How Starting a Business
is like Backpacking through Europe
When I was graduating from college, a close friend of mine and I decided to celebrate the occasion by taking time to backpack through Europe. As we mentioned our upcoming trip to friends and family, we were surprised by how many people made the same exact comment,
“Ah man, I always wanted to do that.”
That phrase stuck with us as we arrived in Europe and began our three-week journey. We knew very little about how a person goes about backpacking through Europe. In fact, we thought when people talked about backpacking through Europe, they really meant backpacking. So we landed in Frankfurt, Germany with nothing more than our school backpacks stuffed with a few changes of underwear, a couple of shirts and some MREs.
The trip was a huge success with lots of rewarding experiences that have provided us both with fun and fond memories. But I think for both of us, the most impactful takeaway from our trip was how within reach the whole thing was. When we were preparing for our trip, we didn’t have a perfect understanding or a detailed plan of what we were doing. To be honest, we were far from it. We had an idea of what we wanted to do — backpack through Europe — and we managed to solidify a few general details (and I really mean general) — like what day we were flying into Europe, which European airport we were flying into, and some of the main attractions to see in Europe: Paris and the Eiffel Tower, Rome and the Vatican.
In fact, before leaving my dad told me he would feel much more comfortable with the trip if we at least knew where we were staying the first night, so I called him from the airport before we boarded our plane to Germany to let him know that we would spend the first night on a sleeper train from Frankfurt to Paris. Well, as it turns out, there were no sleeper trains to take, so instead, we spent the first night sleeping in a park in Saarbrücken, Germany, near the western edge of France. It was a chilly night in late May, so we shivered the night out with nothing more than the blankets from our flight. Every few hours we’d wake up from the cold and need to get up and jump around to get the blood flowing and warm back up.
Yet despite our lack of a perfect knowledge, understanding and plan for our trip, we realized soon after surviving that first night how possible the whole trip would be. There were local resources in each city we visited that helped us know what we should be sure to see and visit. We started to understand how to find and reserve a decent hostel before leaving each area and heading to the next.
And most importantly, there were fellow travelers we met along the path who helped guide us forward with invaluable advice from their own experiences, like “don’t miss Cinque Terre in Italy,” and “the Balmer’s hostel in Interlaken, Switzerland is basically a rite of passage for backpackers — stay there.”
As our backpacking adventure neared an end, we discussed how truly the most difficult, intimidating part of the whole trip was the decision to go, to buy a ticket to Frankfurt and be on our way. The rest of the trip we managed to figure out as we went along. So when my friend and I returned home and our trip would come up with others, we would cringe upon hearing “Ah man, I always wished I had done that,” and we would think to ourselves, “Why didn’t you? The opportunity is more within reach than you know!”
So what does all of this have to do with starting a business? Well, a little over a month ago, I made the decision to leave my job in New York City so that I could pursue a startup opportunity with this same friend. As I started to share my plans with friends in the city, I began hearing a familiar phrase,
“Oh man, I really want to do that.”
It’s too soon to say for certain whether our current adventure will be another huge success. But after a month into it, I can say for sure that it has been a rewarding experience. And while we didn’t start with a detailed, perfect plan, we’ve been able to figure things out and learn what we need to along the way, most importantly from other travelers of the path. I can’t yet assure others that wish they were doing what we’re doing that success is within reach, but I can confidently say that the experience is within reach. You just have to get on the plane.
