Last week marked the 7th anniversary since I got on a plane with a 1-way ticket to Thailand…
…eventually to meet up with my good friend Dwight Turner, who now heads up Courageous Kitchen, a soon-to-be-official nonprofit organization here in Thailand dedicated to feeding and educating kids in need, which I hope to soon serve on the board of.
Please support Dwight with your word of mouth and your donations.
On November 27th, 2008, I took a flight from California to Bangkok.
Only, half-way to my destination, on my layover in Beijing, I was stopped.
The yellow shirt political protesters had shut down Bangkok’s international airport, and the Chinese authorities wanted to turn me around and send me back home.
But I told the agent, I’m not on vacation, I’m moving overseas.
I was on a journey, and I wasn’t about to let the first little hiccup stop me and send me back to my “safe” normal existence back home.
After 3 hours of negotiations with the immigration officers, I managed to finagle a 24-hour visa for the People’s Republic, got a backup ticket to Hong Kong for the next day, and set about searching for alternate routes into Thailand in case the political hijacking in Bangkok didn’t clear up by the following day.
And it didn’t.
For 10 days they occupied Suvarnabhumi Airport.
But on the afternoon of November 29th, I finally landed in Phuket, Thailand, with a new itinerary. I made my very first Thai friends the next morning.
And it has been a non-stop joyride of crazy stories and misadventures ever since. Most of it still untold.
But I’ll be fixing that soon, as I’m in talks with a friend, Guy Vincent at Publishizer, who’s encouraged me to finally write my book.
You can expect to hear much more from me here over the coming months as I try to improve my writing chops and finally start sharing some of the never-before-told stories, so sign up here for my email updates if you’re interested.
I’ll be experimenting and launching several ambitious projects in the next year, so I hope to have many of you along for the ride.
I’m always looking for ways to connect amazing people together, inspire new ideas, and creatively match complimentary skills, resources, and people with like-minded vision to accomplish greater things. And now I’m on the sincere hunt for Real-Life Heroes to profile and learn from, to share their accomplishments with the world and show people what’s possible.
I’ve recently re-committed to my personal development, to scaling up my business, bringing everything I do much more into alignment with what I’m truly about, and expanding my vision for what’s possible.
I’ve brought together an incredible 3-month business challenge MasterMind group, and I’m launching Thrilling Heroics into something much larger, tentatively called The HERO Project.
With MANY many big thanks to Tim Ferriss, I’ve been reassured we’ll actually have some kind of motivational video from Arnold Schwarzenegger!
Yes, for real, we have a video on its way from the California Governator, Mr. Olympia, the man who killed the Predator, the Terminator himself!
And in late January, we will gather in-person for an entrepreneur MasterMind in paradise, in Krabi, Thailand, where we’ll have ex-Marine and SWAT trainer Michael Eichenberg on board with us to provide 2 days of James Bond-style training with his escape, evade & survival training workshop, as well as all the normal island hopping and adventure recreation we provide, as we spend 10 days/9 nights in lux accommodation with a small, hand-picked group of accomplished fellow entrepreneurs on my favorite beaches I’ve found in 35 countries so far!
Exactly where all of this will take us, who knows at this point! But I have many lofty goals to bring entrepreneurial education, mentorship, and motivational empowerment to young people around the globe, and particularly to ambitious creatives in the developing world.
7 Years in Tibet… I mean…
I was down on the islands last week celebrating a good friend’s 30th birthday with about 45 fellow friends and colleagues, and I spent a week trying to brainstorm something clever about what I’ve learned over the years living all around Thailand, and across 7 other countries on 4 continents.
Maybe it was just too much fun hanging out at Beach Republic with the whole resort booked out with our friends, with our own DJ, and keg parties every day!
Or maybe you’ll just have to wait for my book. Frankly, the lessons I’ve learned from seven years of travel and learning about other cultures is just too much to boil down into some petty click-bait listicle.
Instead it seemed like a great occasion to re-publish the below article for you here, originally from my colleague Danny Flood, from an interview we did for his new Open World Magazine, actually over 2 years ago now, before I had my son.
I’d say it still very accurately captures what I’m about. The major difference is that I’ve become a father now (which is a BIG difference, but I’ll save those lessons for another time).
Please check out their IndieGoGo campaign and support this newly-launching magazine for entrepreneurs and explorers. For now, here’s Danny Flood:
How to Be a Digital Nomad: Cody McKibben Teaches you How to Live your Dream, Gain Powerful Mentors, and Transform Your Life Anyway you Want
Cody McKibben from ThrillingHeroics.com is a location-independent entrepreneur and permanent round-the-world traveler from California who is dedicated to living the life of freedom forever. After two of his best friends passed away in 2004, Cody decided that life was too short to waste. He quit his job, started his own freelance business, moved to Southeast Asia and has been hopping from adventure to adventure, traveling from place to place and living the high life ever since.
Ron Davison, author of The Fourth Economy, calls Cody a “finalist in the world’s most interesting man contest for three years running.”
Cody and his writing has been featured in CNN Travel, BBC, ABC News, Business Insider, Fox Business, the Huffington Post, NYTimes.com, and the Washington Post… not to mention hundreds of blogs and other websites.
What makes Cody a bit special and unique is that he has created a “bootcamp” called the Digital Nomad Academy, where he and his team of coaches give hand-held instruction to help people create lifestyle businesses that support them from anywhere.
The reason I wanted to speak with Cody in particular is because he knows EVERYBODY within the “Digital Nomad” community of “New Rich” who live the mobile lifestyle, working from their laptops remotely. He’s the “connector” and knows probably more successful lifestyle designers, remote workers, and “digital nomads” then probably anyone else.
When I first met Cody in Chiang Mai, Thailand, he was a sort of ringleader, an organizer who hosted events and mixers, bringing together all of the “digital nomads” – entrepreneurs that were living and traveling in Thailand at the time. Inspired by his example, I began hosting popular dinner parties for entrepreneurs in Bangkok every other week. The associations and strong relationships that developed as a result proved invaluable.
Cody and I recently got together on Skype and talked for about an hour, and I picked his brain. He shared a bit of his backstory and told me how he went from zero (disgruntled salaried employee) to location-independent hero. He shared some simple, effective network-building techniques that can catapult any person to success in any path they choose.
Cody’s Four-Step Path to Success
The path that Cody took to realize success as a “digital nomad” is a linear step-by-step process. It takes a lot of hustle, but it’s one that anyone can follow.
Step 1 – The first step lies in having an honest conversation with yourself.
All successful people I talk to believe this to be true: what you align your efforts towards must be deeply aligned with your core. If you’re not sure what you stand for, and you don’t have the passion for what you’re doing, then it’s going to be very hard to persuade both others and your own self to get behind you. You’ll need to win over the forces that will support your cause, and to do that requires authenticity and a strong sense of purpose. The reason many people are unhappy with their situation is because they haven’t taken the time to have this conversation.
Anthony Robbins, in Awaken the Giant Within, offers this outlook:
“I often ask people who complain about their jobs, ‘Why did you go to work today?’ Their answer usually is, ‘Because I had to.’ You certainly don’t have to go to work. You can decide to do something else, something new, today. If you truly decide to you can do almost anything.”
Many times, people need to be “shook up” in order to be honest with themselves. In Cody’s case, he received a “wake-up call” when his best friend passed away and decided he had to make the most of each day. He began to seek out his idea of “freedom” in earnest. As Cody puts it, freedom to him meant escaping 40 years of servitude in a cubicle, and having the ability to support himself remotely while hanging out on the beach in Thailand – which he did, for two years.
Cody was able to transform deep desire into a strong defining “purpose,” which guided him. It drove him to overcome the inevitable obstacles and draw to his side forces that could help him – in the form of the resources he immersed himself in, and the relationships he would go on to establish.
So take some time to think about what it is that you truly want while you’re here on this planet. What gets you fired up? It must be something that you’d be willing to invest massive effort towards. Then begin taking action now.
Step 2 – Start looking for successful mentors to model yourself after.
A great mentor gets you on the inside “fast track” whenever you want to switch course and develop skills, experience, and clientele in a new career. When it comes to finding a mentor you simply cannot aim high enough. They are always easy to find – just look around online. Anyone who is anyone has an online presence. A nice alternative to a general search engine that you can try is Follower Wonk. You can click “Search Twitter bios” and find the most influential individuals in any field. Or search the “Blogs” category on Google.
Cody aimed high, and found a mentor that had a profound formative effect on him in serial-entrepreneur and multiple-time author Rajesh Setty. He started reading Setty’s blog, and began making contact with him, commenting on his posts and eventually sending a thoughtful, personalized message.
Interestingly, Setty, who would become his first mentor, client, and advocate, often blogged about the topic of relationship-building himself. This brings up a fascinating point that many people overlook or don’t fully appreciate: successful people are ALSO looking to network and build relationships with people just like you and me. It’s lonely at the top, and besides: chances are 99% they didn’t achieve the things they have by going it alone. In My Life in Advertising the author Claude Hopkins also gives a quote that I love: “A man who has made a success desires to see others make a success.”
Step 3 – Provide a ton of value
One day, Setty asked Cody if he had any friends who knew how to build WordPress websites. It turned out he didn’t at the time (2006ish), so Cody went ahead and taught himself. He offered Setty his help for free, worked hard on the project, and deeply impressed Setty. Setty would go on to hire Cody for a number of other projects, and supply him with a large chain of referrals.
Thanks to Setty’s help, Cody was able to get new clients all the time. He booked a ticket to Southeast Asia and didn’t look back. But it was Cody that took the initiative to make Setty’s assistance possible. If you want to be successful, it’s always your responsibility to take the initiative. He took it upon himself to develop a highly marketable skill, by teaching himself WordPress and web development. He was now able to offer something that was valuable, and support himself as a result.
Step 4 – Build on his early success and momentum.
Cody started a blog that resonated with his mission and deep desire, and began writing content about everything he was learning. He started looking out to other bloggers whom he admired and started building all kinds of relationships. Thanks to his blog content he became known as a “trusted source” when it came to location-independent working and traveling. From this authority and these relationships he was then able to spin off his own successful web-based business as a result, which became the Digital Nomad Academy.
The rest is history. Cody actualized his dream lifestyle through this simple process. He decided what he truly wanted in life (and set goals), found a highly successful mentor, gave his mentor value in the form of an in-demand skill that he offered for free, then built on his momentum to become a respected leader in his own right. The process may be simple, but Cody showed up each day, worked hard, and deserves all the success he’s enjoyed as as result.
Just Do It. Start. Now.
The surest way to be successful, bar none, is to associate with successful people. That’s because successful, effective people are the types who create opportunities. During our interview I asked Cody if he had any “secrets” to build a powerful network that he could share. Cody said “Do it. Just do it.” There’s no secret ingredient, and it doesn’t require you to have any special brains, unique talents or a degree. You just need to find individuals whom you admire, decide how you can give value to that person, and offer it to them. Simply taking the initiative to reach out is half the battle.
There are a couple points that I’d like to add.
The first is that Cody aimed high when he was starting out. I think that when too many people start out they don’t aim high enough when it comes to mentors, clients, or companies that they’re willing to work for. For example, too many college graduates aim for “low-hanging fruit” and end up working in unimportant positions that don’t really get them any where. And guess what? That’s where most of the competition is, also. If you try responding to ads on Craigslist and job boards your e-mail will be mixed up within those of two hundred other people. And guess what? Those jobs suck.
There’s less competition for “high-hanging fruit,” and you’ll go a lot further, faster. So when choosing a mentor, make the extra effort to find the most successful person possible.
Second, as mentioned in “Step 3” above, Cody developed a highly in-demand skill. It took a bit of a learning curve, but it was something that few other people knew how to do. Here’s the reality of the situation: if your resume lists your proficiencies in Microsoft Office, then you need to burn it and start over. You’re not going to impress anyone with your ability to create word documents or organize spreadsheets. You have to learn real skills, and you’re probably going to have to teach yourself.
Want an example of a real skill or two? How about software and mobile app development? There’s an enormous demand for developers who know Ruby on Rails for developing software apps, or Cocoa for developing iPhone apps.
These are new skills and not necessarily easy to learn, but the simple fact that they’re rare means that demand exceeds supply. And freelancers who can perform these development services are crushing it right now.
All Mastery Follows the Same Path: My Story
While writing this article I realized that several years ago, I had unwittingly followed a path similar to Cody’s. During the years I was 18-23, I had absolutely no idea where to go with my life, and busied myself seeking answers. I had always been a problem child. I think I got kicked out four schools by the time I’d reached sixth grade. In fifth grade they wanted to put me on Ritalin. My father wouldn’t let them.
Somehow I just didn’t fit in to the system. I was not living my life aligned with my core, and for years frustration and doubt were my companions.
While serving a stint in the US Army, I was introduced to different religions and began reading a lot of philosophical books, such as Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzche. I began to question my religious upbringing. I felt like when I went to church each Sunday I was being told what to believe rather than choosing for myself. I was reciting creeds and hymns that had virtually no meaning to me.
So I entered into a “spiritual renaissance:” I studied Buddhism, went to meditation and Yoga classes, and read works like the Tao Te Ching and the Quran. During that time I “grew into myself” and learned what my values were, so I could live true to them.
I was also knee-deep in personal development, studying anything I could get my hands on. When I was 23 I made a key mentor in the form of a famous hypnotist and “mind scientist” by the name of Eric Von Sydow, aka “Hypnotica.” He was one of the characters in the best-selling book, The Game, under the handle “Rasputin.” Eric is known as the “Inner Game Guru” for his work on shattering self-limiting beliefs within the human mind.
I reached out to Eric through Facebook because he mentioned he needed some help with video editing and graphic design work and we met a few days later. I was eager to help in any way I can. I think I only made about $15 an hour or so.
But we became tight very quickly, and I kept offering value to him in any way I could. In exchange, he began opening doors for me and taught me A TON of important things. He gave me free access to a 4-day weekend bootcamp that he and a few other coaches were holding called the “Becoming a Powerful Man Workshop.” If I recall, they were charging AT LEAST $3,000 USD, and I got in for free.
Anyway, my life changed course as a result of Eric’s mentoring. To start, he rattled my cage and shook up my belief about what is actually possible. I developed a MUCH greater sense of self-worth – not in an arrogant way, but in a way that made me demand more of myself. I learned how to draw upon the inner strength of my mind and soul to accomplish more. To this day, I still use many of the personal development and mind performance techniques that Eric and his circle taught me through their private trainings.
This all came as a result of my strong desire to immerse myself in the subject of personal development, and the effort to make this valuable connection.
Interestingly, Eric told me something one day that I won’t forget. He said there were a lot of guys who wanted to learn from him and get the kind of training that he offered. But the thing is, none of them did anything about it. They didn’t put in any effort to reach out and build a relationship with him. “But you did,” he told me.
If you take the initiative half the battle is already won. So just do it.
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Remember to support Danny Flood and his OpenWorld Magazine IndieGoGo campaign.
Please stay tuned as I start to share the lessons I’ve learned over these last several years, through successes and failures, through business and travels, and now fatherhood. You can either subscribe to my email updates here, or join our little (but growing) Facebook group for aspiring Heroes.
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Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Lessons Learned After 7 Years Living Abroad