I can list plenty of reasons why traveling is awesome, not the least of which is the excitment of adventure and the unseen. However there is one subtle reason that is not very apparent. I noticed recently that whether im flipping through a magazine or browsing online, i automatically gravitate and pay much more attention to the articles that relate to the countries and locales i have visited. An example you say? Sure, here is a good one: yesterday i read the paper and from a bunch of articles i read i remember most clearly the articles about Singapore’s prime minister and Northeast Brazil’s ascension in regional progress and wealth. This applies to all other places i was fortunate to have visited.
I think this is a positive byproduct, a legacy of travel and can definitely be used as an excuse to travel more (for those needing one). Traveling and seeing new places makes you aware of complexicity and existence of faraway locations much more than reading about it or even watching a film. Experiences you bring from there make you see new information through a different, a more relevant, lens. Why do i write about this? I think this is an important motivation to travel and see more, experience more of the world unseen and start to better understand the role you play in the world. But wait… maybe the gravitational interest toward these faraway places is what brought us there in the first place?
“There are lots of useful things we can do to rearrange daily life in the USA that would put people to work, but they would tend to defy the status quo. We could recognize that peak oil means that we have to grow our food differently and make local agriculture a more up-front piece of the economy. We could rebuild the railroads so that people don’t have to drive everywhere. We could rebuild our inland ports to move more bulk freight on boats. Notice these are very straightforward activities, unlike the manipulation of financial paper and markets. We’re not interested in focusing on agriculture and transport reform. Business and political interests are arrayed against changing anything. Something’s got to give.” — James Howard Kunstler (via azspot)
(via newleft)
Crossing border from MN to Iowa (Taken with Instagram at Minnesota / Iowa border)
StartupBus began with a premise that if you put sharp people on the bus, including all associated constraints, interesting things come out of it. Last year it was one bus with dreamers that come from distant parts of USA but also UK and Australia. The dreamers kept dreaming and today, a year later, 6 buses hit the road at around 7am in their respective timezones. Equipped with determination to find new ideas to improve or build technology that will help the world, these buspreneurs have witnessed yet again how hard work and goodwill prevails. Yesterday people bussed, flew and drove to Chicago from surrounding states including, Iowa, Minnesota, Indiana, and Arkansas. To kick things off Lightbank hosted a launch party in one of Chicago’s poster child (aka Groupon) offices, where buspreneurs met some of the founders in Lightbank’s portfolio of companies. This set the tone nicely for the event showing buspreneurs what is possible with determination and right mix of tech prowess and execution. In fact, having spent a few months in the valley, I was clearly seeing how midwest attitude was enmeshed in the way businesses are done here. Quite a few of Lighbank’s portfolio founders were non-technical founders; men and women with vision, persistence and ability to identify the needs and address them with the right solution - were closing funding rounds to rival those in the valley. In contrast on the west coast - focus is spotlighted heavily on technical founders and other skills are looked down upon.
Day 1 on the bus picked up speed fast with only one stop Wisconsin Dells (not really… looking at you Mikey). We hit St. Paul, MN by 5pm where tables were set and power outlets were dusted off for buspreneurs at CoCo Coworking & Collaboration space.
People were down to earth, food and drinks were aplenty with enough wifi to share for everybody. ProjectSkyway, a new incubator footed the bill for food and drinks. They have an unconventional approach to funding entrepreneurs, which again confirmed my previous observation about the no-nonsense, midwestern attitude toward business founders’ background. Unlike most other incubators, they fund single founders and they supply them with technical employees that help execute the business. We had a great time and it was thanks to a real warm reception of all people at CoCo and ProjectSkyway.
As conductor of the Chicago bus I am confident that we’ll put on a real fight to show both coasts (NYC and Silicon Valley) that midwest has talent to match.
Highlights from today: Wired article on StartupBus | Pitches at CoCo | StartupBus Stock Market Game - go invest in startups as they are being created.
Photo credit: Wired - people on the San Francisco/Silicon Valley buses
“Find purpose. The means will follow.” — Mahatma Gandhi