Life Lessons From a Traveling Geologist

Emma’s Note: What do a rogue economist and a geologist have in common? On the surface, not a lot.

Regular Diary readers will be familiar with Bill’s love of travel. He’s currently spending time at his ranch in Argentina. And in these pages, he regularly relates how events from his travels inform his outlook on life.

In this weekend’s guest Diary edition, we hear from colleague Dave Forest, a fellow world traveler. Over the course of his 20-year career as a geologist, Dave has traveled to countries as far-flung as Colombia, Myanmar, and Zambia, scouting for companies with the potential to hit gold.

And like Bill, he’s picked up plenty of insights along the way. Today, he tells us about the vital life lessons he has learned on his travels…

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Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain advised: If you want to learn about life, get a job in the service industry.

Basic jobs teach critical skills, especially ones missing in many professional environments. You can learn a lot about yourself – and the world – dealing with an angry customer who blames you for his lobster coming out cold.

What I’ve learned throughout my 20-year career is that travel can offer the same benefits.

Sometimes, you need to change your view… to see more clearly what’s around you all the time.

Fortunately, being a geologist provides ample opportunity to wander the globe. I’ve visited an amazing slate of far-flung places: Colombia, Brazil, Zambia, Myanmar, Laos, Russia, Mongolia, and the Czech Republic, to name a few.

Not only that, I’ve gone to parts of these countries most tourists don’t ever get to. Mines and oil fields aren’t usually in the big cities. You often end up in the middle of nowhere.

These are real slices of life. Travel taught me more than I could ever learn in an office. Here are four of my most memorable lessons.

Lesson No. 1: Human Resilience Is Astonishing

I once visited a remote village in Zambia. There was almost nothing around. Locals were digging clay from a pit. They’d fire the clay in a handmade oven to produce bricks, then build houses with thatched roofs.

Imagine living where you couldn’t buy bricks. You’d have to rely on your own strength, skill, and ingenuity for the most basic items. These people did it.

It was the same in the high mountains of eastern Colombia. Hiking through the peaks, it wasn’t uncommon to find a small house built on a random mountainside. No roads, no power lines, no obvious water source. The owner just found a patch of open land and decided to stay.

The photo below is from one such hike on a Colombian mountaintop.

I find this comforting. If things ever go completely off the rails – if I lost all my money and hit hard times – I still have myself.

For people the world over, that’s enough. You can always find a way.

Lesson No. 2: How to Keep a Taxi Driver Honest

Getting from place to place is stressful, especially in a city you don’t know. Services like Uber – with fixed rates and reliable navigation – are making it better. But dealing with taxis is still a big hurdle on almost every trip.

I used to get ripped off all the time. Once in Colombia, I actually grabbed the wheel to prevent the driver from taking a wrong turn intentionally. He was trying to take me on a longer route to jack up the fare.

Here’s how to cut that stress…

Figure out how much it should cost for a ride to or from your hotel. Ask at the hotel or check Uber to see what the rate should be. Separate out that amount in cash. Put it in a pocket apart from your other money.

Now, hail a cab. Show the driver the cash and tell them, “This is all the money I have. Is it enough to get me to my destination?”

If you’ve got the proper fare, most taxis will take you. They’ll go direct and avoid the run-around. They know (or at least think) you can’t pay for an overcharge.

Drivers looking for a run-around might turn you down. But you want to avoid them anyway.

Lesson No. 3: Behave the Same Way You Do at Home

If you want to get a tattoo or go bungee-jumping when traveling, that’s cool. But generally, conduct yourself with the same decorum you would at home.

An incident in a bar in Bangkok in Thailand tragically drove this home for me. A drunk tourist threw a beer bottle at the television. The bar owners pulled him into an alley and beat him within an inch of his life.

Maybe this fellow chucks bottles at home, too. But I’ve seen all manner of people act badly, just because they’re in a different country.

In a club in Koh Samui, also in Thailand, I saw a tourist walk around patting locals on the head – uninvited and unwanted. Almost certainly, he doesn’t do this at home. Flying across an ocean doesn’t make it better.

Time and again, people feel entitled to act out because they’re on the road. I don’t know why.

Treat people, anywhere, with the same respect you would at home. It’ll get you a long way – and help keep you safe.

Lesson No. 4: Be Open to Wonderful Surprises

Maybe the best thing about traveling: the complete, unexpected surprises. Things locals wouldn’t bat an eye at, but you might never dream possible:

• The accordion is an obsession in northern Colombia. Locals have a yearly festival to crown one player “king of the accordion.” They also have a giant statue of the instrument in the city of Valledupar.

• The beaches of western Myanmar are as beautiful as those found in the Maldives or the Seychelles. But they’re deserted and cost a fraction of the price.

• Also on the topic of beaches… river beaches! On large rivers like the Amazon, or even small ones, a river beach can be as nice as the ocean.

• Nachos are one of my favorite meals. I was floored in Mexico to find out they have a breakfast version called chilaquiles.

• Korean food in Uzbekistan. Former president of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin relocated over 170,000 Koreans to Uzbekistan (then part of the USSR) in the 1930s. There’s still a huge Korean-descended population, and the eats are amazing. Here I am outside a government building there…

Travel Is About More Than Vacationing

Bourdain wasn’t just a celebrity chef. He was also known for taking expeditions around the world, where he learned as much as he could from locals he met.

He’s right about the benefits of a service job. But I think he would also agree with me on just how valuable travel is.

It doesn’t just open the door to opportunities you would never experience at home. It helps you meet new people, who often share a different perspective on life.

And it gives you a deeper appreciation for what you already have in your own sphere, something people often take for granted.

Keep walking the path,

David Forest
Editor, Strategic Investor

P.S. Traveling has given me a new perspective on life. But it’s also given me deep connections with other investors.

And my contacts have clued me in to some breaking news about Tesla, Elon Musk’s electric car company, that you need to hear about…

Tesla has a huge problem that could keep its business grounded. And few investors are paying attention.

But one tiny company has the solution Tesla needs. In fact, it could potentially score a multibillion-dollar deal with Musk’s firm any day now.

I share all the details right here…

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