Chris Guillebeau - The Happiness of Pursuit: Finding the Quest That Will Bring Purpose to Your Life

When a quest is a journey or a sought-after goal, it can be satisfying, fun, even paradigm shifting. But when a quest begins with an inner yearning and transforms into a calling, it becomes medicine for the soul, and this changes everything. The Happiness of Pursuit is an invitation to listen to the part of oneself that craves purpose. It says, Hey! Wake up! Your unique adventure awaits you.

L ISSA R ANKIN , M.D., New York Times bestselling author of Mind Over Medicine

The incredible quests Chris Guillebeau explores in The Happiness of Pursuit, including his own to visit every country, left me feeling exhausted. Of course, as a person who works from home, I limit my quests most days to taking a shower. Bottom line: these stories are inspiringand very, very entertaining.

J OEL S TEIN , columnist for Time magazine and author of Man Made: A Stupid Quest for Masculinity

Chris Guillebeau doesnt want you to settle for a life thats just a routine. He thinks it should be an adventure. His advice on how to design and achieve your own transformative quest is invaluableand, even better, his enthusiasm is infectious.

K EN J ENNINGS , record-setting Jeopardy! champion and New York Times bestselling author of Maphead

Go ahead and admit it: Youve got a dream in you, something you want to fulfill, a quest that perhaps you havent yet shared with anyone. Chris Guillebeauwho, by the way, has completed his own quest of visiting every country in the entire worldhas written the book that should be your very first stop .

E RIN M C H UGH , author of One Good Deed: 365 Days of Trying to Be Just a Little Bit Better

Chris Guillebeau is a true Renaissance Man. In The Happiness of Pursuit he shows us how the power of a quest can transform lives. Adventure comes in many forms, but having the courage to pursue ones true calling is what defines a life worth living. Guillebeau inspires readers to do just that, no matter whom they are or where their passions lie. This is a must-read for anyone seeking that spark of insight that will ignite the inner fire.

D EAN K ARNAZES , acclaimed endurance athlete and New York Times bestselling author

As someone who walked almost every block in New York City121,000 of themI can really relate to this wonderful book. Guillebeaus stories of the incredible challenges that people set for themselves and meet are perspective altering and even inspiring. Most of all, they teach us that life occurs but once and that we can, if we try our hardest, make the most of it.

W ILLIAM H ELMREICH , author of The New York Nobody Knows: Walking 6,000 Miles in the City

Also by Chris Guillebeau

The $100 Startup

The Art of Non-Conformity

Copyright 2014 by Chris Guillebeau

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Harmony Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York. www.crownpublishing.com

Harmony Books is a registered trademark, and the Circle colophon is a trademark of Random House LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
is available upon request.

ISBN 978-0-385-34884-3
eBook ISBN 978-0-385-34885-0

Illustration on by Nicholas Felton
Illustration on by Mike Rohde
Jacket design by Michael Nagin
Title type: Jessie Sayward Bright
Jacket illustration: Anthonycz/Shutterstock
Author photograph: Stephanie D. Zito

v3.1

I.
Beginnings

I t was nearly one a.m. when I stepped off a plane and stumbled into the international airport in Dakar, Senegal.

Id been here many times before, but it always took a moment to regain my bearings. Everywhere I turned, a different guy offered to help with my bagsa series of offers I didnt need, since I always travel lightbut the persistent porters were hard to turn down. A shouting match erupted between two of the men. I knew what the stakes were: Whoever served as my escort would be eligible for the tip.

I picked out one of the porters at random and followed him to a small alcove above the shouting crowd. A couple of plastic chairs were nailed to the floor. Here, he told me in French. You can stay here and sleep. I looked at the chairs, paid off the guy, and set up camp for what I knew would be a long night.

My final destination was the tiny republic of Guinea-Bissau, just half an hour by air from Dakar, but the flight didnt leave until seven a.m. What to do for six hours?

I could have gone into the city and found a hotel, but the prospect of three hours of sleep before trudging back to the airport wasnt enticing. Better to ride it out until I reached my final destination and was able to crash in a real bed.

I had a bottle of water, procured upon arrival, and a three-ounce bottle of vodka, procured in the Frankfurt airport lounge prior to heading to Africa earlier that day. Together with an airline blanket (thanks, Lufthansa) was all I needed for a few hours of fitful sleep.

Four days earlier I had walked in the rain past Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. My destination was a tiny consulate office in a sublet United Nations building. The office had no listed hours. For a fee of $100payable in cash, no receipt providedI received the visa Id been hunting down for several months.

This trip would take me from New York to Frankfurt to Dakar to Bissau, and then back out via Lisbon and London a few days later. It was both a journey and a task.

Even when youre worn down from three continents of travel, its hard to sleep on a plastic chair in a West African transit area. I was careful to keep the strap from my laptop bag coiled around my leg, but still woke with a jolt every few moments as I worried about a return visit from the helpful porters. When I managed to drift into real sleep, a swarm of mosquitoes arrived to keep watch, ensuring that I never dozed for long.

I thought about what a laughable experience it was. Why, after having achieved a healthy measure of career success, with plenty of projects at home and a worldwide community of friends in more pleasant surroundings, did I find myself propped up on a plastic chair in the middle of the night in Senegal?

What was the journey and the task?

First things first. This area of the world is where it all started, many years ago. Ten years earlier I had roamed the region as an aid worker, serving as a volunteer for a medical charity. Through trial and error I learned how to avoid bribes (well, except for airport porters) and make my way through chaotic arrival scenes like the one I encountered tonight.

So why had I returned?

It was simple, really. This time I was on a different kind of mission. For the past decade I had devoted much of my time, money, and attention to visiting every country in the world. Every single country in every region, with no country left behindit was a lifelong challenge I had pondered for years before finally accepting it as the quest I would pursue for as long as it took.

This mission had led me to breakaway former Soviet republics and remote islands in the South Pacific. Id watched the only flight of the night on another small island take off without me. Id successfully arrived in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia without a visa, somehow convincing the immigration authorities to let me stay. Id been deported from a country Im still trying to forget.