Monique and I are adventurers in our blood. We once did an exercise together to discover our shared values. Our top two are humor and adventure.
That makes sense when you know our story. You see, I proposed to Monique 10 days after we met. She said yes and we stunned our friends and family with the news. Looking back, we sometimes still wonder why we didn’t just go on a date!
The next day, Monique told me she was scheduled to move to India, to perform in a 5* hotel in New Delhi for the next 3 months. I replied, “Can I come?!” She said, “Yes!” and that was the start of our adventure together.
Before her performances in India were complete, I told her that I’d always dreamed of traveling the world with a beautiful woman and I asked if she’d like to join me. She said, “Yes!” and thus commenced the next part of our adventure together.
We spent a year traveling the world, from England to France to Kenya to Uganda to South Africa to Namibia to Botswana to Zimbabwe to Thailand to Vietnam to Cambodia to Fiji. We trekked to see the gorillas in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda. We traveled in an overland truck across Southern Africa. We snorkeled off the beaches of Thailand and traveled by boat across South East Asia. We even drank Kava, the mild narcotic that is the national drink of Fiji, in a traditional kava ceremony.
This is us on the Okavango Delta in Botswana – and Monique seeing gorillas for the first time in the wild. She rates that in her top 3 life-changing experiences.
We’ve lived in London, San Francisco and Los Angeles together but our passion for adventure goes back a lot further.
Monique spent two years of her childhood in Kenya. Her father was a Director in the Peace Corps and her mother was a teacher. And in my early 20s I spent two years teaching in a rural village in Botswana – in the British equivalent of the Peace Corps.
It’s not an adventure if it doesn’t require courage…
We’ve taken the boys traveling with us, around Europe and the US, since they were tiny. But over the past two years we’ve barely traveled, due to Covid.
It was driving us both crazy.
But when Monique suggested to me that we spend 3 weeks in Tanzania this summer, I got scared and I tried to convince her that we should wait.
I hadn’t realized how much my adventure muscle had withered over the past couple of years and it took a couple of weeks of Monique’s persuasion before I realized that I was done with being trapped at home. I was done with feeling afraid. I had a flash of insight: It’s not an adventure if it doesn’t require courage…
So, I summoned up all the courage I could muster and I said, “Let’s do it!” And we began to plan our next adventure…
This summer, we traveled to Tanzania, where we spent time on safari and time on a beach in Zanzibar. I even got to meet up with Martha for the first time. She’s our first member of 4PC who lives in Africa. And I coached her with the sound of the ocean in the background.
A boat trip in the Indian Ocean and my first ever in-person meeting with Martha, who’s been a client for over 2 years
After that, Monique left us to teach and perform in Italy and go on a cruise around the Greek islands with a friend. And I took the boys for a week in Paris, followed by two weeks in London.
My mum and Monique’s dad joined us in Paris. And I lined up for over two hours for a selfie with the Mona Lisa!
We wrapped our summer adventure with a week on the Hawaiian island of Maui.
Snorkeling with Ellington, looking for sea turtles…
Back in the year 1300, the word aventuren meant, “to risk the loss of.” Even earlier, it meant “ to wander, travel; happen by chance.”
That’s why adventure isn’t just about travel for me.
Adventure is a frame through which I see my life, create my clients and build my business.
Adventure is a foundational premise of my business. I make decisions based on whether or not my actions will lead to more adventure. That doesn’t always make life easy. But remember: It’s not an adventure if it doesn’t require courage…
And I’ve created coaching adventures for clients that have ranged from being coached on a beautiful beach, to dining in a restaurant in complete darkness (served by blind waiters). I’ve taken clients to the desert, to a graveyard, to world-class spas and to boutique hotels. And I’ve slept outside, next to clients, under the stars. I’ve ridden on camels with clients, taken clients on hikes with wolves and to do equine coaching with horses. I’ve taken clients to art galleries, to race Lamborghinis and to trapeze school on the Santa Monica pier.
What’s a business or life adventure that you have been putting off? And what would you do differently if you had just 4% more courage?
Love. Rich