If you checked out 60 Days in Las Vegas – Part 2 you will know that I was answering some timely questions sent in from someone following my bike ride. The following question was also asked by Simon and as you can see from the length of the answer it required a post all by it’s self.
Question #4 What was your motivation to start documenting your adventure(s) in the formats you do?
This is a great question and there is a lot of motivation and thought that has gone into why I am documenting my adventure the way I am.
To create context quickly and to the point. I am a 47 year old unemployed truck driver that has no plans to ever get into a truck again. It was a great job but that was then and this is now. I have other ambitions in life.
From a documenting perspective
There is a saying that if it’s not online it never happened. We live in a different world than our parents and grandparents. No longer are the days of getting a job out of college and working at the same place for 30+ years. The future is your brand and your portfolio.
My situation
As a 47 year old uneducated, unemployed truck driver I have a massive uphill challenge ahead of me. To add to that I actually have fairly large ambitions ahead of me and being 47 years old instead of 27 years old means time is not on my side.
In 2011 the dream and goal of this bike ride was born. To bike 50,000+ km’s across Canada and to the bottom of Argentina visiting every country between. And since that day virtually every lifestyle choice revolved around making this bike ride a reality. You can read a blog post HERE for how I helped make this ride happen.
One day
I believe that it was in 2014, 3 years later I woke up one day and realized what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. To plant or have planted 1 million trees in my lifetime and to actually turn that million into a billion trees.
On a side note, the thinking behind turning a million trees into a billion trees is based on the same philosophy as is it for wealthy successful business people. Usually, their first million dollars is the hardest but the next millions tend to come quicker and quicker.
So there you have it
I have two driving forces in my life. A 50,000 km’s bike ride and the passion to plant as many trees as I can in my lifetime. The question is how do I bring these 2 seemingly opposite ambitions and dreams together?
The reality is that I feel like to reach the number of trees planted that to, I am hoping is going to require help and finances from an audience and large corporations and organizations. And I feel that in order to open doors and not have doors slammed in my face the best plan and most fun plan is to create a level of credibility and build an audience.
My plan
To pedal my 50,000 km’s through a Canadian winter and 23 more countries over the next 2-3 years to prove my credibility all the time documenting the heck out of my bike ride and building an audience to hopefully attract the right people and open a few doors while I am at it.
Part of the plan
So far
While crossing Canada by bike a lot happened. It started with crossing during the winter. Atlantic Canada responded beyond anyone’s wildest ability to comprehend. I arrived in Kingston Ontario on the first day of spring pedalling 4,900 km’s. And then Covid-19 hit and the world went into ciaos and shut down. As soon as travel restrictions started to lift from the first wave I was back on the road. While most peoples lives became wildly interrupted, I pushed west. Eventually crossing Canada on October 15 with 12,340 km’s under my belt.
My Facebook post after the first wave of Covid-19
Ten days later I had flown into Seattle just in time for the second wave of Covid-19 to hit. Fast forward I have been biking through the second wave of Covid-19 for over 3 months dealing with all the challenges that come from that. Probably the biggest challenge is the inability to work regularly on my documenting and in the very least to get beyond “simply catching up.”
The day to day
I am certain that I realistically spend about 30 hours a week just documenting the day to day of my bike ride. Which is crazy when you think about it and I don’t generally go out of my way to produce extra content. I simply document the day to day. And keeping in mind that I can’t simply delay publishing content for 6 months or longer simply because I have another 2+ years left on the road. I would never get caught up in this lifetime.
The other aspect of documenting the way I do and creating as much content as I do is that the idea the one day, someday it all pays off. The secret is consistently putting out good content day after day and then you wake up one day and something happens………?
But what if nothing happens? No doors get opened, no pay off? I have already given a lot of thought to that and have come to terms that may be the out come. And I am actually completely fine with that to. If all I do is get to Argentina. I am successful. In the mean time I have pushed myself and put myself out there and at the same time no one can deny me my experiences learned and credibility earned.
On the off chance if you happen to be one of those people watching that can open doors for me? I would love to hear from you. And for those that can’t open the doors that I am trying to open at least I can thank you for your support in following my bike ride so far.
