And you're watching Marie TV for a very special edition.

Because we've decided to do this interview here with my dear friend Chris Guillebeau.

And guess what,

he got an awesome new book out right now.

And it's call the Happiness of Pursuit.

And I'm so excited…I adore Chris, I adore his work.

Many of you know him already.

We did an interview for his last book – the hundred dollars startup.

And he's just the one of the sweetest, kindest, smartes,

most brilliant people

And I wanna to have a month off maybe, because I thought these concepts were awesome,

so Chris…Thank you for coming back on Marie TV.

Marie, hello and thank you.

It's a huge honor. I'm so happy to be back. Thank you!

Awesome. So tell us about the Happiness of Pursuit

Finding a quest that will bring perfect to your life

So what inspire you to write this new book?

Okay. So since we last talked,

I'm in wrapping up some personal project.

It's a request to visit every country in the world.

We talked about it a little bit last time.

I've been working on it for eight years or so.

Then, it's a ten years request in total.

I'm just kind of came to the end of it last year.

It was something that's… initially, it's just a personal project.

It was something that I believe in for myself.

And I love to travel and I love…

valuable inspiration and discovery.

So… as I presume this request, I knew I wanted to write something about it.

But fortunately, I didn't just write a book about myself.

I didn't just write I travel where because that will be kind of boring,

so…all along the way

I was meeting lots of interesting, remarkable people

who were all pursuing a quest or some kind of adventure of their own.

And, I wanna to know why did they do it.

And what's the lesson they learned along the way

and how are they changed for the process.

What did they sacrifice or give up in order to pursue it

And why about others…you know what can the rest of us learn about quests.

And then…lastly, it's not really meant to be a sociological study.

It's not just like the collect of like…this person do this, and this person do this…blah blah

The book actually has a clear message. And the message is that a quest can improve your life.

A quest can actually bring purposes and meaning to your life.

I love it. So let me ask you this…

Were you, as a young person or as a young boy,

were you always into an adventure? Did you have quest when you're little?

I don't know if I have quest. For say…I was always a list-maker.

This is something that I notice. This is actually really common. For all the people I talked to…

I really like to write things down.

I like to write down my tasks, write down my ideas and outline even in rough form.

I really like to kind of …you know break things down and just little project sort of thing

So I think it was…maybe…

a value that I have… and I'm kind of grew into it more

And then I start traveling and it wasn't like…I went to my first country

Oh I'm go to…you know, the rest of every single 193 countries in the world

I'm kind of gain confidence as I have some experience.

That was something else I saw… a lot of different people

They started with this small vision and they kind of came to bigger one later one.

Interesting. So if I heard you right,

and please correct me if I'm wrong

When you started to traveling to different countries, it wasn't necessarily like…

Well…obviously, because you might have done some travel early on in your life

But as you got that appetite web for travel,

you saw an expanded vision… hey

Why don't I set this adventure goal for myself to see every country in the world

So wasn't even like you started off like ‘this is my quest' something that evolved.

Yes. Absolutely, I have no idea.

That this would become something that will conceal my life for more than ten years

I just start traveling. I love traveling.

I live in west Africa for a while

and kind of gain some confidence

And just really enjoy the joy of being in different places

And I think it was after I've been to like fifty countries or so.

I was like …it's not difficult after like being to 50ish.

I have a thought that let me set a personal goal. Coz I always like goals.

I try to go to a hundred countries, right.

So that was the first one.

And then I start to getting close to that and I thought um…

How can I take it up a level because I'm just going to half the countries in the world.

It's kind of cheat a little bit.

So you know… I could just pick the easy countries. So yea. That was something I were into, totally.

I really…for me, what made the differences was

combining travel with goal setting,

Combining travel with something specific,

with structure, with a little bit of container to it.

And that's just kind of change the whole purpose and focus for me.

And you saw that with the people and the book as well that they perhaps started something

Their appetite got web. And all of a sudden a new bigger world open up for them

That became this quest, this adventure they want to go on?

Yes. Very often. And the specificity hunts a lot

There is one story – Robin Devin and Omehan Annarasca

she's knitter.

And she's like super excited about knitting and she's artist, she make stuff and

She has this project to make hats for people.

and that's how it was at first. She's like I'm gonna make hats

so she makes hat for a friend or family just like the other knitters do.

But then, she had the idea of creating some specific structure to it.

And at first she thought…I wanna knit a thousand hats

like…wonder what that look like you know So she's starting toward that

figuring how much time and how much money

and whether any other cost all that

And then, she decided to increase the goal and go to the ten thousands hats

So now, it's like her life quest to figure how many years it's gonna take.

You could actually go to her website and request a hat

maybe your wedding period

But eventually she's going to make ten thousand hats.

So yea, a lot of people, they found their vision expanded

but then also as they work for something. They may get it more specific.

So let's talk about the link between quest or adventure that we can go on, if you want to call it that

And happiness. What did you discover not only for yourself

but what did you discover from the story that everyone you interview in the book.

So for myself, you know…when I start to traveling and pursuing the goal

I think it kind of came out of the sense of discontent or dissatisfaction

which doesn't mean that I was miserable or I was terribly unhappy like I have a good life

You know…I have become an entrepreneur working for myself.

But yet, I guess I felt I wanted to challenge myself. I wanted more.

And a lot of people that we talked to or in the book,

they had the same kind of discontent.

It was yearning for something.

It was yearning to connect something broader in their life.

They often were happy, they have families,

they have good jobs or good businesses or something.

But yet, you know…they had this desire to go further.

That where I saw really a link between the happiness and the pursuit of the goal.

The pursuit of a goal…you know…bigger than ourselves.

Something that is really significant. Something that is really challenging.

Because there's also a link between a request and a challenge I think.

If your quest is to go down the street and get coffee and come back.

That's not really a quest, right?

When you combine it with something challenging

maybe hard but also rewarding

You know…that what I think a lot of us can find happiness.

Have you seen that people are working on multiple quests at once or

do most people kind of choose something that feels challenging, needy,

maybe a little bit scary, totally exciting?

Sure. I think there is more than one way…you know… to do it.

and I'm always the kind of person that like to work on a bunch of stuff at once.

It's just my personality you know. For better or worse.

But I also think …you know… a true quest a true adventure

Does involve some kind of sacrifice.

You know… it does involve some kind of trade-off.

I mean that sacrifice is too heavy word so let's say trade-off…you know.

To go to every country in the world, it's like…

it was a pretty big thing. There were a lot of things that I have to say no to in order to say yes to that.

Like what? Like what

like building my career…you know…like

I was on the road in central Africa and

central Asia and Bangladesh all these places a hundred days a year often

I couldn't really working my business very much…you know…during that time

But it was okay. I have to say no to lots of opportunities…you know that are coming through.

But I guess I really believe in this… prize.

I really believe in doing it and everytime I was start to think

Oh maybe I…you know…shouldn't get on that plane or go to Chad whatever.

No. I have to do it. Because this is the rule of everything.

This is the foundation of everything else.

So yes. I think you can do a lot of stuff.

But I guess it's also…if you believe in something like…

it's going to take something from you as well.

Yea. I love this discussion because

it's specially…cause I love that you share the self doubt

that can creep up I think

For anyone who's creative if you…you know…call it a quest

or if it's a project you know. To write a book or something to build a business…

To create something that's never been created before

And part of that adventure is that you're bringing it to the world.

I think that self doubt is so…

it's a topic that many of us…like…we don't like to talk about

I love hearing that you were like…should I get on this plane to Chad?

I have all these different opportunities coming in.

I mean…I'm working on another writing project right now. And I feel like

doubly the self doubt voices are like…

God. Does anyone knowing about this? Do they even care?

It's amazing. Did you notice that the other folks that you interview as well

had those wrestling with self doubt

In pursuit their adventure or quest?

Absolutely. Like almost all of them.

Almost all of them in different ways. They spoke about it in different ways.

People uses different language…but everyone is experiences that thing.

I think the bigger the challenge, the more the self-doubt and the more the fear.

But also maybe more the stern that you have to do it.

You know. It's this idea. It's not gonna leave you alone.

And I think a lot of them are maybe focus on a long-term. They are focus on outcome

and they thought about the book they wanna to write or whatever it was. And then,

imagine having that out and think about the people who will be helped by it.

That's kind of …you got them through…you know they focus on the other side.

I mean…I think a lot of them also.

The other interesting thing to say that they had in common

was a lot of them had what I call

The emotional awareness of mortality.

This also sounds kind of heavy,but it doesn't need to

I love it. We talk about death on marie TV all the time because I think

I just think it's one of the most sobering and it wakes you up

It wakes you up to value every moment so I'm not to interrupt. Let's talk about that.

Let's talk about that reality and mortality.

Right. So the emotional awareness of it is suppose to be intellectual awareness.

I think everyone has intellectual awareness and some mortality which I find in the book

That just the fact that everybody dies, right? It's a fact.

But the emotional awareness of mortality…well I notice that

A lot of these people talk about it in the interview.

And they brought it up…like I don't even ask… “Hey! What do you think about death?” You know…

It's not really a best interview question.

But a lot of them talked about different experiences they had

either with like an accident they have

Or close folk they had, or someone they love and lost

Something that just

brought them closer to the awareness that

not only everyone else in the world is gonna die one day, but I too.

You know…we all die.

And just the focus on the fact that life is short we should live with urgency.

You know…that also kind of helps overcome some of the stuff out. I think…

Okay, what really matters?

Yea. I got my own stuff I got my own anxiety

or whatever that thing is that I'm most struggle with.

But I also have this dream and I also want more.

I want to improve my life. You know…I'm taking time to watch Marie TV because

Not just I wanna to entertain but I wanna improve my life. I wanna take steps… toward that.

So that's something else that people had in common. And I think it's actually helpful.

Yea. That's one of the values of this. That's one of the values of your book.

I'm so happy that you wrote it.

And that we're sharing it today. So many of us can find ourselves different part of journey.

Struggling with…you know…is there more? Is there more meaning?

I think one of the touching storis for me was about

the young man who lost his wife.

Can you tell a little bit about that story?

Yes. Umm…this is a beautiful story it's a sad story.

But it's also a beautiful story.

This is the story that a young couple who met in South Korea.

And he was American, she was Canadian.

And they were both teaching English there.

They met when they're really young say young 20s or so.

And they fell in love. And they were beginning to plan a life together.