Success Story: The Non-Conformist Ninja – Chris Guillebeau

Chris Guillebeau has been challenging authority since 1978. He’s traveled to over 100 countries and will have visited every country in the world by 2012. He’s built an army of followers with his blog and popular ebooks.

Oh, and did we mention that he’s only 31-years-old?

Writer, Traveler, Fighter of the Status Quo

As author of The Art of Non-Conformity blog, Chris writes about his own version of success: long-term travel, unconventional living, and helping people take over the world. We caught up with Chris for this interview just before the holidays while he was between travel adventures.

3 Ways to Take Over The World in 2010:

• Why “time is money” is absurd
• The world-view changes you can make to improve your life
• How you can help people AND make money at the same time

CoolSuccessStories: A Brief Guide to World Domination is your manifesto. What drove you to write a manifesto and why did you write about the topic you did: how to live a remarkable life in a conventional world (which is also the book’s subtitle)?

Chris Guillebeau: I felt like I had been fortunate to have a wide range of experiences in my first decade of adulthood, from always being self-employed to working in West Africa and so on. I wanted to share my ideas with a community of readers and learn from them as well. Before I started AONC and wrote the manifesto, I probably spent about two years thinking on what was most important and what I really had to say.

CSS: Early on in A Brief Guide to World Domination, you write “You don’t have to live your life the way other people expect you to”. This theme continues throughout the book and much of what you write. Why is this so important to you?

CG: Because much of what we do is often a response to other people’s expectations. I am always my worst critic and principal audience for whatever advice I have to offer, so even though I was self-employed and didn’t need to answer to anyone, for years I let my fear of what other people thought of me dictate many of my actions. When I finally learned to overcome that, life got a lot better.

CSS: You volunteered for 4 years in West Africa, helping improve access to healthcare and clean water in the world’s poorest places. What did you learn during that and how do you think it shaped what you’re doing now?

CG: You can help other people while still doing good things for yourself. Serving a medical charity was great because I could see the tangible impact it made in other people’s lives. I benefited too, through the transformative experience and chance to meet so many amazing people.

CG: The shift from being a pessimist to an optimist. I used to be a fairly negative person, viewing the world in zero-sum terms and always being critical of everyone. While I was in Africa I learned to shift towards the abundance mentality, which I now embrace fully. No one has to lose for me to win, and vice versa. This is a very powerful belief structure, but it’s always hard when you change your worldview, even if the previous worldview was limiting.

CSS: What is your favorite book and why?

CG: I like the story of Paul Farmer as told in Mountains Beyond Mountains. In terms of fiction, Haruki Murakami is my favorite author. I also really liked A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. Recently, I read A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller and thought it was brilliant.

CG: The belief that “Time is money” – this is absurd. Time and money are completely unrelated in the pursuit of a meaningful life. If I was going to organize my life around the most efficient structure, I would never spend a lot of money and travel to random countries just for the purpose of being there. But yet, those experiences are meaningful to me, and I enjoy the process of trying to get to every country in the world, so I do it.

CSS: What do you love most about what you’re doing now and why? What do you like least and why?

CG: Naturally I appreciate my freedom and the chance to work within my own schedule, but I’ve had that for a long time. I’ve always kind of done my own thing, but what’s better now is that I can see a direct correlation between my values and the broad readership of AONC. Every day people write in with interesting stories about their own lives, and reading their messages is probably my favorite thing.

In terms of what do I like least, I can’t really think of anything. I feel like I’m in the 90th percentile of happiness right now. The goal is probably 95th or so, but we need something to work for, right? So I’m good. Thanks.

CSS: Thanks, Chris! Readers can learn more by visiting The Art of Non-Conformity and also by checking out A Brief Guide to World Domination.