Karol is one of my favorite bloggers out there, and I haven’t shared his stuff enough. Karol lives life on his own terms. He travels where he wants to, lives where he wants to. He’s not afraid to be himself, to curse once in a while, he gets philosophical and vulnerable about the challenges of living a life of extraordinary freedom, and he digs into some really, truly valuable strategies and tactics for improving your life.

I’ll be quick with this one, because now that I’m on an island in the south of Thailand, my DSL has gone down and, well, the interview stands on its own anyways. If you don’t listen to this, you’re missing out on some awesome.

What’s in store for you in this excellent interview:

• 2:00 – What is ridiculously extraordinary freedom?
• 2:45 – Karol’s trip to Goa, India, to build a handmade guitar
• 3:18 – All about How to Live Anywhere: The Official Guide to Ridiculously Extraordinary Freedom
• 6:36 – About Karol’s long career in affiliate marketing and info product strategies
• 8:26 – Specific tactics for earning money with your blog (example: see Karol’s travel packing list that earns him Amazon income)
• 10:55 – All about hustle
• 12:32 – Secrets to exploding your blog & Karol’s secret for guest blogging on huge sites
• 17:02 – Karol’s travels to India, Thailand, and Poland this year (see Karol’s guest post The Beginner’s Guide to Minimalist Travel on Zen Habits)
• 19:20 – What it’s like traveling and living in Wroclaw, Poland (Karol’s birthplace)
• 23:35 – Networking and using Couchsurfing when you travel
• 24:30 – What’s up next in Karol’s travels, BlogWorld conference
• 25:25 – How a Gameboy at age 8 helped Karol realize an extraordinary method for achieving goals

Download audio file (Karol-Gajda-Interview.mp3)

Feel free to download the Karol Gajda MP3 here to listen on your own computer (right click and “Save As”)

How to Live Anywhere: The guide I wish I’d written

The last thing I want to mention is that I read Karol’s truly incredible guide How to Live Anywhere: The Official Guide to Ridiculously Extraordinary Freedom while I was in Bali with my girlfriend a couple months ago now. Even as someone who’s already living the location independent lifestyle, I found several valuable strategies (like for making more dough) and insights (like for improving my mindset and success). It literally is the ebook I wish I’d written, so I’d highly recommend it to anyone who wants to join us for a life of permanent travel.

Click here to see what you’ll get when you purchase Karol’s excellent HTLA guide.

And here are a couple other products we discuss in the interview when Karol shares about Affiliate Marketing:

• Corbett Barr’s Affiliate Marketing for Beginners course
• Benny Lewis’ Language Hacking Guide
• Chris Guillebeau’s Empire Building Kit

Make sure you follow Karol Gajda on Twitter and check out these awesome articles on Ridiculously Extraordinary:

• 21 Reasons You Should Quit Your Day Job
• 17 Miniscule Actions that Produce Massive Results
• How to Pack Ultra Light

Chris Ducker is my go-to guy that I trust when it comes to outsourcing and virtual assistants.

Chris is an experienced sales and marketing professional originally from London, who’s now the CEO of the Live2Sell Group of Companies, a thriving offshore outsourcing provider and call center operation in Cebu City, Philippines, where they’ve grown exponentially from about 7 employees to a massive firm with 217 staff and growing!

Chris is on a mission to be a full-time Virtual CEO by the end of 2010, to get his business to the point where he can work from home with his family, and he documents his journey at Virtual Business Lifestyle.

Chris recently interviewed me for VBL, but this time I sat down to chat with him about his businesses, how he turned his life around 180 degrees from near bankruptcy to thriving success, the key differences between hiring freelance virtual assistants and hiring an outsourcing service provider, and his mission to remove himself from the office and become a Virtual CEO before the end of the year:

0:45 – All about Chris’ Virtual Business Lifestyle
1:40 – How Chris ended up living and working in Cebu, Philippines
4:20 – Rags to riches, going from lots of debt to great financial success
6:56 – Why Chris wants to free himself from the office and become a Virtual CEO
11:25 – Work-life balance and what Chris’ mobile lifestyle with his family looks like
14:45 – All about Chris’ business process outsourcing firm and call center and his personal web PA company
17:47 – The quality of the workforce in the Philippines and the scalability power of outsourcing
22:45 – Home-based freelance outsourcers and keys to finding great virtual assistants
25:14 – The benefits of going with outsourcing companies
26:33 Chris’ new match-making service to help you find reliable home-based virtual assistants
28:19 – Expat life in the Philippines and the low cost of living in Asia (see Chris’ blog post What’s it Like to Live and Work in the Philippines?)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Late last week, Chris and his team launched their new Virtual Assistant match-making service, Virtual Staff Finder. In a nutshell, it bridges the gap between entrepreneurs that want a hard-working, experienced home-based VA, but one that is filtered and vetted in a more professional way. They do the background checks, test applicants online and give you the top three candidates to interview. For people who want to hire outsourcers, it eliminates all the guesswork, and you basically don’t have to do anything but make the final ‘hire’ decision.

I’ll be using Chris’ new service myself in the weeks ahead, as I’ve had my share of headaches searching job listing sites and trying to find the best virtual assistants through other means. You can check it out by visiting VirtualStaffFinder.com—where you can also get your hands on his new free eBook “The Top 10 Virtual Assistant Tips”! And if you do decide to hire your own VA with Virtual Staff Finder’s help, make sure you use this link to let them know I sent you their way and they should treat you with extra love!

Make sure to scope out all the invaluable content Chris has on his site Virtual Business Lifestyle. A couple of my favorites:

• How to Utilize Virtual Assistants to Help Create, Market and Sell Your ‘4HWW’ Style Muse!
• What’s it Like to Live and Work in the Philippines?
• Personal Branding and The Art of Self Promotion
• The Virtual Business Lifestyle Top 12 “Lifestyle Design” Blogs

You can also connect with Chris below:

• Get the Virtual Business Lifestyle podcast on iTunes
• Join the VBL Facebook page
• Connect with Chris Ducker on Twitter

Mount Bromo, Indonesia

How to Be a Serial Couchsurfer

I was in South America in 2008 when I first heard about this genius idea of making a connection through a website called Couchsurfing.com and sleeping on a random couch for free.  It’s pretty simple, make a profile, search for a place to stay, contact that person with a message, and finally stay with that person.  I excitedly joined the website but my endeavor was faded for almost 4 months as I got discouraged by lack of replies and a rapid traveling schedule that made it next to impossible to make online contacts.

When I arrived in South East Asia in March of 2009, I was determined to give Couchsurfing another shot with a full intent of making it truly happen this time.  About 30 minutes of couch searching and I had politely contacted 3 or 4 decent looking profiles to find a place to crash.  I was encouraged when I received a number of replies, and soon I found myself hanging out with unbelief at an awesome condo in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, overlooking the Petronas Towers.  With a flexible attitude and a friendly nature, my host graciously allowed me to stay for a few weeks before flying to Indonesia.

Indonesia is where I truly became excited about Couchsurfing and realized the unparalleled opportunities and benefits that can result.  In Jogjakarta, Indonesia, I was greeted by a crew of local Couchsurfers eager to meet and show me around.  For a week straight I lived with a local family, was passenger on the back of a motorcycle zipping from place to place, ate delicacies that few have dared to eat, caught fish from the pond for dinner, saw ancient, unheard of temples, trekked through an abandoned cave in the middle of nowhere, and checked out a swarm of other “unknown” attractions.  These new friends were equally excited to practice their English and ask me questions about the world outside of Indonesia and what I thought of their country.  I was happy to speak with them, answer their questions, and simply tag along to see their daily lives.

An ancient temple in Indonesia

My Couchsurfing spree continued for nearly six months, staying in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and Thailand.  At each location I was not only blessed with a free and secure place to sleep, but also priceless local and cultural experiences.  I was treated to favorite local hole-in-the-wall eateries and directed to impossible-to-find locations.  In the Philippines I Couchsurfed in an area of Manila known as Novaliches, far away from any popular tourist attraction, but submersed in the real Manila.  I could go to Filipino markets, watch cockfights in the neighborhood streets, take free cooking lessons from local mothers, and talk to interesting strangers.

A volcano in the Philippines

Tips to Be a Serial Couchsurfer:

1. Don’t be afraid to make contacts: The bottom line is that nothing will happen if you don’t jump at the chance to contact other Couchsurfers, so take the first step!
2. Give the host a good 2 weeks notice or so: Not only are you more likely to get a granted request, it’s courteous for everyone.
3. Try to contact locals: Staying with or meeting locals is truly an enriching way to travel, and the best way to find those off-the-beaten-trail things to do!
4. Be friendly: This is simple but important, if you are friendly and get along well with anyone, you just might be invited to stay with someone for a more extended period of time.
5. Be accommodating and flexible: Remember that you are the guest, be grateful for an awesome place to stay no matter what the condition.
6. Work around your host’s personality: If your host wants to hang out as much as possible, that’s great, if your host lives a pretty independent life and wants you too as well, that’s okay too.
7. Show respect to everything: A lot of Indonesians don’t drink. In cases like this, try to adapt to your host and live like they do.
8. Have a backup plan: Before you travel, quickly research a guest house or hostel in case you have a problem contacting your host and absolutely need a place to sleep.

What started as a way to save money, led me towards amazing contacts, friendships, cultural learning experiences, prized restaurants, and local establishments that I never would have known existed.  These meaningful relationships and rewarding Couchsurfing times have far outweighed the free accommodation.  Though I broke my spree, Couchsurfing is still the first place I look when traveling to a new country looking for an amusing adventure!

See if Couchsurfing works out for you, you just might be the next serial couchsurfer!

Mark Wiens is a world wanderer, a durian smuggler, a culture crosser, a spicy food connoisseur, and a buffet finisher. On his blog, Migrationology, he serves spontaneous observations from an unplanned migration of adventurous world travel revolving around food and unique opportunities!  You can also follow him on Twitter at @migrationology or Facebook.

Sean is someone who quit his office job, working in finance in Portland, Oregon, and took a huge leap. He moved to Asia and started a new life abroad, experimenting with working as a digital nomad.

Sean submitted a remote work proposal to his firm in Portland, and when they wouldn’t negotiate with him, he did it his way anyway. He was going to experience life abroad, one way or another.

He ended up being selected for the first Tropical MBA internship, working remotely with Dan Andrews of the Lifestyle Business Podcast and a team in Manila, Philippines, and his business partner in San Diego, California. Sean also helps manage affiliates for Chris Guillebeau—who just recently launched the hugely successful Empire Building Kit—and has many personal projects of his own on the way.

Sean soaked at Songkran festival in Bangkok (photo by Gary Arndt of Everything-Everywhere.com)

Sean’s blog Location 180 is where you can see this entire life transformation unfold over the last year and a half.

Sean took a huge risk, and made a big life change. I was lucky to get to know him pretty well and spend a lot of time with him here in Bangkok, Thailand for the last six months.

A few weeks ago, it was time for him to return home for a while, so I took the opportunity to sit down and catch up with him on video to ask him some questions about his travel experience, get his advice for other folks who want to make the jump into working remotely and living abroad, and share how he’s successfully built a location independent career and designed his ideal lifestyle.

• 0:45 – What catalyzed the change Sean wanted in his life
• 1:40 – About the Tropical MBA & bootstrapping a product development company from the Philippines
• 3:45 – Sean’s travel itch before redesigning his life
• 4:35 – Advice for taking the jump from corporate life into self-employment
• 6:55 – How to stay productive & accountable when you work at home
• 8:30 – Changing your mindset for a location independent lifestyle
• 9:25 – What Sean does to earn a location independent income
• 11:55 – Sean’s upcoming course to help you Overcome the Fear of Uncertainty
• 16:25 – About Location 180 & seeing Sean’s personal growth as he turned his life around 180 degrees
• 18:05 – Sean’s favorite travel experiences in Southeast Asia: Ubud, Bali, Koh Tao, Thailand and Puerto Galera, Philippines
• 20:00 – Expat life in Bangkok & meeting entrepreneurial people from around the world
• 23:05 – What’s next for Sean Ogle?

Click here to view the embedded video.

You can connect with Sean on Twitter and Facebook. Also visit DailyHDR.com if you’re into photography, and be sure to subscribe to his mailing list at Location 180 to get a great free audio interview all about how to craft a remote work agreement and to be first to hear about when he launches his upcoming product, Overcoming the Fear of Uncertainty, which is bound to be an invaluable guide for anyone who wants to start their own freedom business or work location independent.

In the interview, we discuss:

• How I started outsourcing to get more done.
• The things that keep me motivated day-to-day.
• How I dodged bullets in real life this year, while living in Bangkok.
• Why I encourage people to quit their job and become location independent.
• The secret to utilizing Social Media to build your online brand.
• Plus much more!

See the whole thing here for more: VBL Video Podcast – How to Live a Thrilling Lifestyle with Cody McKibben

Click here to view the embedded video.

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I first heard the idea of Blisscipline from amazing Brian Johnson last year when I met him in Bali. Dr. Michael Beckwith defined it as “a discipline you do so often that it no longer is a discipline, but a blisscipline.”

But my definition of Blisscipline is:

The discipline of only pursuing your Bliss”

So if you practice Blisscipline, then you make it your priority to pursue things that bring you bliss daily.

My friend and former employer Vishen Lakhiani loved the word so much that he used it when he shared the stage with the Dalai Lama and Richard Branson in Calgary, Canada, in 2009! (How much of an ego boost is that?)

The point of this article isn’t to impress you with my stellar skills in defining made up words. I wanted to tell you about the reason behind the Blisscipline Blog. I really wanted a place to document and interview all the amazing people I’ve met who are living a life of Blisscipline. I wanted to show people that it is possible to be Blissciplined and successful.

From the Blisscipline Blog comes the Guerrilla Entrepreneur Seminar, a seminar to empower entrepreneurs to break free from the norms of entrepreneurship and to embrace 21st Century Entrepreneurship, which is about making money, doing something you’re passionate about, having a life of balance, being a part of something bigger than yourself, giving back to the world, and having experiences money can’t buy!

I am super excited about this seminar (you can check out the website here: http://www.GEseries.com) as I’ve managed to get many entrepreneurs who live on the cutting edge to come speak at it (including the super Cody McKibben—master of this blog). I’ve made sure that the GE Series won’t be fluffy, feel good talks, but practical tools and strategies that you can apply immediately in your life and business—just the way I like it!

Also (and I’m really excited about this) when you attend the seminar, you get to be part of the Guerrilla tribe and get to view all the talks during the seminar plus all the extra talks we’ve had (I’ve taped them all) online, for free, at your leisure! I’ve always wished that seminars did this, so I can pay attention to the speaker and absorb instead of constantly taking notes.

If you want to come for the entrepreneurship conference, email me (hani at personalbrandingasia dot com) and I’ll give you a special rate for the ticket, just for reading this blog (tickets are at RM349 / US$109). Please make sure you say that you heard about it from Thrilling Heroics or Cody McKibben.

Before I go, I’d just like to invite you all to live a life of Blisscipline, because you never know where it will take you!

xoxo
Hani

Today’s guest post is courtesy of Richard at Lifestyle Design Unleashed.

When a surgeon goes to do an operation there are a number of pieces of equipment that he or she will most likely need. Scalpels. Clamps. Trays. And so on. If they go in with a skateboard, a banana and a doorbell instead then the surgeon is obviously going to be far less likely to be able to make a success of the operation.

And so it follows with lifestyle design. There are a number of traits which, if you can implement them, will help you greatly in designing and then creating your ideal lifestyle, so I thought it might be beneficial now to run over a few of these to serve as thinking points for you.

I’d love to hear your opinions and feedback on these elements, so I encourage you to leave a comment at the end of this post and also to suggest any traits that you think I’ve missed out.

Motivation To Make Changes

The first key to successful lifestyle design is having the motivation to make changes. I assume that if you’re here now, reading this blog, then that is you. But I’m not just talking about a passing interest in designing your lifestyle—instead I mean a burning motivation that keeps you awake at night dreaming about the possibilities.

I heard a useful phrase recently which went something along the lines of “a dog on the hunt doesn’t stop to scratch its fleas”. In other words there are always going to be small annoyances or things that get in your way while you’re on this lifestyle design journey, but if you have enough motivation and you’re focused on the end game then these minor issues won’t slow you down.

Passion For Life

There are two aspects of lifestyle design really—the negative and the positive. The negative elements are all those things you want to escape from, to avoid, to eliminate. Maybe that’s a boring job. Maybe that’s debt. Maybe it’s something as simple as a cold climate.

But the other side are the positives. What are you going to add into your lifestyle? When you’ve got rid of all those negatives, what positives are you going to add in?

What countries would you like to visit? What new skills would you like to learn? What food would you like to try, what languages do you want to learn? Who do you want to meet and what do you want to achieve?

Too many people know what they don’t want (I want to be able to quit my job) but struggle with what they do want to do. Remember that eliminating your job by setting up a lifestyle business, for example, by its very definition, opens up a huge amount of free time, and you’ve got to do something with it.

It’s worth, then, considering what you will do. Maybe go to some evening classes to see what appeals to you. Maybe go and meet some new people and just get chatting until you start thinking “wow, I’d love to try that”.

Find the things you’re really passionate about in case you aren’t already aware which will create even more motivation to make the necessary changes to your life.

A Vision Of Your Potential Life

I remember listening to an audio tape years ago which included information on an architect. When he designed a house he could visualize it so strongly that apparently he would go out to the plot of land with his clients and walk them through the house in such detail it was like the house was already built.

He could see every aspect of it in his mind’s eye. He joked that it seemed too real to him that sometimes he would knock his elbow on a piece of furniture!

This vision—this ability to see your potential future in your mind’s eye in glorious Technicolor—is yet another step in achieving your goals. After all, if you don’t know what you’re aiming for, how will you know when you get there?

So don’t just make a list of what you want to eliminate and what you want to add into your life. Imagine yourself actually living that life. What does your home look like? Where is it located? What do you look like? What do you do? Who do you know? Make this vision so strong that you too can walk into imaginary furniture.

Debt Free

Debt has a nasty way of taking away options. And the fewer options you have the less freedom and control over your life you have. If you’re up to your eyeballs in debt, then you may well be stuck in your job until you’ve paid it off. You may not be able to afford the vacation you want, or to buy that house you dream of. Debt repayments can eat up a lot of your monthly income, which means you need to earn more.

Without debt though, all those monthly repayments disappear. Depending on your point of view, you either need to earn less (meaning your lifestyle business can support you that much sooner) or you have more expendable income to spend on the things you really want.

In short, getting out of debt is an essential part of the lifestyle design project.

What else is important for your lifestyle design journey? Please leave your feedback and visit Richard at LifestyleDesignUnleashed.com

Just a quick message today before I set off on the overnight train to Laos tonight with Nikki (owner and editor of the best damn travel magazine for backpackers in Southeast Asia):

234 years ago, the Second Continental Congress unanimously declared the sovereignty of the thirteen united States of America from the British Empire. The Declaration of Independence, written primarily by Thomas Jefferson, listed colonial grievances against King George III and asserted an individual’s natural rights:

Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness

Today, albeit a few days late for the 4th of July, my message for you is that I believe that no matter where you come from, you and I are entitled to the same natural rights now more than ever. Though (some) governments certainly serve a few useful purposes (sometimes), bloated bureaucracies tend to prioritize their own survival above your individual freedoms, no matter what the cost. When it really comes down to brass tax, it’s up to you to protect yourself, your family, your belongings, and your freedom, from those who would try to take them away from you. As history has shown many times, nobody else will hold them sacred for you.

Which is why this week I am exceptionally excited to announce my official collaboration with Sovereign Man. I’ve been following author Simon Black’s daily Notes from the Field for six months, and have always been extremely impressed by his ability to travel where he chooses, moving around the globe unrestricted, speaking at conferences worldwide, and identifying trends in the global markets. Even for someone without any huge retirement nest egg or stock portfolio like myself, learning daily from an expert who’s bought his own freedom so completely, and reading his thoughts about investing and finding business opportunities abroad is absolutely fascinating and eye-opening. He’s been called the freest man in the world:

“I think true freedom is being able to make your own choices, without having the influence of other entities you haven’t invited into your life. I’m a permanent traveler, I don’t have a home anymore. That usually blows peoples’ minds. They say, where do you live? And I say, I don’t live anywhere. Where do you get your mail? I say I don’t get mail, I don’t have a postal address.”

In the last 3 months, Simon’s traveled to over 20 countries, met with a President and several diplomats, started several companies, lectured on entrepreneurship in Eastern Europe, and personally provided venture capital to new start-ups. He and his business partner are where I can only hope to be in 10 or 15 years, so I’m genuinely honored and thrilled to help them expand their social media presence and take Simon’s message about individual liberty and living a truly nomadic lifestyle to new audiences online.

“I’m a student of the world, and I believe that travel is the greatest teacher. My knowledge is practical, and hopefully of significant use to you. Off the top of my head I could quote you the price of beachfront property in Croatia, where to bank in Dubai, the best place to store gold in Singapore, which cities in Mexico are the safest, which hospitals in Asia are the most cost effective, and how to find condo foreclosure listings in Panama.”

In order to achieve true freedom, you have to be able to make money, control your time, and eliminate the mindset that you are subject to any higher authority (at least not here on earth). Simon and I both believe that you don’t have to be a slave to geography anymore—you can live where you want, how you want. You can take control of your time and spend it how you want, not how others tell you. You can live a luxurious lifestyle overseas at a fraction of the cost in your home country;  you can make money anywhere, whether it’s China, Panama, New Zealand, or online; and you can break into any network of peers you wish, to mix and mingle with the absolute elite if you desire.

Declare Your Individual Freedom

If you like Tim Ferriss, or reading about the five flags in Neil Strauss’ book Emergency, you’ll love what Simon has to offer—he is actually living the Jason Bourne lifestyle, and he shares his life experiences to help you achieve three things: more time freedom, more financial independence, and more freedom of location. If you want to achieve more freedom in these three areas of your life, I definitely cannot recommend Sovereign Man enough. See what Simon has to say about second passports, international business, lifestyle design, finance, and expatriation, and if you like what you see, make sure you show your support on Facebook and sign up for Simon’s daily e-letter (it’s short, it’s free, and it’s where you’ll get special reports & the content he won’t publish online for Google to find).

It had lasted two months but thankfully been fairly isolated in other parts of the city, but in the last few days, for the second year in a row, the clashes very suddenly focused right on Thanon Ratchewithi, the main road that I walk along every day to get to Bangkok’s public transit, the BTS Skytrain.

Friday, May 14th. Everything up until this point in our neighborhood had been fairly quiet. Early afternoon, my girlfriend and I parted ways—she had to do some business errands at the bank and the post office and head to her apartment 5 minutes up the boulevard from me.

Two hours later, I get a phone call. “Someone’s shooting right outside my condo. I can see people running up the street. We’re stuck inside the building, they say it’s not safe to go downstairs.”

Not long after, worried sick about Nikki and her roommate getting stuck in their tower for days (and the potential of losing power, water, etc.) I wandered out with Sean to see what there was to see right at the end of our soi. Demonstrators were subtly provoking the soldiers, who were slowly advancing up the street in our direction. They had blocked off the road to traffic, but there were a few locals trickling out of the sealed-off area, so I was sizing up the situation to see if I could get to them… I was wondering whether there was a back entrance to their property if I went down Soi 1 and climbed the fence…

As Sean and I were getting ready to head back home to safety though, in our last moments of stupid curiosity a few loud shots fired in our direction and we frantically ran for cover with the crowd of onlookers, dodging behind a small pickup truck as the adrenaline started pumping. Just another day in Bangkok, I started off dodging bullets with Sean Ogle, but our neighborhood then fell under siege for the next six+ days.

Looking up Ratchaprarop Road about 300 meters from Nikki’s condo before everything went to hell. (Photo by Sean Ogle)

A protester prepares to hurl a Molotov cocktail up the street from me. (Athit Perawongmetha/Getty Images)

A burning tire rolls toward the line of Thai soldiers moving to disperse Red Shirt protesters on Friday, May 14, 2010 in Bangkok, Thailand. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)

Red Shirt protesters create a burning barricade on Rama IV road to stop army soldiers from advancing in Bangkok May 15, 2010. (REUTERS/Adrees Latif)

A Thai man believed to be a Red Shirt demonstrator lies dead in the street after being shot by an unidentified sniper Saturday, May 15, 2010, in Bangkok, Thailand. (AP Photo)

A Thai man removes a can from a burning barricade in a main avenue of Bangkok during clashes between demonstrators and security forces on May 16, 2010. (PEDRO UGARTE/AFP/Getty Images)

Anti-government protesters carry a man who was shot by live ammunition during clashes between demonstrators and security forces in Bangkok on May 16, 2010. (NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images)

This is literally 200 meters away from my door, at the end of my soi in Victory Monument. Bangkok on May 16, 2010: a war zone. (Athit Perawongmetha/Getty Images)

Thick black smoke billows through the air behind the main Chulalongkorn hospital near the Red Shirt encampment on Wednesday May 19, 2010 in Bangkok, Thailand. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

An armored personnel carrier moves toward a burning anti-government barricade during a military crackdown Wednesday, May 19, 2010, in Bangkok, Thailand. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)

An anti-government protester piles tires on a fire at a shopping center Wednesday, May 19, 2010, in Bangkok, Thailand. (AP Photo/Wally Santana)

A statue and a torn Thai national flag remain in front of Bangkok’s Central World shopping mall, which was gutted by fire after army soldiers advanced towards an encampment of thousands of Red Shirt protesters, May 19, 2010. (REUTERS/Adrees Latif)

Friday night, I watched right outside my window as rioters dragged heaps of sheet metal, scraps, and rods onto my soi to build a makeshift road blockade, watched them throwing Molotov cocktails over my neighbors’ roofs at the police and Army at 4 in the morning. Rubber bullets were flying, tear gas is in the air, and homemade explosives were going off all through the night, grenades being launched in the air, gunfire, and numerous reports (via Twitter) of unidentified snipers on rooftops throughout our neighborhood shooting at protesters, soldiers, and even uninvolved onlookers.

This is the scene that unfolded literally right outside Nikki’s front door on Saturday morning, May 15th—Thanon Ratchaprarop became one of the two main “Live Fire Zones” where soldiers were shooting on sight. Protesters created a tire barricade 15 meters up Nikki’s condo driveway, and at least two or three protesters and bystanders were shot and killed. Their bodies were dragged inside her lobby where a doctor (or a paramedic?) was trying to tend to them. There is also video taken from above by some other residents in her building, from one of the upper floors of The Complete Ratchaprarop condominium. That bursting loud gunfire sound echoed throughout our entire neighborhood all day and all night.

Nikki called me at 10:30 Saturday morning. Needless to say, it had been a rough night to try to sleep.… and I missed the call since I’d only finally passed out three hours earlier. Her third attempt woke me: finally, after she’d been trapped inside for about 24 hours, she had been evacuated from her building by soldiers, guided out the back of the condominium, through an adjoining garden park, and had to use a ladder to get over the back wall.

Without hesitation, I packed a bag in about 10 minutes, taking all my most important items I couldn’t stand not to ever see again. Several of the buildings on our road were torched, as you can see from some of the photos above. Rioters set about 35 major fires around the city, and Asia’s second-largest shopping mall, Central World, was completely destroyed.

Thankfully, we were finally able to meet and get out of the city safely. We took a bus headed to Kanchanaburi, a small countryside town about two hours northwest of Bangkok, to stay alongside the River Kwai for a few days. There were plenty of places in Bangkok that were left untouched, and on some streets life went on like normal and you almost wouldn’t have any idea anything was wrong, but we found ourselves right in the center of the worst of it, so we spent the next four weeks away from home.

But even for the first week well away from harm, I was concerned for the safety of many of my friends who live in my building, or up the street from me, including (you can read their accounts of the events too) Sean Ogle, Dwight Turner, Mark Weins, Jodi Ettenberg, my friends May, Joel, and others…

All around Bangkok, protesters and rioters sacked shops and malls, torched electricity companies, municipal services buildings, the Thai Stock Exchange, provincial halls in areas outside of Bangkok, they shot at firefighters trying to put out fires in Siam, attacked TV stations and newspaper headquarters. After days of rioting, torching, and clashes with Army troops, much of my neighborhood, Victory Monument, Rajavithi Road and Din Daeng intersection in Bangkok, were reduced to rubble.

Peaceful demonstrations and violent uprisings

Our universe revolves around a cycle of creation—life is created and fades, energy is formed and consumed…

In my mind, as human actors in this reality, we have three modes of interaction with this system: production, consumption, and destruction. We create offspring, we distill and consume energy, we produce and consume things of value. Sometimes, we destroy life, or we destroy things of value, so that they are of no use to us or to anyone else.

War is destruction. Don’t let politicians fool you into believing war is about freedom. You don’t need to wage war on another society to become free, or to protect your freedom. Sometimes it is about securing resources for one nation’s future consumption, to someone else’ detriment (like all the US’ wars in the Middle East), but usually it is nothing but destruction.

I don’t condone governments that wage illegal wars. I don’t like seeing soldiers in the streets shooting people. I find all the “collateral damage” of conflict that lasts for decades despicable—the adverse effects on families and societies, the mines that kill and maim children thirty years later in places like Vietnam and Cambodia, for example.

But anti-establishment, anti-government movements are destructive too. They rise out of an opposition to injustice, or opposed to something they see as unethical, which are valid and good motivations. But all too often these groups—even the most organized forms of counterculture movements like Marxism and communism—tend to become as corrupt as the regimes they originally opposed. They use violence and destruction as a means to overthrow the existing systems and institutions.

“What is the point of anyone feeling proud of being the winner, when standing on a pile of ruins and rubble?” –King Rama IX of Thailand

As an aside: I am a capitalist, and until I find a better solution, I think I always will be. The capitalist free market is about both production and consumption. Businesses and entrepreneurs must create value—things and ideas of value—for others to consume. Yes, there are thousands of unethical businesspeople and corporations out there, but ethical entrepreneurs and corporations capitalize on whatever situation they find themselves in in the most effective way they can without causing hardship to those around them—in order to create the best possible outcome from their situation—creating jobs, income, products, services, and new ideas and solutions for problems that society faces.

In the last few months, there has been an interesting discussion unfolding in the online personal development and lifestyle design communities (see here and here, including the comments) about the merits (or lack thereof) of consumerism, pitting capitalist thinkers against anti-capitalist thinkers. But I don’t believe that solutions to the world’s problems—hunger, disease, poverty, war—are mutually exclusive from capitalism. Yes, we need to strive for a more ethical lifestyle design movement for example, and yes, the world deserves more ethical business. Definitely. But a radical abandoning of capitalism in favor of a radical leftist movement isn’t the answer. Anti-consumerism and anti-corporate attitudes aren’t really the answer, and in fact, while I agree with much of what my colleagues who hold those beliefs say, I think going too far down that road is dangerous.

The only way to create true positive change in the world is to find unconventional ways to work within the system, and change it from the inside out. You don’t create long-lasting positive progress with uprisings, by forcefully casting down the existing system, violently overthrowing the ruling elite, or the incumbent institutions. Once you spill blood, you forfeit your credibility entirely.

We are all participating in our own constructed fantasies, and none of us realize it. We are all trapped in prisons we cannot see.

Like Eric Schiller said in his recent critique of the lifestyle design and personal development communities, “the problem is not that we are participating in a fantasy, but the fact that we do not realize it is one.” We are the stories we tell ourselves.

Yes, I have my fantasies, and you have yours. But we need to take off the Che Guevara t-shirts. We need to stop idolizing the mythical “freedom fighters” without fully understanding the details of their lives. (Seriously, read about El Che and all the violent acts he committed before you put on that t-shirt again.) Rejecting consumerism and saying “fuck the system” like you’re Tyler Durden seems cool and trendy, until it leads to running around in ski masks blowing up Starbucks shops and financial buildings.

The protests in Thailand were largely bankrolled by someone very rich and very powerful, and I watched as these people were fed a certain story by protest leaders shouting propaganda over the radio every night for two months. I’m all for peaceful demonstrations, but you either stick to your principles or you don’t, and there’s a big difference when you incite an angry mob to violence. This was more like brainwashing, to the point that it became normal and acceptable to these people to come to Bangkok and destroy people’s businesses and homes, put their own children in harm’s way, kill their own countrymen in the street, and go back home to sleep in their own beds. (Please note: I don’t really support any side here, not the Redshirts, the Yellowshirts, the Army, or anyone. Everyone has some responsibility to take and I just hate seeing people killing each other.)

There is definitely a place for real heroism in the world, but we need to stop painting ourselves in the role of David against Goliath. Governments and people in positions of power use these types of stories to breed nationalism, racism, and hate, and pit us against each other. But if we believe these stories, we end up fighting each other in the street. Instead we must see reality for what it is, and stop believing these myths that it is “us” against “them”, “good” versus “evil”, that we are in some epic battle against injustice which justifies any means to an end.

Society has steeped itself in myths and ideologies about heroism and the fight for what is “right” for millenia—you see it in our stories, in our comic books, in our movies, you see it on television. It’s the reason why the US has occupied Iraq and Afghanistan for nearly a decade. It’s the reason why Christians, Jews, and Muslims continue to murder each other every day.

But the only way to peace and prosperity for everyone is through nonviolence, through rationality, and through conversation.

After being there in the middle of a so-called “people’s uprising” for two consecutive years—a socially- and economically-fueled revolt against the “system”, against the elite, against the people who pull the strings—all I can say is I don’t want any part of it. These things happen all the time, all around the world (we’re pretty sheltered in America). There certainly are important disparities and inequalities that need to be examined and resolved, but we must not sink to the same level of corruption and violence to solve the injustices in the world.

We must embrace rationality. This needs to happen at every level of society, all the way down to you and me. For lifestyle designers, personal development bloggers, and online marketers like us, perhaps we need to reexamine the language we use. We need to stop calling ourselves “radicals” and “revolutionaries” when we’re really not. We need to stop reinforcing the myths of “revolt against the system”. Because I think if you step back and ask yourself if you would truly want to be a part of a real revolution in the streets, I think your answer would be “no”.

We must destroy our idols. We mustn’t make our lives about what we are against, but make them all about what we are for. Whether you’re for liberating people from the cubicle, saving the environment, helping the oppressed and disadvantaged, or otherwise making the world a better place, we need to band together and focus not on destroying what we don’t like but on producing. On creating alternate solutions.

Photo sources:

• Protests turn deadly in Thailand – The Big Picture – Boston.com
• Crackdown in Bangkok – The Big Picture – Boston.com
• Bangkok Street Fighting Intensifies – Photo Essays – TIME
• Terror in Thailand – Photo Gallery – LIFE

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For all of the advantages of watching great sporting events from the comfort of your sofa, nothing can quite compare to witnessing top athletes compete to the highest levels of excellence in real life. Whether it’s watching the lightning pace of a 100-metre runner or the supreme skills of a daring football winger, experiencing sport at the actual event is a unique opportunity that should not be missed.

Here are five top sporting events you will definitely want to savour in person.

FIFA World Cup 2010 – South Africa

Image source

The 19th World Cup competition is shaping up to be an absolute belter. The first competition to be held on African soil is the most anticipated sporting event of the year. The usual bunch of contenders will be fighting for football’s most esteemed trophy including Brazil, Italy, Germany and Argentina. Who knows, England might even have a chance this year.

FIBA World Championships 2010 – Turkey

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If you want to see some of the greatest stars of the NBA play basketball but don’t fancy a travelling all over America, why not take a holiday to Turkey this year? 28 August sees the start of the International Basketball Federation World Championships, which this year will be held in the fabulous Eurasian country. Current Olympic champions, the USA have a point to prove against current holders Spain – this will be a spectacular event.

IRB Rugby World Cup 2011 – New Zealand

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The Rugby World Cup returning to New Zealand is like the Olympics coming back to Greece. Regardless of the origins of the game, no nation embodies rugby more than New Zealand, and the All Blacks will surely be favourites to lift the trophy on home turf. The 2011 World Cup will be the biggest sporting event ever held in New Zealand and a true spectacle to behold.

FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships 2011 – Italy

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Beach volleyball is just like normal volleyball but with sand and skimpier uniforms. The Beach Volleyball World Championships occur every two years and the venue for the 2011 tournament is Rome. America and China are the teams to watch, but there will be plenty of hot action from the likes of Brazil, Sweden and Norway also.

The 2012 Olympic Games – London

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Two years until London hosts the Olympic Games for the third time and already the anticipation is building to fever pitch. The excitement in England’s capital is palpable and the greatest congregation of outstanding athletes ever seen will be present for the 30th Games of the Olympiad. 43 world records were set in Beijing in 2008, and the 2012 Olympics will surely see more records smashed as athletes reach new heights of sporting supremacy.

Will you be attending any of the World Cup matches in South Africa or basketball Championships in Turkey this year?

Feature image by vramak.

You may not have a list of life goals all written down on paper. You probably keep an immediate to-do list, you might have some of your long-term life goals written down on scraps of paper or word doc lists on your computer here and there, but you know at the very least you have those things somewhere in the back of your mind.

I’ve challenged myself with yearly goals at the New Year in the last couple years, and I’ve mapped out plans for my businesses and different projects. I don’t frequently achieve everything on my lists, but as my friend Ramit says, if you’re not failing at a couple things each month, you’re not trying hard enough. And I’ve found that sharing those goals publicly gives me additional motivation and accountability to follow through, and sometimes friends and readers can offer words of advice, help, or partnership on some goals.

I’ve had some pieces of the puzzle in the works for a long time, but I hadn’t put together a comprehensive “bucket list” of things I want to do before I die until recently. It wasn’t until Sean Ogle recently wrote about bucket lists, and how to identify the most important life goals that will enable you to achieve the other items on your list—the travel goals, the possessions, the fun stuff—that I finally got motivated to really solidify my whole life list and put it out here to share with the world.

Several friends and bloggers have compiled great bucket lists that have helped inspire some of the things I decided to put on my list. There’s a mix of places I’d love to jet set, landmarks I’d like to see, adventures I’d like to have, experiences I hope to share with specific friends and family, and of course I immediately took Sean’s advice and prioritized the importance of the enabling goals that will make everything else possible.

So without further ado, here’s my bucket list—or, 75 adventures you can follow me on here at Thrilling Heroics:

Enabling Goals

1. Create an online business that creates over $3000/month in passive income.
2. Build a blog with 10,000+ subscribers.
3. Write an ebook or launch a digital product that earns $6000+.
4. Self-publish a book.
5. Achieve debt freedom.
6. Get an article published in the print edition of Esquire, GQ, Wired, Details, or Maxim magazine.
7. Leverage my blog audience to make a major positive impact in at least 10 peoples lives.
8. Speak at South by Southwest Interactive and stick around for the music festival in Austin, Texas.
9. Set up a corporation in Panama, Hong Kong, or Singapore(?).
10. Make at least $120K in a given year.
11. Get a second passport, and maybe a third too.
12. Complete my Personal MBA.
13. Attend an official TED Conference. (Already had the honor of helping plan the locally-organized TEDxBKK!)
14. Sell my photography and other creative artwork. (Working on it…)
15. Organize a lifestyle designer/blogger summit in Asia.

Adventures to Have & Things to Do

1. Learn to rock climb in Railay Beach, Krabi.
2. Climb up to the mountaintop Wat Tum Sua Tiger Cave Temple in Krabi.
3. Go to one of the Nikki Beach Clubs with Nikki Backpacker.
4. Learn to sail a catamaran.
5. Climb a volcano and see the Hindu temples in Bali, Indonesia.
6. Eat slow-roasted suckling pig in Bangkok’s Chinatown.
7. Spend a week with friends at Burning Man in the Nevada desert.
8. Go skydiving. Go skydiving again.
9. Learn to play guitar.
10. Achieve fluency in French & Spanish.
11. Get ripped with Derek Johansen’s Bond Body method.
12. Replace my morning coffee (and Red Bull) with Yerba Maté for at least a week.
13. Get a tattoo in memory of my late friend Chris Cravens, with a design by my best friend Patrick.
14. Take my dad to eat real Kobe beef at Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant CUT in Los Angeles.
15. Learn a whole lot more about my grandfather’s life before he leaves us.
16. Raise another dog. (Sadly, my family’s 14-year-old golden retriever passed away while I was abroad earlier this year.)
17. Take my best friend Patrick to a Daft Punk concert.
18. Share a beer with Carlos Miceli in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
19. Live abroad for at least 3 months in another part of the world (South America, another SEAsia country?).
20. Live in San Diego, California.
21. Work for a month at a winery—like, in the fields, growing grapes.
22. Drive the Pacific Coast Highway in a convertible Lamborghini.
23. See the Dali Lama give a talk in-person.
24. Camp under the stars on the beach and see the sun rise.
25. Have a classy three-piece band at my wedding reception.
26. Participate in the world’s biggest water fight during Thailand’s New Year’s festivities (Songkran).
27. Do a beach photoshoot with a swimsuit model.
28. Go to a shooting range and fire off a Kalashnikov rifle and a Desert Eagle .50 Action Express. More importantly, learn to disassemble & reassemble them.
29. Drive a Tesla Roadster.
30. Take a gondola along the Venice canals in Italy.
31. Ride camel back across the Sahara desert.
32. Take a Serengeti safari in Tanzania and Kenya.
33. Trek through the jungle on the back of an elephant.
34. See the view from the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris (twice).
35. See the view from the top of Corcovado Mountain in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
36. Take in the view at the Top of the Rock observation deck atop the GE Building in New York City.
37. Party on Ibiza for New Year’s Eve in Spain’s Ballearic Islands.
38. Go to the Glastonbury Festival in England and see Stonehenge.
39. Participate in the Brazilian Carnaval celebration.
40. Go to a Full Moon Party in Koh Phangan with Sean Ogle.
41. See what Mardi Gras and Voodoo Fest are all about in New Orleans, Louisiana.
42. Learn a martial art.
43. Learn to surf.
44. Learn to DJ or mix electronic music.
45. Own a Kawasaki or Yamaha motorcycle.
46. Buy and restore a 1965 or 1966 Shelby Mustang GT350.
47. Stay in an over-the-water bungalow in beautiful Bora Bora in the French Polynesian islands.
48. Spontaneously walk into the airport and randomly buy a same-day ticket to wherever looks appealing.
49. Drive the Amalfi coast near Sorrento, Italy.
50. Rent a villa on Lake Como or Lake Lugano with friends.
51. Own a small bar or restaurant with live music.
52. Leave any wealth or assets I have when I go out to people who really deserve and need them.

Places to Travel & Landmarks to See

1. The ancient temples at Angkor Wat, Cambodia
2. The Acropolis and Parthenon in Athens, Greece
   
3. The Sistine Chapel and Vatican City in Rome, Italy
4. The pyramids at Giza, Egypt
5. Machu Picchu in Peru
6. The home of the Oracle at Delphi, Greece
7. The Taj Mahal
8. The ancient city of Petra, carved into canyon walls in southern Jordan
9. The Karnak temple and the Valley of the Kings near Luxor, Egypt
10. The Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza near Cancun, Mexico
11. Iguazu Falls on the Argentina/Brazil border
12. The Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy
13. The Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
14. The Banaue Rice Terraces in the Philippines
15. The Borobudur stuppa in Java, Indonesia
16. Gorgeous Zion National Park, Utah
17. Niagara Falls lit up at night
18. Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet
19. Jerusalem’s Old City
20. The Hagia Sofia mosque in Istanbul, Turkey
21. The abbey of Mont-St-Michel in France

You’ll notice I’ve included a few things I’ve already accomplished. I’ve also taken Sean’s advice to have a few things that will be easier to achieve, and a few goals I can obtain in the very near future. I think when you make your own list it’s important to recognize the big things you’ve already done that you’d always dreamed of, and include a few “gimme” goals so you can start off strong and stay motivated.

Of course I expect that my feelings about some items on the list may change throughout the course of my life. I may not achieve everything, some of my goals will change, or I may add new items to the list. But, it’s a starting point and it’s something I can always refer back to to remind me what I want to accomplish.

Of course if there’s anything you can help me achieve, or something you want to join in on for example, leave a shout out and we’ll talk!

What’s on Your List?

Read Sean’s 10 Tips for Creating a Successful Bucket List, and his Bucket List Management tips, and also take a look at my lengthy breakdown of how to establish meaningful personal and professional goals for yourself in all the important realms of your life. It’s written to help you establish yearly goals, but the principles can be applied to building your own life goals list too.

If you have a bucket list already, share it. If not, take a look at the above articles and get on it! Your time here is short, so remember to value every day you have and make the most of it.

Featured image by divemasterking2000