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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, I didn’t see the ocean until I was 22 years old, and I believe if you are learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share a lesson I learned one evening as I stepped out of my hotel room.
Today’s Fun Fact: Today is April 25 and on this day in 1859, ground was broken to begin construction on the Suez Canal. So here are some facts about the canal.
- The canal, opened in 1869 after almost a decade of work.
- The canal shortens the Europe-Asia trade route by nearly 6,000 miles, which shaves about 15 days off of transit time.
- The canal was originally supposed to be home to the Statue of Liberty.
- In 2015 the canal was expanded which shortened the southbound crossing time from 18 hours to 11 hours.
What I Learned Yesterday:
The title of today’s episode is Embracing Adventure, but what is an adventure? Think about that for a moment. What is adventure? I’ll get back to that question in a few minutes, but let me first tell you about my adventure.
My adventure begins in the year 2008. I was scheduled to make my second trip to the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition (IRCE). The previous year had been in San Jose, but that year it was heading to Chicago. I was looking forward to visiting Chicago, as it would be my first trip there. I was the only person from my company attending the show, but I expected that at least one other person from our sister company would also be attending.
As with most conferences, it began each day around 9am and continued until about 5 in the evening. After the conference was over for the day, my plans were to head back to the hotel, catch up on emails, grab a bite to eat, and then walk around the city. I was staying at the Hilton Chicago, which is right across from Grant Park, Buckingham Fountain, and right in the heart of Michigan Avenue. There was plenty to see and do within walking distance.
Just before I left on the trip I found out that several people from our sister company were attending, including some people who were very high up in the ladder. In total there were 4 or 5 of them, and I’d only ever met one of them. To me, this totally changed the dynamic of the trip. Their company was much larger than mine, and since they were bringing one of the big shots, I wanted to make sure I followed their lead. I knew that my boss thought it was okay for me to go explore the city as long as I was taking care of business, but did they feel the same way? What if their big wig got the wrong impression of me and gave my boss a negative view of my actions while on the trip. I chose to play it safe and do exactly what they did.
We were going to be in Chicago for a total of 3 nights. One night was already booked up with a dinner with one of our mutual vendors. So that left two nights that could be open for exploring. The first night was pretty easy. All the folks from the other company were going out to dinner together and they asked me to come along. It was a chance for me to get to know them a bit more and so I happily agreed to join them. We had a good time at dinner and then called it a night.
The next night was the night that we were having dinner with the vendor. It was another fun night, but once it was over and we made it back to the hotel, it was time to call it a night.
At this point I was happy with my time in Chicago, but I really wanted to see more than just the inside of my hotel room, and a couple of restaurants. So for the third and final night, I decided I would try and get one of them to go out and explore the city. I was really only comfortable asking the person that I knew before the trip as I still didn’t feel totally comfortable around the rest of the people. Unfortunately, that person said that they were going to stay in the hotel all night and did not want to go walk around. So I did the same. Disappointed, I spent the last evening of my trip inside my hotel room.
The next day when we reconvened, one of the other guys was telling the rest of us all that he had done the night before. It turned out that he too wanted to go explore and he’d asked all the other folks in his company if they wanted to join him. They all turned him down. However, unlike me, he had decided to venture off on his own. He’d had a great time and really enjoyed his time walking around the city. Hearing him talk about his adventure made me even more disappointed with my decision. My opportunities to see the town were now gone and I would have to hope for another trip to the Windy City.
Fortunately, I would only have to wait a year to make a return to Chicago. IRCE was held there again the very next year. Before the second trip began I had already decided that no matter who attended from the other company, that unless I had work to get done, I would go and see some of the city. Well, it turned out that the other company only sent a couple of people that year, but my company decided to send another person in addition to me. Still, I was not going to leave disappointed. I would adventure out on my own if no one else wanted to join me.
Fortunately, the guy from my company also wanted to venture out, so there were no issues like the year before. However, there was one evening where he decided to stay at the hotel, so I ventured out on my own.
Here’s what I learned.
Sitting in the hotel room was the worst option. Whether I was out walking around the city with my co-worker or on my own, both were better than sitting the hotel room. In fact, I enjoyed my time exploring alone more than I did when I was with my co-worker. When I was alone, I got to go see exactly what I wanted and spend as much time at each place as I wanted.
The following year IRCE was in Chicago yet again. For that trip, my company sent 4 or 5 employees. Not only did I explore the city again, but I organized a GSM meet up. One of my co-workers went to the meet up with me and we had a great time. I was familiar with the city on that third trip, and we were able to get around and see quite a few things and make the most of our time. It was a fantastic and productive trip for business and pleasure.
So let’s get back to that question about adventure. What is adventure? Is your answer different now than it was a few minutes ago? The dictionary definition is, “engage in hazardous and exciting activity, especially the exploration of unknown territory.” Well, don’t know about that hazardous part, but I do like that definition. Adventure can certainly be hazardous, but I don’t think it has to be.
Adventure is something out of the ordinary. Adventure is doing something that pushes your limits, even if it’s just a bit of a push. For me, going out and exploring on my own was not something I was originally willing to do. However, once I decided that I would venture out, even if it meant doing it alone, I gained experiences and saw things that I never would have otherwise.
Adventure can be getting the courage up to talk to your secret crush. Adventure can be moving to a new city. Adventure can be quitting your job, or applying for an advanced position at your current one. Adventure can be traveling, parachuting, kayaking, or SCUBA diving too, of course. But don’t think that adventure always has to be those things.
Consider Bilbo Baggins. Bilbo went on a fantastic adventure for sure. He explored parts of the world and saw creatures that he never knew existed. But Bilbo’s true adventure was simply having the courage to leave the shire. There’s a whole world of opportunity out there filled with adventure. Where will your adventure begin?
I’m Darrell Darnell and this has been stuff I learned yesterday.
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