and I didn't have a goal established for it. I just loved being out in the |
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