Traveling the World While Young: The Pathless Path and Career Limiting Move?
I’ve become a fan of Jon Raines' newsletter called Young Money. Lots of great tips and thoughts here, specifically for young people. But one that caught my eye was his recent one: “The Case for Traveling More” (Source: https://www.youngmoney.co/p/case-traveling)
It took me back to my days after graduating from University, then attending Medieval studies at Cambridge University Summer school. I ended up spending half a year backpacking through Europe. It was an eye opening experience and extremely fun. Met so many different people and had so many adventures. It was my first experience really living by my wits and by myself.
I ended up moving to Taiwan next year and taught English with the grand plan of saving up money and traveling the world for a few years. I ended up meeting a girl and well, joined the corporate world. Then I moved to Silicon Valley in 1999 and focused on my career.
I remember showing up in the USA with a messed up resume and regret for not focusing on my career earlier. Especially when I met all these hard chargers my age who had done the conventional route and not done the travel & goofing around. I felt so behind, which led me to work my ass off trying to catch up. But I did end up with an internationally focused tech career; traveling the world, selling ads, doing deals and investing in startups.
Fast forward 24+ years, I really had no regrets. I have fine memories from those 3 years of goofing around and traveling before my career. I’ve caught up and actually surpassed pretty everyone from those early days just by grinding it out and staying in the game. Plus a touch of luck as normal. In fact, looking back, those days of traveling gave my career a boost by giving me a new perspective on business as well as cultural insights that were extremely useful down the road. The crazy adventures also make you a much more interesting person compared to the normal working stiff or corporate drone.
So for all those young folks trying to decide what to do right after college. Career or Travel? Take a travel adventure. And if you are older, take some time out from work to see the world, bring your kids. As the excellent Jack Raines says:
“Taking a few months to see the world won't hinder your career, but never taking time to explore will starve your soul.
In an era where travel is both cheap and convenient, a refusal to venture beyond your geographic boundaries is a declaration that you believe what you are currently doing is more valuable and enriching than engaging with the experiences and perspectives of ~8 billion other people.”
Jack goes on to say:
“Quality ideas are generated by a breadth and depth of quality inputs, and few inputs are better than experiences. The simple acts of visiting places that you wouldn't normally visit, meeting people you wouldn't normally meet, doing things you wouldn't normally do, and seeing things that you wouldn't normally see serve as great source material.
Where you go, who you meet, what you do, and what you see are less important than simply going, meeting, doing, and seeing.”
So young people (and old), go forth into the world. Explore. Have fun. You won’t regret it.