My New Hero: A "Minimalist" Enters The Wild

I just got this email from one of the most successful online entrepreneurs EVER: John Reese (if you don't know him, Google his name to learn about some of the insane results he has produced).

He has now, out of the blue, sold EVERYTHING he owns and is now living life as a 'minimalist' & will be traveling the world with only a backpack and a laptop and a passport, possibly forever...

I think its super cool for him to take this new challenge & experience on, when I was 19 years old I sold everything I owned, quit my basketball scholarship and took a year off school bought a one way ticket overseas and put all my belongings into one single backpack and traveled around the world for 1 year all by myself! It was epic.

Here is a picture of the backpack that has been my travel partner to over 22 countries and hundreds of cities over the past few years - this old mountain equipment co-op pack is probably my most cherished possession that I own & the one thing that I have had the most extreme experiences with.


It was easily by FAR the best year of my life! Period.

I learned about new cultures and customs, met tons of people, learned how to surf, scuba dive, camp in the desert and on the beach while sleeping in strange places with alot of strange (but cool) people.
Here is a beach that I camped on in Thailand on a Tropical Island with some other random travelers (yes, I used to have long surfer / hippy hair during my travels - so much so that my parents didn't even recognize me at the airport when I returned home to Canada after a year of traveling, they walked right by me! Yes, it was very weird to have your own parents not even recognize you :)

Most importantly, I learned how to SURVIVE & OVERCOME any situation or circumstance that came my way - and trust me, many did.

Here is a pic of my waking across the Egyptian Border with all my worldly possessions on my back in plus 40 degree weather! Incredible.

I wish John and all those adventure minded lone rangers / solo travelers all the best as they embark on their own epic journey - wow - I just suddenly got the travel but BIG time after reading his email that I copy & pasted below - leave a comment below the post and let me know your thoughts :)

John, if you read this, here is a song dedicated to your journey "Into the Wild"


John's Email ---> "I'll admit it. I'm a bit weird. I always have been.

And maybe you are too, and that's what makes us
"special." Or at least that's what our moms always
told us.

I like doing "experiments" on myself. I think it's
a great way to grow as a person and to learn more
about yourself -- which can help in one's personal
or business life.

I once read how Leonardo Da Vinci slept only
about 3-4 hours a day by taking short 20-45 minute
naps throughout a 24 hour cycle.

Many years ago, I tried my own sleep experiment
after I found myself pulling a lot of "all nighters."

I decided to go every other night without sleep.

So I would stay awake for stretches of 30-35 hours
straight and then crash for 9-12 hours. I got a lot
of work done by doing this.

And I was able to do this for about 3 months straight -
sleeping only every other night.

There was only one problem... it put me in the hospital.

It had weakened my immune system and I ended up
with a bad case of vertigo. Horrible, horrible stuff.
I was basically DIZZY all day, everyday, for about
2 weeks until it finally went away.

So I, obviously, went back to a normal sleep schedule
and refused to pull "all nighters" anymore. I had bad
insomnia for a long time but eventually got over it.

If you're pulling all nighters and going without sleep,
I recommend you don't. It's just not worth the damage
it can do to your health.

But I've done many other "full immersion" types of
experiments on myself over the years, and most of
them didn't have bad health results - thankfully.

My point is... you can learn a lot about yourself if
you take yourself out of your normal comfort zone
and really 'challenge' yourself by trying little experiments
and personal challenges.

AND I'M DOING IT AGAIN.

Check this out...

I just finished selling (or giving away) all of my personal
possessions.

Not too long ago my life consisted of a massive 6-bedroom
house (with many rooms I never even went into!) and
5 cars. Yes, FIVE cars. I'm a car guy, what can I say.

I had accomplished what many consider to be the
"American Dream." I had the huge house and all the
toys. The Lamborghini, Ferrari, BMWs, a Rolex
collection, an expensive wardrobe, amazing furniture,
a massive home theater, a 1,000 gallon saltwater
aquarium, the works.

And now I have NONE of it. And I'll explain why in
a moment...

Here are some "quick facts"...

For the first time in over 20 YEARS...

- I don't own a car.

- I don't own any furniture.

- I don't own a TV.

- I don't own any books.

- I don't own a huge closet full of clothes.

AND...

- I don't have a HOME. Not a house,
or apartment, or anything.

By now you're probably thinking...

"John, what the hell are you doing!?"

I decided to do all of this because I wanted
to do a new experiment on myself...

It's a challenge of MINIMALISM.

If you haven't yet heard about minimalism,
or read anything about it, you should. Not
only can it (I believe) improve the quality
of your life but it can also make your business
a lot more profitable.

Minimalism is essentially focusing only on
the 3-4 most important things in your life
(or business) and ELIMINATING THE REST.

There many opinions on minimalism and how
to apply it, and some approach it differently.
Do some Google searches for "minimalism"
and you'll find lots of great blogs about it.

It's really a growing 'revolution' of sorts.

I don't agree with everything he teaches, but a
decent book you can read is "The Power Of Less"
by Leo Babauta; and he's someone with 6 kids.
That will get you started.

Everyone will have their own take on minimalism.
But I'm willing to bet you can benefit from it.

WHAT I HAVE LEFT...

So you're probably wondering, if I got rid of
all that stuff, what the heck do I actually have
left? And how will I live?

Here's a full list of the only things I now own...

- A small 28L backpack (that holds everything below)

- 5 t-shirts (4 short sleeve, 1 long sleeve)
- 1 pair of jeans
- 1 light jacket
- 2 pairs of shorts
- 1 pair of running/trek shoes
- 5 pairs of boxer briefs
- Assorted toiletries
- Clothesline & large ziplock bag (for washing clothes)
- 1 MacBook Pro 15"
- 1 64GB Wifi iPad
- 1 iPhone 4
- 1 Livescribe Pen & small notebook
- My passport & credit cards

THAT'S IT. That's all the 'stuff' I own. ALL OF IT.

Here's a photo of my backpack (with everything in it)
except for my 15" MacBook Pro which is in the photo next to it:

But it's also important to note...

I still have all of my money and investments. I didn't pull
a Christopher McCandless ("Into The Wild") and burn all
of my money. This experiment isn't about that. So I still
have all of my businessess (and their assets) as well as
a valuable .COM collection, etc. etc.

But as far as personal "things" go, I currently only have
what I listed above. I'll explain more as to the "WHY"
in a just a second...

WHERE ON EARTH WILL I LIVE?

The answer is... Everywhere.

I am just going to travel the world non-stop for awhile.
It may be for a year or for 10+ years. I don't know yet
and that's part of the adventure. I have structured
things so I can travel the world INDEFINITELY and plan
to do so for a very long time.

As many of my long-time subscribers know, I love to
travel. I've been to every continent in the world except
for Antarctica. (And hope to visit their soon.) But even
as much as I love to travel, I was only taking a few
trips a year. So now that's all going to change.

BUT TRAVEL ISN'T THE ONLY REASON I'M DOING THIS...

Here's what I've discovered about myself...

My level of happiness all comes down to my level of STRESS.

And my stress level is mostly due to having the feeling
of being OVERWHELMED. I had so many possessions
to manage and so many things going on in my life that it
was making me a bit crazy. (More than I already am.)

I found that my CREATIVITY has really suffered because
of this. It's like the brain only has so much available RAM
like a computer, and everything we own and do and manage
takes up that space. It doesn't leave a lot of room left for
creativity.

So essentially, I wanted my brain back.

I wanted to have what I call "Freedom Of Thought." I want to
have so few distractions and things taking up space in my
brain that I'm free to use as much of my brain as possible to
think of exciting new ideas and fully appreciate new
experiences.

* I did also realize that all of that "stuff" that I thought was
the "American Dream" was mostly based on EGO. But
that's a discussion for another day.

As many of my customers already know, late last year I
started a new company to develop Video Games. It's been
a dream of mine for many years and I finally decided to
pursue it. Well, this new business (along with other projects)
really demands maximum creativity from me. So I wanted
to try this new 'experiment' to give myself the best chance
at being able to come up with amazing new ideas.

AND IT'S ALREADY WORKING.

I'm currently on Day 3 of my journey. I moved out of
California about a week ago, then spent a few days visiting
my family in Florida, and then 3 days ago I 'officially' set
out on this "Minimalism Adventure" and flew up to
Toronto, Canada (where I am now) to visit my good friend,
Dean Jackson.

In the first 3 days, I've already come up with some
unbelievable new ideas for my businesses. And this
is only just the beginning.

I would like to challenge you to look at your business (and life)
and see how you can apply the Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule)
and eliminate the things that aren't essential to your goals --
or things that take away from the more important parts of
reaching your goals.

I recently deleted my personal Facebook account (that had
5,000 'friends') and it was one of the best things I ever did.

I was finding that Facebook was one big waste of my time.
I was logging in multiple times a day and it was robbing me
of time I should have been spending on more important
things.

Don't get me wrong, I think Facebook has decent marketing
uses, but I think for most entrepreneurs it's better used
for brands (with Business Page accounts) than as a personal
account. For me and all of the businesses I am involved
with, Facebook does not fall into the "20" part of the 80/20
rule. PPC, SEO, buying media (which includes Facebook Ads),
and other strategies out-produce it by a massive amount.
But that's a rant for another day. ;-)

After recently telling someone about what I am doing
they said...

"But, John, I gotta tell you... it really sounds like you're
just running from life."

To which I replied...

"No, you don't understand, I'm running TO life."

Okay it's time for me to go and pack up my stuff -- even,
though, it only takes me about 5 minutes. ;-)

I'm heading to Europe for a few months tomorrow as I continue
on my journey.

I'll be in touch soon.

Yours For Online Profits,

John Reese"

Soooooo, whats your thoughts on his new lifestyle choice?

My next post will be about what might drive / motivate people to pick up and pack up their lives to leave their comfort zones...should be a good one.

The - Scar Tissue - Stag

Play this video now.


This pic /song & video sums up our weekend as a group of 14 guys were staggering, stumbling, limping and passing out in a ditch next to our cabin (the groom) & even being carried out of this mountain town on a stretcher (yours truly) after a 3 day bachelor party for my buddy Chris Peerless' stag in Whistler BC - at least we dressed him up and made him the Pretty Princess Peerless that he is :) Just joking buddy.


It was truly a weekend I will never forget.

To be honest, I have had my share of 'near death experiences', that 'could' have happened, however this is one that actually DID happen: less than 3 hours into the weekend on Friday, I went flying off the side of a mountain cliff landing head first on a huge boulder rock (thank God I was wearing a helmet) and then having my 900 pound ATV 4 wheeler machine tumble right next to me spraying gasoline everywhere as I slid down the face of the cliff tearing my back open with scratches, now that is what I call 'Scare Tissue".

The guide that saw the whole thing said that if I was not wearing a helmet, I would be dead - period.
He also added that I was lucky that I did not break my neck from the compression of the fall or be paralyzed for life - and that it was amazing that the ATV didn't land right on me.

All in all, my guardian angel was working overtime fore sure & I am truly feel blessed to be alive and relatively uninjured! As the first aid guys were strapping me into a stretcher it made me really think how precious this life and body of ours is and how fast it can be lost & or destroyed...


Since this was my first bachelor party, my thoughts now are that if a groom can survive his stag, surviving a marriage is a piece of cake :)

Until next time, be happy to be alive everyone & live life to the fullest!

Road Trippin' Bachelor Party --> Whistler

I am so stoked! I'm about to head on my first road trip of the summer!
(yes, I LOVE road trips - seriously, love them) AND even better bonus, the destination this weekend is to Whistler BC for my first bachelor / stag party of my life!

On top of that its with my old university roommate's that I used to play college basketball with back in the day :)

It already feels like we jumped in Doc's Back to The Future Delroean time machine and went back 10 years - from 29 to 19 years old. Its gonna be Scary.

I will post another session next week - if we survive Whistler in the summer time...

This is the ultimate summer road trip song we are blasting on the sea to sky highway...
Remember, what happens in Whistler - stays in Whistler :)

Have an awesome weekend!
I will post a 'post bachelor party' video on Sunday - I already know what its gonna be :)

Jack Johnson & Ben Harper = An Epic Song...

Enjoy today's summer surfveza chillin out session...


What song / video do you want me to post next?

Jammin With Bob Marley :)

Surfveza Session's Summer Song today is:


You know what to do now...

Surfveza = 'Sublime' Summer Music Sessions

I don't know about you, but I LOVE summer!
A couple years ago I started my first business called "Surfveza Sessions" doing surf safaris & travel adventure trips to Mexico & Tofino for college students - it was insanely fun!

This past weekend I was chillin' out on the beach alllllll weekend with some good ol' buddies surrounded by lots of cold beers, tasty BBQ's and many of other great things that start with the letter 'B'...

Anyway, for the last couple weeks I have been wanting to put together a Surfveza Session summer music video play list, and at some point along this sun drenched weekend my main music man Joe G, introduces me to some new hits and I committed to him that I am gonna start putting out a few new videos each week and posting them on my good ol blog here for YOUR listening and chilling out entertainment pleasure to kick off this summer season-

There will be some oldie's & goodies along with some new beats to bump in this hot summer season...so stay tuned and keep checking out this website for each daily or weekly updated songs or basically whenever I feel like it ;)

Crank up your speakers, grab your favorite drink and soak up the sun and enjoy...

Surfveza's "Summer Time"


"What I Got" - (this was my grade 12 classic camping / road trip song - great memories)


Please leave comments below and or and special requests in the comment box below...
Until next time, keep rockin' out!

Your Surfveza Summer DJ ~Q~
LOL!

"In God We Trust" Independence Day

Here is one of my favorate songs by Ben Harper & Eddie Vedder.

I think that at one point in every person's life, we actually want, think & believe we can change the world, and make a difference.

Unfortunately over time, people, parents, partner's, bosses & society in general tells the dreamer & visionary in us to 'get real'.

This brings me to thinking of what America (and Canada) stand for & our soldiers fight for...FREEDOM.

Today is Independence day in the USA, The 4th of July. Canada just celebrated our national holiday on the 1st. I am so grateful to live in a country that provides power in the people and our political, democratic leadership counsel that these countries do.

I have chosen to spend a lot of my past 10 years on this planet traveling all over the world; 22 counties & hundreds of cities so far. I have seen & smelled the streets of many 3rd world countries filled with homeless, starving families that have no roof over their head nor food in their bellies - yet here we are, blessed to live and have all the comforts of 'modern society' that an industrialized nation provides, yet we are the leading nation of suicide, depression & murder.

Why is this so?

For one reason, I think that we have forgotten what is on the US dollar bill.

"In God We Trust"

I believe that we have lost touch of what really matters, the one golden rule to live by 'do unto others as you shall have them do unto you'. We are quick to stress out, over react to the smallest annoyance or injustice and we have forgotten that there is great hope and a great future for anyone & everyone who wants to be healed, helped or saved - in anyway.

My son Ethan just graduated from Kindergarten last week (top of his class in reading by the way!) I am very proud of him, but that simple golden rule really is the first and only thing we need to learn and teach our youth, as well the importance of trusting & having faith in the good of people, not the bad.

You all know about the law of attraction, if you focus on the bad, your gonna attract more bad - if you focus on the good, you'll attract more good, right?

Its simply a law of science.

I strongly believe that EVERYTHING happens for a reason: the good, the bad & the ugly. However its very easy to only see the potential ugly & bad, rather than the unseen good lessons that are learned in our trials.

A friend of mine emailed me these pictures and affirmations below the other day when I was going through a challenging situation and they really put things in perspective and it helped take some of the stress and pain away - I hope this may offer some comfort and peace of mind for you aswell:

"If you never had a trial, How could you be able call yourself an overcomer & grown from the lessons you learned? If you never were in trouble, How would you know that I will come to your rescue...?
"

"If you never had any suffering, Then how would you know what I went through?
"


If you think of all the soldiers in the world who are fighting wars overseas as you read this, away from their families and dieing to save our nations FREEDOM & INDEPENDENCE, when I saw these pictures for the first time in my life as a Christian, I saw God as a soldier who was fighting & died for just that - a soldier who sacrificed himself for our FREEDOM & INDEPENDENCE.
Makes your think...'Eh'?

Blessings to you all on this holiday.

~Q~