Last week I read a news story about a pharmaceutical company called Valeant. They had just announced the acquisition of an eye health company called Bausch and Lomb. The cost of the deal: $8.7 billion dollars. By anyone’s measure, the deal is a risk. When you plan to spend billions of dollars to buy a […]
How I Saved Up $10,000 to Fund My Travels
When I reached my early 20s, I saw something I thought I’d never see. My bank account rolled over into five digits as I passed the $10,000 mark for the first time. I rarely tell people this because I don’t want to come off as boastful. I’m saying this now because a lack of money […]
Finding the Beauty in Everyday Life
Sometimes the bad parts of the world seem so overwhelming. There are so many sad and depressing things going on in the news. People are killing other people, a natural disaster is destroying someone’s home or the economy is back in the dumps. Even outside of the news, I see sad things. Every day I […]
The Goal of Learning Everything
You might be surprised to read this, but one of the first goals I ever wrote when I created my first bucket list was to “learn everything”. It’s certainly an ambitious goal – impossible even. With all the information out in the world, learning everything would probably take several lifetimes. And that’s assuming you could […]
9 Ways to Be Unremarkable
We all want to stand out from the crowd. Even Oliver Wendell Holmes was once quoted as saying, “Nothing is more common than the wish to be remarkable.” Still there are some common pitfalls to avoid when standing out. They’re ones we’ve all been guilty of from time to time. I’d be lying if I […]
Developing an Adventurous Mindset: Loving Fear and Uncertainty
A few years ago, when I was preparing to travel to Belize, a friend of mine asked me what my plans for the trip were. Specifically she wanted to know if I had a place to stay arranged before I arrived. When I told her no, she was aghast. What would I do if I […]
Why Couldn’t it be You?
“I would never be able to do that.” “I don’t have what it takes to get there.” These are some of the excuses I hear from people who tell me they aren’t able to do things others are doing. For some reason, they see an insurmountable barrier between themselves and these people. But one important […]