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A World of Inspiration

The Day Before the Jump | A World Domination Road Trip Update

by Matt 6 Comments

The Famous Troll of Seattle
Making Friends with the Famous Troll of Seattle

Today is Thursday, June 2nd. This means that tomorrow at 10 am, Karla and I will be jumping out of a plane. I can’t say that either of us are nervous right now but I know tomorrow morning is going to be full of those light-stomach butterfly-type feelings.

Although I’ve jumped out of a plane before, it doesn’t get much easier the second time. It’s still a freefall from 13,000 feet with a backpack and a parachute. I think I’m more excited this time since I know a little bit about what to expect. For Karla, it will be her first time so she will be getting a video made of this fantastic experience. When she’s not looking, I’ll upload it for you to see.

Tomorrow will also mark a week since we left with our best car gadgets for the World Domination Road Trip. It’s been a wet journey after leaving Calgary during torrential downpours and bringing it with us most of the way. Luckily we enjoyed little rain for a day or two in Vancouver and Seattle, allowing us to walk around downtown and catch some sights. It was cool sipping a coffee in the first-ever Starbucks before touring the alleys to find the Seattle Gum Wall.

The Couchsurfing experience has been pretty incredible thus far. Our first night was last Friday in Kelowna where we were greeted by a great couple, their friends, and some delicious crepes. The next day, I wanted to stop for some mini golf at Scandia to bring back nostalgic feelings from when I was a little kid. It was also Karla’s first time playing and Scandia is a great place to do it.

Although I didn’t get to see a hockey game in Vancouver, we were able to spend 3 nights with a good friend of mine from college. We visited some great parks, walked around downtown, and took the ferry over to North Vancouver to check out the neat little market.

After spending some good times with my buddy Mike, we then hit the road for Seattle, stopping only after the border to videotape Karla’s first time in the U.S.A. We hit Seattle around 3:30pm and found some parking near the space needle. Since it was a sunny day, we knew we had to take advantage. This was a great choice because rain was moving in the next day. [Read more…] about The Day Before the Jump | A World Domination Road Trip Update

Sometimes You Just Need to Jump

by Matt 2 Comments

sometimes you just need to jump out of a plane

How I Became a Movie Star (and How You Can too)

by Matt 3 Comments

kankered movie

Okay. Me becoming a movie star might be a bit of an exaggeration but I did make it into a full length student film as a leading character. It was an awesome experience. I met some cool new people, got to live out a dream of acting in a comedy movie, and literally had to push all the girls off me. Okay, the last part isn’t true but everything else is.

And it all started by pushing my boundaries and stepping outside my comfort zone.

I’ve always had an interest in acting, probably due to being a Leo who likes the spotlight, but haven’t really given it much attention besides acting as an extra in some productions a few years back. Then one day I found myself looking through “Acting” ads on kijiji. Most were garbage but I stumbled across one that was asking for a lead actor in a full length student movie. I immediately began to imagine what a great experience this would be. It was a chance to have a lot of lines in a movie and gain some experience.

There was one problem though. I needed to audition. I had never auditioned before and it made me nervous to go into a room with people and act out lines from a script with no acting experience behind me. I knew it wasn’t going to be as “hard-core” with students as it would be with a professional shoot but I still didn’t want to look stupid.

I told myself I had to do it. What were my chances of ever seeing an opportunity like this again. It could be my last chance. I had spoke in front of 50 people before. I had jumped out of a plane and leaped off a bridge. I managed to travel 5 months solo throughout Australia and Indonesia.

I had to do it. I sent them an email and told them I would come audition. Next thing you know, I’m “Alex” in the movie “Kankered”.

Despite some mishaps (like continuously losing actors who weren’t taking it seriously), it took about a month (30 days of acting) to get all the shots done before it moved on to the voiceover and editing phases. We had a blast taking outdoor shots while trying to avoid the police, spending a day in the woods with werewolves and ninjas, partying at fake parties, breaking into a house, and joining a hot tub party where a friend was kidnapped by a hot girl who wanted his baby.

The director, Nick, is now in Vancouver Film School having “Kankered” edited and ready for film festivals. Despite its lack of budget, it came out looking really good. It’s got a ton of coarse language and immature sexual innuendoes so it’s only for those who like “R” rated Superbad-type movies, which means grandmothers may not approve.

Check out the trailer below. [Read more…] about How I Became a Movie Star (and How You Can too)

A Virtual Hello, Japan, and Baby Octopus Lollipops

by Matt 15 Comments

Kyoto Japan with Matthew G. Bailey
Wakato, Keiko, and myself

Back in September 2010, I enrolled myself in Unique Genius, a course aimed at helping people find their passions, build them into a business, and make money doing what they love. Before I enrolled, I actually met the founder, Aaron Ross, while traveling to Los Angeles for a JCI (Junior Chamber International) conference. Aaron lives in Santa Monica and after learning about his business through Jonathan Mead, I sent him an email asking if he would be down for meeting up when I was there. Aaron agreed and after figuring out the mess that is L.A. transit, I wound up in Santa Monica sipping hot chocolate and Cappuccinos at a local cafe while talking to Aaron about my plans for online business.

A couple months into the program, I was also planning a trip to Japan to attend the JCI World Congress which featured more than 100 countries and 11,000+ inspiring people from all over the world. While planning my trip, I was scanning the forums in Unique Genius and came across a message from a guy in Japan. I immediately replied and told him that I was going to be visiting Japan and could potentially meet up. Wakato (the guy who had wrote the message) quickly replied back saying he would love to meet.

But it wasn’t just an email from Wakato I received. I also received another email from a guy in Tokyo who noticed our conversation in the forum. He wanted to meet up as well. Awesome! I now had 2 people I could meet while in Japan. Wakato was living near Okayama and Trond (the other person) was living right in Tokyo. I told them that I had 6 days to myself and would figure out a way to meet both of them.

Most expensive mushroom in the world
Most expensive mushroom in the world?

I still remember leaving Hiroshima to Okayama and meeting Wakato and his wife Keiko. With such friendly enthusiasm, they brought me to the ancient city of Kyoto. I couldn’t believe how friendly, generous, and accommodating they were. Not only did they escort me around Kyoto and beautiful ancient temples, they also treated me to a huge traditional Japanese dinner and dessert. It was definitely the best and most unusual meal I had while in Japan. I remember one of the soups having a special mushroom that costs $80 per mushroom! This explains why my soup had just a tiny piece of one. We got to talk about the Unique Genius program and how Wakato spent 4 years at a New York University. No wonder his english was so good! After this, we walked around a fish market looking at all the odd creatures available to eat. I remember walking by one stand that had baby octopus lollipops. Boiled baby octopus stuck on a stick. I thought it looked gross (and funny) so I just walked by. But as I began walking around, the temptation to put myself out there and try this rare looking food made me go back. I had never seen anything that looked so odd. A baby octopus lollipop. Wakato brought me back and both of us ate one for the first time. It actually wasn’t to bad. A little rubbery but overall, not bad at all.

After bidding farewelll, I made my way to the north. But before going to Tokyo, I stopped near Mt.Fuji to spend 2 nights with Mochan, a guy I had met through couchsurfing.org (more on that in another post). After 2 amazing nights with people from all over the planet, I finally made it to Tokyo for one short night. I was greeted by a tall businessman just outside the train station who happened to be Trond. Trond was actually from Norway but had been living and working in Tokyo for 15 years. He was also the president of a recycling company trying to break into Japan. Impressive.

Just getting off work, Trond treated me to a really fancy Japanese dinner at a local place where the likes of past-president Kennedy would eat when he came to Tokyo. As if this wasn’t enough already, Trond also pulled out a couple gifts he had bought for me. One was a book on the crazy new-age Tokyo culture, and the other was a book on the more traditional zen culture of Japan. He then brought me to an Indian restaurant owned by one of his friends. We ended up having a second dinner while Trond explained his new online business plan to me. Other then trying to stop by stomach from exploding, I was super inspired by the business model Trond unfolded before me and also impressed with the amazing naan bread and curry I had just gobbled down.

Tokyo Capsule Hotel
The top one is my bed

It was now getting late and Trond had to get back to his family. Before heading back, he quickly brought me to Tokyo’s famous human intersection and to the train station that would take me to the capsule hotel I was so excited about. Trond then offered to pay for a hotel (he thought I would be more comfortable) which I had to kindly decline. Not only was I stuck on the experience of a capsule hotel but I felt almost bad for receiving such a gift. I just couldn’t believe the kindness and generosity Trond showed me. And just moments after, when I thought Trond couldn’t be any more generous then he already had, I mentioned to him that I only had credit cards on me. Uh oh, this is a problem in Japan. Trond told me credit cards are very rarely accepted in Japan and I could only get cash from machines at 7/11. Rather than send me searching at midnight, Trond gave me $100 to get me through a couple of days until I found an international bank machine. I was so thankful and told him I would send it back to him via paypal as soon as I could.

I then said bye, sat down on the train, and thought about the amazing person that I just met. I was truly astonished by the kindness I was shown, both from Trond and Wakato (and Keiko). I was just a stranger who said “hello” via email. Next thing you know, I’m eating a fancy dinner in Tokyo with the president of a company and eating a traditional Japanese meal next to an ancient temple with a Japanese local.

Wow.

After 30 minutes, I arrived at my capsule hotel, excited to see one for my first time and also excited to sleep. I awkwardly stumbled my way through the check-in process and found my “coffin-in-a-wall” that would be my bed. It actually wasn’t bad at all. It had its own T.V. (which I didn’t watch), a built-in alarm clock and radio, and a little curtain at your feet for extra privacy. I pulled out my trusty earplugs, nestled into the blankets, thought about the inspiring people I met over the last 6 days, and went to sleep.

Japan was such a great trip. I met these wonderful people above, some awesome people via couchsurfing, and partied with 11,000 people from over 100 countries during the JCI World Congress. Japan became yet another addition to my memories of a lifetime and continued to remind me why I love travel, love meeting people, and why I will continue chasing adventure for the rest of my life.

It also reminded me of why I absolutely love saying “hello” to new people and why it really is the most important word in the world. It opens up all the possibilities in the world.

 

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New Series – The Most Important Word in the World

by Matt 5 Comments

Elephant park, Indonesia
New Friends in Indonesia

 

I’m so excited for this series to start.

It all began with a post I wrote a few weeks back about a time when I said “hello” to strangers in Indonesia and ended up having a great adventure with them. Lots of people said that they loved that post and I started to think of all the times I’ve had adventures from simply greeting other travelers. I wanted to inspire people to open themselves up to meeting new people and forming new relationships and potential adventures. Then I thought, how cool would it be to gather stories from other bloggers and travelers who have experienced this as well.

I wanted to hear all the amazing stories that people have from when they stepped out of the box and met some new friends.

I reached out to 7 awesome people to get the ball rolling. Each of them enthusiastically agreed to participate and thought it was a great idea.

The series was born. It starts this friday!

Each blogger will post their story on their blog at certain times over the next week or two. Each story will be about a time when they said “hello” to a stranger which then turned into an awesome adventure or a great friendship.

If you want to read these inspiring stories, just follow along by watching the “series page” or following me on twitter. Each time someone posts their story, I will link to it on the series page and tweet it over twitter. You can also like A World of Inspiration on Facebook and watch the wall, or subscribe to A World of Inspiration so you can stay updated all the time.

The following bloggers are part of this series:

Earl Baron of Wandering Earl

Matt Koenig of 1 Year Sabbatical

Rob Nights of Beyond Norms

Amy Scott of Nomadtopia

Niall Doherty of Disrupting the Rabblement

Robyn James of The Dropout Diaries

Steve Bloom of Do Something Cool

and of course, yours truly.

I can’t wait to read these great stories. Thanks to everyone involved and I hope you all feel the inspiration from the amazing stories we’re sure to read.

Do you have a great story of a time when you said “hello” to a stranger and it turned into a wicked adventure or a great friendship?

Inspire me by subscribing for free updates! 

You hate spam and so do I. That’s why you’ll never see it from me.

 

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Zero to 100: Healthy Doses of Creativity, Money, and Freedom

by Matt 6 Comments

This is a quick introduction to a new project I’ve started working on.

It’s called zero to 100 and it’s about me challenging myself to go from zero income to $100,000 per year.

However, I don’t want to just aimlessly chase $100,000 a year. If the goal was simply to make $100K by any means necessary, I would just delete this post, go get a job at an oil company in my hometown, and start making $100K instantly.

The $100K I am aiming for is going to be from doing things I enjoy, feeding my entrepreneurial spirit, and making it through online sources so that it gives me the location independence thats needed for my big passion: travel.

This is both a very hard and intense goal considering I have never made that much money before and that I’m starting from scratch. Even though $100K is quite easy to earn where I am from, it’s not the type of job I would want to do for the rest of my life. Creating $100K on your own is much more difficult but much more rewarding. The actual goal with this project is to make a great amount of money doing things that I enjoy, finding and enhancing my strengths, and having the freedom and location independence to travel, have adventures, and spend time with friends and family.

Zero to 100 also stands for attaining 100% satisfaction with myself and everything I do. In other words, I want to be 100% happy with what I do in work and life. I want to be creative and develop my ideas into something special. I want to feel that my key strengths and passions are blended together to create something wonderful.

As time goes on, It may develop into a site of it’s own but for now I have decided to write about it on A World of Inspiration and let you decide if you like it and/or think it can blend in with AWOI.

At the beginning I will likely be focused on creating some passive income (at least enough to cover basic expenses), searching for strengths and passions, building relationships and mentorship opportunities, and also thinking about bigger legacy type projects that will really leave some lasting impressions on those involved. In fact, zero to 100 is a legacy project because it will literally teach you about all the things I mention above.

What makes zero to 100 cool for you?

  • You can literally watch someone (me) go step-by-step from earning zero per month to earning lots of money per month. I am a beginner with very little experience which means if I can do it, so can you. My only online experience thus far is primarily with A World of Inspiration. I’m going to focus on making enough money to be comfortable but have given it a goal of $100K to be exciting and big enough to keep the motivation going for as long as this takes. I am also aligning the goal with the type of lifestyle I want and you should do the same. In my case, I want to enjoy what I do and have the freedom to travel as I please.
  • You can learn from my many mistakes that I am sure to make and read my reviews/attempts of many different ways to make money online. You can see what tools, books, or different things I use to make things happen. I am also going to interview online entrepreneurs along the way and write about various ways to find or build upon your passions and hobbies. I won’t involve myself in all the ways of making money online or that would just get crazy.
  • You can create your own zero to 100. As you follow along, you can pick and choose what you think works for you, try it out, and join a group of like-minded people who are trying to achieve the same thing. One big giant mastermind group.

What do you think of this new project?

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