Travel Wisdom Podcast -travel and learn languages for success and money – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Nate Ritter is a failed expat who was unable to live in France. Since then he has founded a company called Room Steals which is a hotel booking search engine which allows you to find wholesale prices of hotels. He has seen savings of many hundred dollars on a single night but savings are often 20%.

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Top 3 Takeaways:

• "The night before we left, we were like, what do we do with all this paperwork?We don't need it because we got our visa. And we literally burned all of the paperwork. It was like a book of paperwork that proved who we were and what we were doing and all this kind of stuff. So we burned it in the fireplace that night, thinking this is a fun story to tell people later"
• "My favorite story that we had is that we spent $250 to send four of us round trip to Europe, and we stayed for a month and paid zero on accommodations. So for 250 bucks to fly to Europe for four of us, and then stay there for a month, like it's definitely, people are spending three, $4,000, easy on that kind of a thing."
• "So that's Room Steals. I took that inventory source and I said, "this needs to be public." Instead of doing what everybody else does, which includes Expedia booking, they say here's what the wholesale price is, and mark it up to that and then they keep the difference. So I thought we should be a little bit more transparent than that.  We make all of our money like a Costco model. We're doing a membership."

1:00 "Failed expat, how does that work?"

7:00 "What happened in between then and now with Room Steals?"

9:00 "What kind of travel hacking were you doing?"

12:00 " You found an unused inventory of rooms?"

18:15 "So what kind of savings do people usually get?"

20:15 "Do you mostly get the savings on the higher end?"

21:45 "So how do you book a room?"

23:15 "I'm also very curious about the RV lifestyle and how you transferred into this"

25:00 "Any tips that you wanna share with the listeners about RV life?"

29:45 "Is there anything that we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention?"

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Francis Tapon rejected his normal Harvard Business school life and instead chose to hike the Appalachian trail and travel in Africa for 5 years. He hosts the Wander Learn podcast where he talks about the benefits of being a wanderer.

Top 3 Takeaways:

• "Sometimes I think the best way to learn is just to forego college and then just go travel the world and spend a few years going traveling around. This probably costs you even less than college."
• "That is a more important question than how to make a billion dollars is what you do once you have a billion dollars, because once you have a billion dollars, how you spend your time is extremely telling it shows whatever you're spending your time at that point is your passion is what you really want to do."
• "The protest during the Occupy Wall Street and people are saying like "the top 1%, the top 1%, top 1%." And I felt like walking into that crowd and just saying "You guys are all in the top 1%, every single one of you protesters, because compared to most of this planet, which lives in India, China, Asia, and certainly Africa, you guys are way wealthier than most people out there.""

0:45 "Do you want to do a brief synopsis of all the travel you've done and then why you think why you like this name wander learn?"

7:45 "Have you continued doing robotic vision stuff or have you done only the travel stuff?"

13:45 "So you haven't grown tired of this?"

16:15 "Let's talk about Wander Learn"

21:45 "Sounds like you like hiking"

23:45 "So what's the point of walking so much for weeks and months? What do you get out of it?"

30:30 "How about you for the meditative hiking stuff? Does time go by quickly?"

38:15 " Is there anything that you wanted to talk about that you wanted to cover?"

Lawrence Leyton is a therapist who has helped people overcome fears. In this episode, Ladan interviews Lawrence Leyton and one of his clients, Mark Wein, whom Leyton has helped to overcome his fear of flying. Lawrence Leyton and Mark Wein have since created a course to help people overcome the fear of flying. In this episode, they discuss the fear of flying in detail, what it is, and how it affects people's lives.

Top three takeaways:

1. People don't realize how small the risk of being involved in an aircraft accident is. There is a higher chance of dying from falling down stairs or being kicked by a donkey than there is of dying in a plane crash. However, the fear of flying often stems from the perception of a plane crash, rather than the actual statistics.
2. A phobic creates fear by concentrating on the worst-case scenario of a situation. Whereas most people would view a vacation as a positive experience, a phobic person focuses on what can go wrong, like for instance the plane crashing on the way to their destinations.
3. Sometimes after gaining new major responsibilities, such as having children, people become more conscious about the risks they take. In the case of flying, people worry more about being involved in a plane crash and not being able to be there for their children.

Adaptation and adjusting to an environment are some of the most important things in my mind. I see that a person able to adjust to a situation is the one that will be the most successful.

I talk about how I am am not happy with my ability to adjust during my Masters thesis in India. I talk about how I could have done a better job with blending in. I think it was because I had a reasons for it, that the way I was doing things previously was more correct. That was my big dilemma, do I do things the local way or my 'best' way?

Since I believe that those people who are most able to adjust and integrate will be the most successful I think that I could have done a better job

There are very few things that are set in stone. Travel helps you see that things are done differently in different places by different people. By seeing that cultures and ways of doing things are different you become aware of the fact that some things are variables. When something is a variable it means that you can change those things in life. Maybe it was all based on a false belief and that the only thing holding yourself back is yourself. Blaming other forces such as a boss, the economy, or god could actually be in your hands.

In this episode I ask if travelling can be more valuable than a College degree. In the US a bachelors degree can cost $30k and this doesn't even guarantee you a job. I have found that travel costs about $15k per year, so would this money be better used in travel? Can you learn more in travel than you could in the classroom?

To find the value of College or University ask yourself: 

• are you learning a trade that can make you money such as engineering, science, or trades such as welding or automotive work?
• are you getting a network which can help you later in life, especially if you are going into a field?
• are you diving deep into the subject and learning all that you can learn so that you actually come away with useful knowledge?

To find the the value of travel ask yourself:

• are you diving into the culture and are you only talking to hotel staff or are you learning the language in a local village?
• are you staying a week, 3 months, or are you living abroad to understand more of the location?
• are you going somewhere interesting with many learning experiences?

So of course it depends on what your answers to all of these criteria are but in many cases travel can be better than a University degree

In this episode I talk about how expanding your limits allows you to do more revolutionary things in the future. Because stretching your limits allows you to see what is possible and your reality has then changed. It can only be beneficial.

I talk about how I did this when I wrote most of my 70 page Masters thesis in one 20 hour chunk. By doing this I was able to break any previous ideas what is possible for me. I learned a bit about myself and found that actually it was probably the best way to write something. From now on, I can't complain about doing lots of work at one time now that I see I am capable of more. It is also possible to do this using uncomfortable or generally growth-inducing experiences. 

The limitations you have are only in your head, this is the best way to discover that you are capable of whatever you want.

In this episode I talk about a prompt that a previous guests had mentioned of "if things have been good in the past, why not the future?" 

This was a profound thought because things for me have always seemed to work out fortuitously so I should expect that it may continue. This thought can give you confidence that you are capable in what you plan to do. I talk about how you can use confidence from other parts of your life such as sports, hobbies, or other things that you are good at and transfer that to whatever you are having troubles with.

You are going to get the same results from your actions in the past, is that good or is it time to change?

My former Couchsurfing host, Marcus Stein, came to visit me in Bangalore, India after doing a charity trip in nearby Nepal. He shared his story of how he was able to raise 4000 euros back in Germany which he had promised to donate in Nepal after their terrible earthquake in April 2015. He used his own money to get there and to do fun things so this money was only to be used for charity. He and his friend originally were going to buy school materials for children such as notebooks and pens but later also bought water filters and solar lamps. 

In this episode we talk about how he got this idea as well as some of the challenges in doing this. Since the money goes about 5x further in a place like Nepal, it is almost like trying to use 20,000 euro in a few weeks. He also talks about how he found a great guide and helper to buy all of these supplies. Then he talks about how he had made this change from a set career to something more flexible where he is happier.

Finally he asks, what does magic mean to you?

First of all, apologies for the delay in the episode. I had finished my work in India and my family came right after to travel India and didn't have time to uploaded the episodes I had finished.

In this episode I talk about what I am planning to after my stay in India. I have been trying to figure out what to do after and I am ready to share my plans. I talk about how I am excited to go look at Switzerland and potentially go move there. It is a great place for my field in nanorobotics and looks like one of the best places in the world for this. It is also very comfortable for me being in Europe, travelling is very quick and easy, and it is a multilingual country, and a good business environment for startups.

I talk about the 3-6 things that were most important for me to decide on this location. I also go through how you can decide on where to go if you want to make a change in your life

Let me know if you are planning a change and want to figure out where to go next at travelwisdompodcast@gmail.com