I’ve been told a number of times that I know myself very well – and I agree. I know my strengths, weaknesses like the back of my hand, and am constantly thinking about how to improve myself. As a result, I don’t take offense when someone tells me something less than flattering about myself, for instance, that I’m not the greatest public speaker the world’s ever seen — I already know that and am striving to improve it (though I’ll admit I’m getting out of practice on that specific example since I’ve started traveling). Practice, and passion, makes perfect — and I’ll get there. Instead, I know in my heart it’ll make me work that much harder to prove them wrong in the long run. Public speaking is not the only example of a weakness of mine (I wish!), just one that’s easy to highlight. Another one is that, in the business world, it’s not always a good thing to wear your passions on your sleeve – I’ve gotten into trouble a few times for being too open about what I think.

I was just reading Fred Wilson’s post on Aging (by the way, Happy Birthday Fred) and I can tell by his writing he knows himself very well; not everyone is like that unfortunately.

Expressing yourself through writing forces you to get to know yourself better — so I ask, are bloggers/writers more “self aware” than others? Don’t get my wrong, I’m not saying that those who don’t write are not self aware — just that self awareness seems to be a common trait I see in other bloggers I follow. Or maybe I purposely follow those who do have a high level of self awareness, I don’t know. I’m curious of your thoughts on the topic.

The photo below is currently Rocky Turner’s facebook profile photo — and I obviously love it since I’m sharing it here. It’s timely, particularly since yesterday I re-read my “If this doesn’t hit you like a rock, I don’t know what will” post from a few years. Reading that post still puts a knot in my stomach every time I read it. Suffice to say, I’m still in the midst of figuring out what my mark will be in this world — but images like this push me a little bit closer each and every day.

I just read (well, skimmed some of it since it’s so long) this article in the New York Times titled “The Web Means the End of Forgetting” as a result of this Tweet by Christine Amorose.

One quote fairly early in the article that’s somewhat scary is this:

It’s often said that we live in a permissive era, one with infinite second chances. But the truth is that for a great many people, the permanent memory bank of the Web increasingly means there are no second chances — no opportunities to escape a scarlet letter in your digital past. Now the worst thing you’ve done is often the first thing everyone knows about you.

I live a very public life; most of what I do is “out there” and I’m fine with that. Luckily, the worst thing I’ve ever done — which I’m not going to get into — is not the first thing people knows about me. But part of that being the case is because it happened when I was young before the rise of Facebook and a web where everything resides in a permanent state for eternity. But if I did something really bad again, there is a good likelihood it would somehow end up online and very public — likely somewhere in my Facebook status feed as wall posts from friends or acquaintances. It it could spread to my entire network within hours. Maybe the worst thing you’ve done is the first thing people learn about you in future. That sucks, but we all have to be willing to accept the consequences of our mistakes.

I guess the lesson is that we should all never do anything bad again. Of course, I strive to only do good in this world — but mistakes can happen to the best of us. One last thing I will say on this topic — the fact of the matter is that part of what keeps me inline on a day to day basis IS the fact that everything I do (for the most part) is public. I’d be more likely to go off the deep end and do something crazy, horrible, or stupid if everything wasn’t public; I guess that’s both a good thing and a bad thing depending on how you look at it.

In the event you couldn’t tell, I’ve been enjoying traveling. A lot — and I intend to keep it going for awhile with my buddy Dan from high school (he runs Bankvibe.com). Where am I off to next you might wonder?

I’ll be here in Santorini until August 5th when I fly up to London for a few days. After London, it’s on to explore Dublin for a week and then jetting down to Spain sometime between the 16th-19th of August with stop number 1 likely being Valencia for the La Tomatina festival in Bunol (45 minutes outside of Valencia). I just found out the other day that one of my good college friends will be teaching in Madrid for a year so will probably spend a bit of time there and maybe pop over to Barcelona for a bit.

After a month in Spain, my buddy and I are meeting up again (he’ll be in Austria until Sept 20th) and planning to fly down to Kenya for a month long stay. In Kenya, I plan to see Rocky’s orphanage funded by Mothers Fighting for Others and volunteer for a week, spend a bit of time in Nairobi for Kito International, visit Mombasa, and maybe volunteer for a bit for Nuru International. Exact plans are still a little bit in limbo, but coming together slowely but surely. After Kenya, it’s on to Ghana for another month. There, I’m planning to volunteer with Lumana Credit — an organization that is run by my friend Sammie Rayner (a UW grad). To round out our Africa adventures, we’re planning to head down to South Africa for a few weeks and spend some of that time with my former boss David Gibbons!

That puts us near the end of December. After that, we tentatively want to go hang out in Istanbul for a month and then head east to Southeast asia for a few months. But we’ll see what happens as we get closer to the end of our adventures in Africa – it seems every day there is a new country we want to go visit, so plans could change.

If anyone wants to visit any of those places, by all means, let me know! Visitors are certainly welcome anywhere along our journey.

I just read 10 Reasons to Stop Apologizing for Your Online and think there is some real meat to it worth reading. I particularly liked numbers 3, 6 and 9:

3. When you take the idea of online presence literally, you can experience your online disembodiment as a journey into your mind rather than out of your body.
6. When you focus on creating real meaning with your time online, your online footprint makes a deeper impression.
9. When you embrace online conversations as real, you imbue them with the power to change how you and others think and feel.

Head on over and give the article a read (particularly if you are someone who gives me a hard time about my “online life”)!

I’ve hinted at the fact that I was working on something in the travel vertical — and I’m excited to unveil the 1st iteration of that project — Oh Hey World. Its my latest project in another vertical that I’m extremely passionate about — travel, and more specifically, the backpacking niche of travel. Oh Hey World is starting out as a multi-author blog dedicated to backpacking and travel for Generation X & Y. There’s certainly more of a core feature that is in the works, but I’ll wait to share further details until I have something to show. I’ve been wanting to do this for awhile now, and now that I’m pretty much permanently on the travel trail — at least for the forseeable future — there is certainly no reason to wait any longer. I’m lucky to find a business partner and close friend in Andrew Mattie, who I’ve known for several years and some of you may know through his work at Diverse Solutions, to handle all the technology so I can focus on the business side of the equation. Head over and read my first post for more info!

I’m excited to connect with some fellow backpacker-bloggers over the course of the next few years as Andrew and I build this site out!

I bought Fortune on my Kindle (magazines on the Kindle are awesome by the way) this morning and the first article was about the “fundraising” initiative — the Giving Pledge – Warren Buffett and Bill & Melinda Gates are undertaking to convince the world’s billionaires to pledge 50% of their net worth to philanthropic causes by the end of their life. This is probably the biggest fundraiser ever embarked on in history — and it’s being embarked on by two of the richest men in the world. Fortune estimated the campaign could bring $600 billion to charities. That’s a massive massive number and regardless of how many billionaires and millionaires sign on to the pledge, it’s going to make a gigantic impact on the world’s poor in a number of areas across the globe.

Here is Warren Buffet’s personal pledge:

More than 99% of my wealth will go to philanthropy during my lifetime or at death. Measured by dollars, this commitment is large. In a comparative sense, though, many individuals give more to others every day.

I really really recommend you read the entire document. If Buffett can give 99%, then surely other billionaires can give 50%. I expect Gates and Buffett to be hugely successful in their campaign simply due to the unbelievable example they are setting.

One excerpt from Buffet’s pledge that doesn’t really relate to the pledge, but particularly resonated with me:

The asset I most value, aside from health, is interesting, diverse, and long-standing friends.

It’s great to hear someone with so much experience say what he values most in life is the same as what I value.

The Holstee Manifesto – If everyone lived by this, the world would be a much better place.

[via Hey Amber Rae]

Here are five questions from Tom Ferry’s recent article on the Huffington Post titled The 4 Addictions that Destroy Your Dreams that will get you thinking about life and the path you can or should be taking:

1. Why are you here — what’s your purpose?

2. How do you want to show up for others — what are your values?

3. What are your God-given talents?

4. Five years from now, how is the world experiencing you?

5. Who would you already be if you were already there?

I just finished the Yes Man – very easy read and well worth reading. There’s something to be said to saying yes to opportunities. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here in Santorini right now…

Now, what’s the first thing to say yes to?

PS: My new favorite word – “Bloke”, an English slang term for man. I’m sure I’ve heard the word before, but I obviously never paid attention to it.

I’m reading Danny Wallace’s Yes Man (affiliate link) and it’s quite entertaining. He does an experiment where he says YES to everything, and I mean everything. I don’t think saying Yes to everything is the best approach, but I do agree with the premise that saying yes as much as possible is a good thing.

I’ll try to report back when I finish the book.

I hope not.

From Me to We: Finding Meaning in a Material World (affiliate link):

We all know that any decision involves making certain trade-offs, but it’s how we weigh these trade-offs that counts. In a society that tends to measure everything in terms of dollars and cents, we learn from a young age to consider the costs of our decisions in financial terms. But what about the personal and social costs involved in pursuing money over meaning? These are exactly the kinds of costs many of us tend to gloss over — and the very ones we need to consider most.

Over the course of the last three days, I’ve written three posts on Geek Estate Blog related to the topic of “sphere building” — an important skill in both life and business. If that’s a topic you’re interested in, head on over and check them out:

1. The Importance of Building Your Sphere by Building Trust
2. The Most Important Factor to Building a Large Sphere of Influence
3. How I Go About Building my Sphere of Influence

This was a great speech by Simon Sinek (from 2009 at TED) and speaks to the power of knowing and communicating WHY. “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it”

I’m reading Into the Wild and it’s a fascinating story. I can relate to Chris’ frustration with the materialistic lifestyle most people choose to follow and his thirst for new experiences via traveling, but I think it’s safe to say my parents would not be happy if I told them “I think I’m going to disappear for awhile”, which is what Christopher McCandless told his parents before hitting the road for good and ultimately ending up starving to death in Alaska. I’m halfway done with the book now, so perhaps I’ll write another post about it when I finish.

What an awesome last month and a half it’s been on the road. It was great to get away from Seattle for awhile. My journey took me from Seattle to Portland to Homboldt Country to San Francisco to Laguna Beach to Phoenix to Austin to Phoenix to Laguna Beach to Phoenix to Denver and finally back to Seattle. 8,000 miles later I’m grounded, though only for two days since I leave for Tokyo/Seoul tomorrow for two weeks.

Over the course of the month and a half I was traveling the US, I got to spend time with so many fantastic people from the real estate industry. I had to chance to stop by MRealty’s Portland office and say hi to Jeff, Haley, and Garron. Met Dale Chumbley for a Tweetup. While in Austin for over a week, I got to know Eric Bramlett, who has been a contributor on Geek Estate Blog for over a year but we had never even talked on the phone prior to this trip. I got to meet D’Ann Faught at RE BarCamp Austin and spent a bit of time with Krisstina Wise and Jack Miller at the GoodLifeTeam’s offices. Spoke with Benn and Lani at #sxsw. Stacey Harmon and I got to spend a bunch of time talking shop while I was in Southern California and on our drive from LA to Phoenix for RE BarCamp Phoenix. I got to see Linsey Planeta and the new M Realty office in the OC. Spent time at Diverse Solutions‘ new offices and hung with Robert Luna, Andrew Mattie, Jon Mabe, and Justin LaJoie. Had lunch with Devesh. Though it was brief, I even had the chance to visit with Kris Berg down in San Diego. In Pheonix, I hung with Jay Thompson, Nick Bastian, and Justin McHood at #RETT. At Re BarCamp Phoenix, Rocky and Jeff made an appearance and raised money for Mothers Fighting for Others. I saw Bill Lublin, met Melissa DelGaudio, and spent time with Jason Berman and talked microfinance (among other things). In Denver, I saw Todd Carpenter, Matt Goyer, Eric Stegemann, and Jeff Corbett (among others). I saw my former boss David Gibbons in Phoenix and my boss’ boss Spencer Rascoff in San Diego. And of course, I spent a bit of time at the #markshack hanging (and working) with Jim Marks along with Jesse and Nicole from the YouReach Media team. I got to see a few of my non real estate friends as well, but I won’t name them since their whole lives aren’t public (yet) like mine is. Sorry to everyone I didn’t name — there were way too many people, but I tried to list as many as possible.

It goes without saying that I feel incredibly fortunate to have such a broad and fantastic group of people in my life across the country. And thank you to everyone who I crashed with on the trip for the accomodations – my bank account certainly appreciates free places to stay

I’m off to Asia tomorrow, but I’ll try to post an update or two while I’m over there. At the least, I’ll be updating my Facebook status — so follow along there if you get bored waiting for updates here.

As many of you know, I decided to move on from my previous role at Zillow to pursue other things. I’ve spent the last month being unemployed — and have loved every second of it. Is it a little scary? Sure. But it’s exciting at the same time; I love being able to do whatever I want, whenever I want. However, that can only go on for so long without going broke. Don’t worry, I’m not broke yet — but I’m happy to accept cash, personal checks, or paypal donations if you’d like For my next career move, I’ve decided to work virtually for Jim Marks doing marketing and customer service (among other things) for Virtual Results and YouReach Media. I’m assuming most of you, at least those within the real estate space, are familiar with Virtual Results and the custom real estate websites they build in WordPress. With my role doing biz dev for Zillow, I’m very familiar with all the players in the real estate tech scene, and I’ve long thought the websites Jim builds (such as Partners Trust, Prime Miami Beach, Rancho Santa Fe Community Home Finder, and Arbour Realty) are some of the best sites out there. And those that know me certainly know I’m as big a WordPress fan as they come. Most of you are likely not familiar with YouReach Media since it’s a new venture between Jim and Tom Ferry. At a 30-thousand foot level, it’s a 6 month social media training program (though there will be other courses available in the future) that teaches a comprehensive social media strategy via online lessons, videos, quizzes, and a weekly webinar. Prudential Southern California is the first brokerage partner offering the program to their agents, and about 300 Prudential agents are starting the program on Monday. I’m certainly aware there is  no shortage of social media training for real estate professionals; I think the YouReach differentiation is that it’s not a “drive by seminar” only to be forgotten 3 days later and has follow-up exercises built into the program (something most programs lack IMO).  And I happen to know for a fact that Jim understands this thing called “social media” and is not just regurgitating what he hears from others.

Jim and I have become close friends over the past year and I’m a huge advocate for working with the people I want to work with; Jim is one of those people. Working in a smaller company will give me experience across a wide range of skill sets and gives me a broader set of responsibilities. In addition to my work with Jim, I’m working on another project that I’ll share more details about soon (hint: it’s travel-related).

As I said above, I’m going to “work virtually” — that’s because I’m going to spend the next 6 months traveling, both domestically and internationally. Jim’s been extremely accommodating on my desire to travel and work at the same time, and that certainly played into my decision-making. Here’s the rough itinerary for the next 6 months:

• Monday, I’m heading out on a  road trip around the US. I’ll be hitting Portland, San Francisco, Phoenix, Austin, and maybe New Orleans and Atlanta. We’ll see how the schedule works out once I get going, but I’ll keep people posted here, foursquare, and Twitter. If you are in any of these cities (or cities in between), let me know – would love to meet up.
• Mid-April, I’m off to South Korea with 2 friends to visit 2 of our good friends who are teaching over there, and making a stop in Tokyo on the way for a few days.
• Will be back in Seattle early May for a wedding, hitting Bay to Breakers in San Fran, then I’m migrating to Greece in mid-May with 4 friends to stay (probably on Santorini) until mid-August.

After that, who knows. I’m thinking of moving to Southern California or NYC, but maybe 6 months of traveling will influence my decision making a bit; not knowing for certain is part of the fun!

As for my online presence, I’ll post real estate “stuff” on both Geek Estate Blog and the Virtual Results Blog. My personal thoughts will continue to show up here, and microfinance related observations, links & thoughts on myKRO.org. I’ve also started using a Tumblr blog to share links I find of interest to me (and yes, I know my Tumblr theme is lame and needs work).

As you can tell, there are lots of moving pieces…but I couldn’t be more excited for the year ahead!

I love this quote:

“Own only what you can carry with you; know language, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.” -Alexander Solzhenitsyn

[via NileGuide]

“The few who do are the envy of the many who only watch.” -Jim Rohn

I certainly find myself envious of those doing great things…and it makes me work that much harder. Don’t be someone that only watches others in life.

[via Brian Dittmer]

[via the Rat Race]