While I was back in the bay area for Christmas I randomly emailed some folks who had posted on Hacker News about their startup.  I went and met them for coffee and we ended up meeting for the next 6 hours!  We talked business and strategy, geeked out on programming skills, and talked about the future.  They liked my background in startups  and what they needed in a programmer was a good match with my skills.  Their idea is solid and has some big potential.  A week later they made me an offer to come join them and I decided to accept.

They are 3 very smart guys who just got funding for their idea, and it is a y-combinator company, something I’ve always wanted to be a part of.  The startup is still in stealth mode so I won’t post a link to the site yet (I will when we launch).  Their investors are high profile and the sort of people I want to meet.  The bay area is also the center of everything in the technology startup world right now, and I’d love to dive into that scene head first.  Part of me was reluctant to give up traveling the world for a bit, and technically it is a “real job” which conflicts with the message of this site :)  But it is a startup and my own projects will keep running on the side (luckily they run almost entirely on their own at this point – both businesses and investment property) and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get involved in this group.

In short, I can’t wait to get to the bay area.  Vagabonding has been fun for a bit, and Buenos Aires is a magical city that I won’t soon forget, but I can’t wait to see what opportunities lie in Silicon Valley.

Until next time, keep breaking free!
Brian Armstrong

Image by Thomas Hawk

He began “Dear Citizen Brian” and went on to explain that yes, he was in fact a real life super hero who dressed in costume and patrolled various areas of Australia, intimidating the criminal element.  He also wanted help spreading his message and building his blog.

I wasn’t quite sure what to make of this email, so I clicked through to his website and instantly fell in love.  There it was, a person who had a crazy idea of what he wanted to do and JUST WENT FOR IT, not giving a damn what anyone else thought.

He wanted to prevent crime, and had literally adopted a secret identity as a super hero.  Let me say it again: yes, he is actually serious.

I quickly added a new item to my list of things I MUST do before I die: interview this man and find out more about him.

Why? Because he is an example of someone who has truly broken free and pursued his passion.  If he can become a real life super hero, when what excuse do you and I have for not accomplishing our goals?

If you want some background first, you can check out his awesome FAQs, including more info on his armoury (which includes mace and an iPhone) and super powers (such as photographic memory).

Without further ado, here is my interview with the real life super hero, Captain Australia. (He took the liberty of recording some video responses as well.)  Enjoy!

1. Please introduce yourself to my readers and tell us a bit about your mission

I am Captain Australia, and I am on a Quest to make the world a better place.  My mission in a nutshell: To fight evil.

What is evil ? It’s everywhere .. evil has been with us of old. My job is to fight it – the big evil: criminality, paedophilia, rape of the environment, and the little evil – apathy, selfishness, greed. Basically my mission is as much about being an example and inspiration as it is about actively fighting crime.

So, to articulate my goals in a simple list, with simple examples:

1. Patrol, and directly intimidate the criminal element (eg, drug dealers and prostitutes move out of neighbourhoods I patrol)
2. Directly intervene if I see a crime, and solve crimes I become aware of (eg, if I see someone being robbed or assaulted, I must stop it)
3. Help others. (that simple, I want to find ways to help people, Nelson Hendersen said “The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit”)
4. Inspire people. (eg, by putting other people ahead of my own personal safety, by taking a stand against evil, I hope to inspire others to stand up and make the world better, Martin Luther King Jr said “…I just want .. love and .. justice and .. truth and .. commitment to others, so that we can make of this old world a new world”)

2. What’s the most common reaction you get from people at first? How do you convince them you’re serious?

Most people are amused. They want photographs, as if I’m some kind of celebrity. I don’t mind, so much – if I can’t inspire people the first time I meet them, I can at least reach out to them, and I can settle for amusing them. If they then see me, witness my mission, and come to understand what I do, then it is my hope that it will influence them.

So far, people tend to fall into a few different categories (I personally like #4 the most, it makes me smile):

1. Avoidance or Apathy: some people seem shocked or scared, and simply look away, they simply lower their gaze and shuffle past as fast as they can. (These are the sleep-walkers that I hope to wake up)
2. Curious: some people are engaged and interested (maybe amused), and ask me questions about what I’m doing & why. I see these people as genuine potential evangelists, people who can see value in what I’m doing and maybe allow it to influence the way they live their lives somehow.
3. Photo Op: some people simply see me as a novelty and want a photo with me. Where I can, I try to explain my mission, and turn them into a #2
4. genuinely puzzled: some people simply openly stare at me, jaw dropping, every manner of their posture screaming out to me “WTF?!”, sometimes the reaction is so strong, it’s almost as if a spaceship landed in front of them, Ronald McDonald sprang out from the cockpit & started singing “Happy Birthday to You”

With respect to the second half of your question – how do I convince them I’m serious – well, that’s complicated. At first I was more interested in seeking out crime – people’s reactions didnt really matter to me. Now I realise that connecting with people, helping & inspiring people is a critical part of my mission. So when I meet someone who is Curious, I explain to them what I’m doing and why. I give them a calling card, and let them know that if they need my help, they should contact me.

Only short-fall – I have one cellphone – and giving it out to Citizens will compromise my secret identity. I’m just going to have to absorb the operating cost and get a second phone so that people can ring Captain Australia when they need his help or advice .. so far the calling cards just have Email, Twitter & Web contacts, which seems slow if they want to talk to me while I’m out on patrol.

3. How often do you go out on patrol in full costume? How do you choose locations?

If I were untethered by any other consideration than Captain Australia, I’d actually choose hotspots around the world (based on crime, poverty, apathy – basically profile possible areas to base out of). I’d patrol daily, doing whatever I can to demonstrate my commitment to changing lives in that area. Every few months, I’d move on to another area. As it stands, I operate out of Brisbane Australia, and when my employer requires me to travel, I also tear open my corporate shirt & tie revealing the bold @ underneath – so sometimes I get the opportunity to patrol in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth or New Zealand (and hopefully at some stage Singapore, where I know that organised crime and prostitution has a real underbelly).

For now, I simply base my choice on known areas of crime in Brisbane, or areas known for homelessness (to help where I can), finally, I might just patrol a public area to achieve a level of visibility – as a deterrent and to spread the inspirational message. With my work obligations, I can only really patrol once per week. And the last few weeks Ive been on hiatus while I get my health right (I actually injured my foot with Version1 boots while Parkour Street Running, and the nail of my big toe came off .. so while I’m waiting on Boots Version2 – being ordered from the USA – I havent been patrolling weekly, but I’ll resume that as soon as the boots arrive).

4. Why do you feel it is important to protect your identity?

My family. I don’t wear a mask out of shame, I wear it purely to protect my family (and make a statement).I know that I may not achieve a notable impact against crime, that is largely about luck & circumstance. But I do know that its possible that my interference could offend drug dealers, pimps, gangs, thugs – my own safety is secondary, but I simply cannot face putting my family at risk. Also, it’s loosely possible that I might attract crazies – some loony out there might consider me to be their ‘nemesis’ and decide that they need to track me down and teach me about suffering. Again, I can handle myself, but God help the person who tries to reach past me to harm my family.

I won’t compromise my secret identity by giving any significant detail on this point.

5. Many of our readers are interested in “breaking free” – meaning doing what they are passionate about in life, as you obviously have – but money often holds people back. Do you have a “real job” during the day (Clark Kent worked at the Daily Planet, Bruce Wayne had Wayne Enterprises) or how do you fund Captain Australia’s endeavors?

Short answer: Yes. Although I’ve hardly broken free from it – in fact, being Captain Australia isn’t cheap – I would absolutely love to fund some higher tech equipment and a costume that really affords me some protection against weaponry – but as it is, I have to fund what I’m doing. I have a reasonably lucrative career. I won’t give too much detail, again to protect my secret identity, but it’s basically a middle->high level management position in corporate australia. Its more than adequate to support my personal life and my expenses so far as Captain Australia.

6. Clearly making money is not the primary goal with a project like this, but do you view the blog as potentially a means of financial support (Captain Australia t-shirts, ad-support, donations from concerned citizens, etc) or solely as a means to spread the word?

I have thought about that. I would love to find a way to fund this full-time (and ideally unlock travel to some of the bleaker places of the world – places of socio-economic depression where I can rally people). Ultimately it is secondary though, I’ve thought about the possibility of maybe getting some T-shirts done up, or maybe a graphic novel – I don’t really know – honestly though, it does open up the dream of committing myself full-time to my mission, which I find immensely appealing. I dont like the idea of donations at all (unless maybe Bill Gates flicked 2M my way – I think 2M is all I would need to invest to permanently fund my efforts as Captain Australia – just use it to generate income from the interest). Maybe advertising or some kind of merchandise – but it’s really not what I’m about – it’s just a daydream to be able to do this full time.

7. I like your choice of “weapons” – spray can of mace, camera, pen and paper, etc and you strike me as someone who uses violence as a last resort. Although I have a concealed handgun license, I personally believe these non-lethal methods of self-defense can be more effective. Please tell our readers about your philosophy in the best way to prevent crimes, what level of violence is appropriate/necessary in what situation, and how our readers can best protect themselves.

Confidence is your best weapon. Most criminals are cowards. I know that sounds like a naive cliche, but I promise you, it’s true. They generally won’t act unless the odds are in their favour. That’s what makes me powerful. I will move forward -despite- the odds. I will put my personal safety to one side and challenge anybody that I feel is evil. I will never stand idly by and watch someone who is innocent be victimised. Is violence an effective tool ? Yes, it can be. But you have to use it fearlessly. You have to act quickly and deliberately. Personally, except for totally random incidents, I think that your best tool is actually politics – using negotiation skills to defuse hostile situations, using respect to get potentially violent people to calm down and articulate their views without hostility.

Since putting on Captain Australia’s mask, I havent had to be violent. I’ll address my martial arts training in one of the questions to follow – but I do sincerely think violence is a last resort. As far as serious advice goes – unless the odds are clearly in your favour, if someone threatens you: talk calmly to them while you conduct a risk assessment. Look them over and the environment, and make a determination as to whether you should fight or run. If they have already threatened you and are just toying with you or trying to intimidate you, use the element of surprise before you act. Do 1 of 2 things: attack fast & hard, or attack suddenly and then immediately run. (If you slap someone in the face, or kick their knee or in-step, the surprise will often give you a few valuable seconds. Don’t scream or yell when you run, put all your wind into sprinting).

Weapons arent the way forward. The human tendency to reach for a weapon is driven out of cowardice and a craving for power. It’s putting down our weapons that takes true courage.

8. What are your views on firearms and do you believe an armed population prevents crime or creates more of it? There have been several high profile cases (at least in the U.S.) of citizens killing criminals (see Joe Horn and Bernhard Goetz). They’ve subsequently been called everything from heroes to criminals themselves. What are your views?

Fundamentally, I believe in complying with Rule of Law, it’s basically the collectively agreed set of rules that we all have to live by: and people who knowingly take a gun and shoot someone else are committing an unlawful act. They have no jurisdictional right to execute anybody. I think its quite clear that they are criminals.It’s my sincere belief that taking another human life for anything other than a grim and high duty is morally wrong. I’d have to pose – do these guys who pump bullets into criminals get a rush when they do it ? Do you think sometimes at night they think about it as they go to sleep, and smile ? I think that you can work within the confines of the law and still have perfectly reasonable methods to interfere with criminals.

If someone breaks into your home in the still of night, I think its completely acceptable to use deadly force to protect your family. But personally, I condemn someone who will strap on a gun and go out looking for people to kill. I understand that the US legal system (and Australian) could be described as unreliable, but that doesnt mean that I personally am any better.

If you see someone being attacked, you jump in and incapacitate the assailant. You dont need a chainsaw, bazooka, machete, or a .357 magnum to do that.

I’d prefer to lay down my own life than risk killing an innocent person. Again, I think putting down a weapon takes a whole lot more courage than picking one up.

9. You appear to be a martial arts expert. Which style of martial arts should people learn if they are primarily concerned with self defense?

I’ve been learning since child-hood. I’m expert in Judo, Ju-jitsu, Karate, Wing Chun & Ton Long Kung fu. I also have some experience with boxing (which is actually quite handy – I think it helps you to learn how to take a punch and not fear it, the other martial arts styles try to avoid being hit).If I had to recommend a fighting style for self defense, I think Ju-jitsu is extremely practical. It teaches grapples and strikes – ways to move your hands and body to lock up your attacker and minimise their ability to hurt you. Someone who has really trained in ju-jitsu can easily hold one assailant by the wrist, using pain to steer him around using him as a shield against a second combatant while he kicks the third in the instep and incapacitates him. Its a very practical fighting form.

But if you’re only interested in self protection, you can avoid the training and get various non-lethal sprays and personal alarms.

10. What would be an ideal contact for you to make (TV interview, speaking to a class of children, profile on major website, etc) to further your mission? Perhaps one of our readers can make the introduction.

I dont know. I’m currently arranging to spend some time with sick kids in critical care, to cheer them up and amuse them – basically I’m struggling to find the correct path for me to be walking. If I thought about it purely in terms of exposure, I guess getting into the mainstream media would be useful, but what I really want, more so than fame, is the individual engagement – helping people and spreading my message that we must all take a personal stand to brighten the world. (Which can start with a single candle).

Thank you Captain Australia for making time for this interview!

If you haven’t already, make sure to subscribe to his website and show your support for Captain Australia.

I would not be surprised if Captain Australia becomes an internet sensation and you’re not going to want to miss his rise to fame- I think this could be big.

Finally Captain Australia has asked for your support in the following ways:

• Please send him suggestions and tips on how he can better accomplish his mission
• Please ask for his help if you need support or wish to report a crime/disturbance in your neighborhood (especially if you live in Australia)

Captain Australia, we salute you!  Until next time, keep breaking free,
Brian Armstrong

This proves the point I wrote about a while back, which is that it really isn’t that expensive to travel the world if you do it right.

How can you afford to travel the world?
It’s not that expensive. Most people think of world travel like a vacation – and that’s not the right way to think about it.

Vacations are expensive because you still have all your expenses back home (mortgage/rent, car payment, gym, cell phone, etc) to make in ADDITION to the new expenses you just rang up (plane ticket, hotels, etc). It’s basically like living in two cities at once.

But I’m not taking a VACATION to South America – I’m actually MOVING there. This means I will not be paying any living expenses in the U.S., I will be selling my car, and will be canceling or putting on hold all other expenses (phone, gym, etc).

I won’t be staying in hotels there or paying tourist prices. I will be renting an apartment (probably month to month). The plane ticket to get there isn’t cheap (about $1,000) but once there most travel around South America can be done on buses or trains (or even short plane trips city to city) very inexpensively.

So what did I actually spend my money on?  Here’s the breakdown…

• $450 – renting this room
• $88 – my health insurance from the U.S.
• $480 – everything else (cash expenses) mostly food

Normally I’d break down expenses further by looking at credit card statements, but people don’t really use credit cards much in Buenos Aires so I don’t have a good record of it.  I pay for everything with cash so it’s all lumped into that $480.  Probably most of it is food and drinks though.

For that amount you can live pretty nicely here…I think I ate out for dinner almost every night in June (might have cooked dinner at home once) and my room is in probably the nicest neighborhood in Buenos Aires.  But on the other hand, it’s not like I had a penthouse with a private pool or did any lavish shopping or anything like that (although those are pretty reasonably priced too).

So anyway, if you have a business that let’s you be mobile while working, “moving” to Buenos Aires can be a great way to save some money and have an adventure in the process.

DSPS is a sleeping disorder (Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome) and while I only found out it had a name years later, I started experiencing it around the time I entered high school (13 years old).

Here is a simple description of it:

The major feature of these disorders is a misalignment between the patient’s sleep pattern and the sleep pattern that is desired or regarded as the societal norm…. In most circadian rhythm sleep disorders, the underlying problem is that the patient cannot sleep when sleep is desired, needed or expected.

The symptoms are:

• Regardless of how sleep deprived you are, you are unable to fall asleep until very late
• Once you do fall asleep you can sleep for a normal amount of time, this differentiates it from other sleep disorders like insomnia
• There is a relatively severe to absolute inability to advance the sleep phase to earlier hours

I first started noticing this problem around the time I entered high school. I’d have to wake up fairly early (7am?) for school every day and of course it was difficult. This in itself was not remarkable. What was remarkable was that I would be unable to fall asleep before 2 or 3am any night, even after five days of little sleep.

So you can imagine Monday goes by on 4 hours of sleep. You aren’t feeling great. You should be tired the next night right? Nope…I would be exhausted all day, but as 9PM started to roll around I’d finally wake up for the day and start to get my best work done. Hours would just fly by like nothing. Even at 2 or 3 AM I was wide awake and could have easily kept going. But I knew I had to wake up in 4 hours and would force myself to go to bed.

The second day goes by on 4 hours of sleep. You feel even worse. Surely, tonight your body should be wanting to catch up on sleep right? Nope…same problem (you’re exhausted all day but start to wake up at night). Even when I would “go to bed” at 10 or 11PM to try and catch up, I would literally lie there awake in bed for hours and hours (until about 3AM) bored out of my mind.

The entire week goes by like this, each day getting worse and worse (in the morning and throughout the day) as you are in permanent jet lag, yet you can’t fall asleep any earlier.

The best way I can describe it is if you’ve ever had to wake up in the middle of the night and do something in a deep sleep. It’s like if you suddenly had to start getting up for work every day at 1AM.

I was on an entirely different schedule than the rest of the world, and couldn’t adjust no matter how hard I tried.

The Worst Part About It: People’s Perceptions

By far the worst part of DSPS is the societal stigma around it. Obviously, most people (even doctors) have never heard of it. It only affects 0.17% of the population. And most people when you tell them about it think it’s bullshit or that you’re lazy/making excuses.

“It’s just a habit you have to get into.”

“I find exercise/light reading helps me.”

“You just have to give up caffeine.”

Yes, I tried all these things and all of them help me fall asleep faster: at 3AM. That’s just what my body considers it’s normal bed time.

It can be frustrating at times because people make suggestions about it that come across as patronizing. Sometimes you just want to scream “duh! this has been messing with my life every day for the last 10 years, don’t you think I would have tried not drinking caffeine and saved myself the trouble 10 years ago!!!”

But obviously, you can’t blame other people. If I was in their shoes I probably wouldn’t believe it either. People invent all sorts of limitations which are entirely mental.

After reading every piece of literature I could find and trying dozens of treatments to fix it over the last 10 years, I’m fairly convinced that it is a genetic predisposition for me though and not psychosomatic (possibly still curable but I haven’t found anything reliable yet).

Perhaps the worst offenders in the “people’s perceptions” category for me was my parents. Throughout high school (and partially even to this day, I’m not really sure) they did not believe it or fully understand it.

Obviously, after a school week of sleeping four hours per night (and falling asleep again Friday night at 3AM) my body was DESPERATE to sleep a full 8-12 hours on the weekend till noon or later. My parents weren’t happy about this and believed it was a sign of laziness. They would play all sorts of games to get me up on time (I was not amused – again, imagine being woken up at the equivalent of 1AM after a week of sleep deprivation – I believe the North Koreans use similar tactics in labor camps! :).

To their credit, I know they only wanted the best for me, and they didn’t know. DSPS wasn’t even formally recognized as a sleeping disorder until 1981, a few years before I was born, so they had no way of knowing.

Still, it was tough.

A World Designed Without You In Mind

For a long time, I felt like one of those 7 foot basketball players where doorways and airplanes seats never fit you. The world was just not designed for me.

Teachers in high school would routinely harass me for not being alert. I remember actually having hallucinations (the medical term for this is a microsleep) while sitting in class fairly often – a common symptom of extreme sleep deprivation. I didn’t know this wasn’t normal. I figured everyone just “spaces out” sometimes. It’s a really bizarre feeling to have your eyes open while dreaming. You are frozen, almost paralyzed, for 10 seconds or so in a trance until you jerk back suddenly to reality.

College was better, I was able to schedule many of my classes in the afternoon. However, not all of them. Early morning exams were difficult. There is well documented evidence about the negative effects of sleep deprivation, namely:

• Mental acuity decreases significantly
• Healing – a 2007 study showed a 20% decrease in white blood cell count in sleep deprived rats as compared to a control group
• A variety of accidents including the Exxon Valdez spill and Chernobyl nuclear reactor meltdown have been linked to sleep deprived workers

I remember one time in college I went to the gym (it was a small weight room and nobody else was there). I was laying on the incline bench, and put down a set of weights. A moment later I woke up and looked at my watch. An hour and a half had gone by. I had fallen asleep in the middle of the gym without even knowing it.

There were other incidents as well. In the mornings driving to school I would sometimes fall asleep at stop lights. When it turned green people would honk behind me and I’d wake back up. Obviously not the safest way to drive.

Again, all I can compare it to is imagine having to wake up at 1am to take an exam. You probably wouldn’t do quite as well, right?

This is probably what bothers me about it the most: I feel like I was cheated out of a lot of learning especially in high school (and partially in college). I mean, everything considered I still did pretty well, but if that’s how I did being under under extreme sleep deprivation EVERY DAY, just imagine how much I could have accomplished fully rested! Imagine the energy, connections, opportunities, clubs, etc. Ah well…

Discovering I Wasn’t The Only One

Years later (it was toward the end of college) I had become somewhat of a student on sleep disorders during my free time. I had read extensively on it and tried a number of experiments to try and correct it (including polyphasic sleeping, expensive light therapy devices which worked but didn’t have a long term effect, chronotherapy, and others).

One day I came across this wikipedia article on DSPS and I was absolutely STUNNED. It felt like it was describing me perfectly and as I read it, I thought “my God, someone else actually knows about this and has it…and there is a name for it”. It sounds silly but I think the most important thing I realized was that I WASN’T CRAZY.

My entire life up to that point I had always wondered if people were right, maybe I was just lazy or kidding myself. Finding this article at least brought some validity to my own experiences, and let me know there were people out their actively researching it.

Thank God for the internet. It allowed me to self diagnose what would have easily gone unrecognized by a dozen doctors due to it’s obscurity (DSPS is frequently mis-diagnosed as insomnia or depression, often involving the prescription of psychoactive drugs – thankfully that didn’t happen).

Despite my excitement over the article, I was somewhat disheartened to learn that even with the best treatments available today (light therapy, melatonin, etc) it is still largely incurable with 90% of patients seeing a relapse within 1 year. At least I knew I wasn’t alone.

Update 1: A new theory I have on this is that light from staring at a computer monitor can worsen this or even be the main cause of DSPS.  It is essentially light therapy, but at the wrong time.  Anecdotally, lots of computer scientists I know seem to have delayed sleep schedules, but I don’t have any hard evidence of this so it remains just a theory.  If you have any experience with it let me know in the comments.

Update 2: I sometimes take melatonin now to fall asleep earlier and reset my sleep cycle if it gets too out of wack.  A 3mg dose is somewhat effective, 6mg more so.  I’m afraid of taking it on a regular basis and building tolerance to it though so I use it only rarely.

Adapting To Life

I’ve had to admit lately that a big part of the reason I’m an entrepreneur is that I have DSPS. It allows me to keep any hours I want, which still means sleeping at 3am (but I actually get to sleep as late as I want now – the full 7-9 hours I need). With this setup I am able to function 100% normally as a productive adult, and I’m very thankful for that.

My brief stint in corporate America was not easy (once again under constant sleep deprivation unlike in college where it was about half and half). It certainly wasn’t the only factor in my decision to break free (I happen to really appreciate having complete freedom for example, and I think it’s a better way to build wealth) but it certainly affected my decision.

So these days, having DSPS is NOT much of a handicap and the past is….well, the past. You can’t change it so no use worring about it.

It still affects me in small ways…for example I never schedule early flights and don’t attend meetings before noon if it can at all be avoided. I absolutely despise alarm clocks and consider it a matter of personal pride that I don’t own one and only ever use one (my cell phone) a few times a year for special events.

The occasional one day of sleep deprivation is manageable for special events where I need to get up early. Its the multiple days in a row that are really bad and cause the microsleeps (hallucinations), so those are luckily a thing of the past.

So that’s it. I’ll just close by saying that this post is not a “poor me” cry for help. On the contrary, if this is the worst genetic disorder life has to throw at me I’m home free – I got an easy one and it barely affects me at all today. Also, for some people it apparently fades out later in life. Older people naturally sleep less, so it may (or may not) go away on it’s own.

If you have any sort of similar health problem read the next paragraph:

Lots of people take a negative attitude toward these things and say “great, 0.17% of the population gets this and of course I’M the one to get it!” But that’s bullshit, there are tons of diseases/disorders you probably have a 0.17% of getting, and adding them all up means you have a pretty good chance of having SOMETHING if not lots of them. DSPS is much better than a lot of problems I can think of having, and I feel EXTREMELY lucky to have been born with all the other advantages I have in life. I’ve got zero room for whining on something like this.

But I thought I’d post it out there for a few reasons:

1. A lot of entrepreneurs I’ve met seem to have this, and don’t know they have it. They might feel like I did (like something is wrong with them) and this will help them to understand it. And…
2. So that if you ever invite me to a morning meeting, you’ll understand when I don’t show up… :)

Until next time, keep breaking free!
Brian Armstrong

It’s gotten a little bit colder here lately and it was overcast today but still pretty nice.

Here is the YouTube video:

Few other random discoveries since last week:

• It’s more expensive to buy groceries here than it is to eat in restaurants. Sort of the opposite of the U.S. The people running restaurants must be buying it direct from farmers of something because they certainly aren’t buying food from grocery stores where I am. If you go try to put together a breakfast or any meal at the grocery store, it is about double the cost of just buying it at a restaurant. Luckily the restaurants are great here.
• The house comes will a full time maid – I thought this would be really awesome, but it’s really not as awesome as it seems. Our maid, while very nice, doesn’t really seem to clean much :). The first day I was here she took my towels to wash them and I have yet to see them again. I’ve tried to ask her about them a few times, and she seems to understand….yet still I have no towels. I have taken to drying my entire body with a washcloth…this I keep in my room now for fear that it will also disappear to be “washed”. All part of the South American experience!
• Shop owners here have this weird strategy: if we sell the same thing, let’s all put all our shops right next to each other. It’s sort of bizarre, they have these little “gallerias” where there will literally be 40 shops that all sell electronics or all sell leather, etc. The products in all of them are identical, prices are just about identical.
  I haven’t been able to figure out why they do this because they have no way to differentiate from the other guys. Like, if you are the 40th guy to open a shop with the same products in the same location, what are you hoping to accomplish? Aside from the occasional double starbucks, business owners in the U.S. are pretty good about saying “hey I’m going to open a gym, maybe I should go where there isn’t already a gym…”. Haven’t figured this one out yet.

UniversityTutor.com Update

After my last update on how the new UniversityTutor business model wasn’t working, I’ve made some good progress.

I added the new line to all outgoing emails as I mentioned and this improved things back to 1 or 2 invoices per day almost immediately. I also added a suggestion by my mother, to also include in the email how many hours of experience and reviews the tutor currently has. This would reinforce the benefits of accumulating these.

Also, as you (my valuable blog readers) pointed out, a big reason for the change I saw was the month. School was ending! Thanks for the reminder on that one…this was an important point that I had forgotten.

In short, I will continue to test it and expand it. I’m looking at some ways to expand it to other English speaking countries in the future. After debating a lot, I feel like the current business model is the right one. The number of tutors signing up is increasing dramatically now that there is no monthly fee. It will just take some time to adopt it I think.

BuyersVote.com Update

Here is another one I could use your help one.

While there are a few more features I’d like to clean up on the site (such as designing the home page to direct people to add a page instead of search, especially in the early stages here) the site is about 90% complete feature wise for what I want.

The biggest challenge for the site now is to reach some sort of critical mass. It’s needs it’s community of early adopters who will evangelize it.

My best guess to accomplishing this right now is to partner with someone who has the permission asset to get the word out. I’ve emailed Tim Ferriss (his assistant actually) to see if I can get through to him. He will occasionally do advisory roles for things like this if he believes in it (in exchange for a small piece of the company), but he is a difficult person to reach so we’ll see.

What are your thoughts on how to accomplish this critical mass? Also, does the homepage draw first time people in well or what would be improved there? Please leave me a comment below.

Until next time, keep breaking free!
Brian Armstrong

I won’t lie – when I was taking the bus into town from the airport (after 17 hours of traveling and sleeping very little on the plane) I was a little scared.

There are some serious slums outside Buenos Aires, and as I was driving through them I started to wonder what I had gotten myself into. This was really the third world – patchwork sheet metal roofs with a maze of electrical wires, random objects on fire, burned out cars and buildings, women breast feeding in the streets, and abundant stray dogs going through piles of trash.

It did NOT exactly look like the pictures on the internet. Every time the bus would stop, I remember thinking “please don’t let this be where we are getting out”.

But eventually, I started to get into the city and things started looking up. Huge glass skyscrapers, signs of civilization, etc.

I had chosen a hostel while waiting in the Houston airport for my connecting flight off http://www.hostelworld.com/ and I had a rough idea of where I was going, but not really.

The bus dropped me on an INCREDIBLY busy street where my hostel supposedly was. The street was so busy with people walking that if you stopped, you were likely to get run over. Actually, this picture doesn’t do it justice. It’s the kind of street where you could be walking with your friend side by side, and a second later lose them in the crowd because people are so close together.

I asked the bus driver (in broken Spanish) where the hostel was because I didn’t see it. He told me half a block down (media cuadra).

I got out, and the bus took off. Luckily, it was right where he said it was (I don’t know what I would have done if it wasn’t). I checked in and went to sleep.

The hostel is actually really cool and I’d recommend it. You can check out their youtube video here. The girl in the video was actually there to greet me when I got there. Pretty funny because I was just watching her YouTube video on the other side of the world a few hours prior. I told her she was world famous.

Figuring stuff out…

Now that I’ve had a few days to learn the city I’m starting to feel much better.

For the first few days I basically felt like a helpless child in the city. I had no phone, didn’t know how to go anywhere, was afraid of getting lost, didn’t know how to pay for anything, etc. And the city is freakin huge.

A couple memorable moments so far that have allowed me to feel like a complete idiot:

• The elevators here have two manual doors that you have to open. If you are like me, you will probably either (1) open the door at the wrong time causing there to be a one foot drop when you get off the elevator or (2) exit the elevator and forget to close the door behind you (which prevents it from going to any other floor). Both of these cause people to laugh at your for being a silly American after you try explaining to them that you thought it would close itself. “Haha! Why would it close itself?” …like they’d never heard something so ridiculous.
• I managed to get the entire bathroom wet while trying to figure out how to use a bidet. Enough said.

Lot’s of people at the Hostel spoke English so that was good, and I’ve already made about a dozen friends.

List of random stuff I’ve done over the last 5 days:

• Went to a live Jazz club with some Brazilians
• Drank some Mate tea and Argentine wine
• Went to a Tango class (just watched)
• Did a pub crawl with some ex-pats
• Saw the Japanese Gardens, Capital, Obelisco etc
• Went to get ice cream with Argentine girl, still not sure if it was a date
• Went to some trendy bars in Palermo (with a guy I met on the plane ride over and his girlfriend) and walked through the posh Recoleta
• Figured out how to use an ATM in Spanish with an American debit card – this took a good hour. Also, realizing that the max you could withdraw was 300 pesos and that the error message I was seeing did not mean my my card was frozen. This required an interesting collect call to Chase in the U.S.
• Got a SIM card (tarjeta) for my Blackberry and figured out how phone numbers work in BA. I also had to figure out how to recharge (recargá) my phone with minutes and check remaining minutes in Spanish.
• Rode the subway, and bought a prepaid card with trips (viajes) on it, about $0.30 each

My Spanish has already improved dramatically over the last few days. It’s pretty funny when I try to talk to people – they usually look at me for a second with this blank expression like “what the hell did he just say…he must be messing with me or something….(awkward silence)….oh god….he’s not joking he actually talks like that…I should probably respond now but I forgot what he said”. Then they respond with something really fast I can’t understand, and I have to ask them to slow down :)

Food and Prices

Some things here are very cheap and the rumors are true. Other things are not really that cheap and I think people have overhyped this a bit (groceries for example, are about U.S. prices). The exchange rate is 3.6 Argentine pesos to 1 USD right now, but you don’t get 3 times as much for your money.

The prices are basically like New York City (very high), except in pesos. So for me coming from Houston where things are much cheaper than New York, the net is maybe a 20-50% savings for most items.

Here are some photos I took over the last few days to give you an idea:

This lunch cost 9 pesos (about $2.50 USD) and was a good deal. They call the meat ham Milonesa and it’s really good.

I got this lunch at a high end bookstore right smack in the middle of downtown. It was 29 pesos $8 for the sandwich, pastry, and coffee combined.

You can get pretty good street food (meat empañadas, hot dogs (panchos) for a little less than $1 US).

Glasses of nice Argentine wine (Malbec) at a pretty nice restaurant I went to were $3 US and the pizza was $5.

One thing I haven’t done yet is try the steak, which apparently is legendary and huge portions. These are about 20 pesos $5.50 US.

This pasta was my first meal in Buenos Aires and it was sort of weird. I forget how much I paid for it (was barely awake). They seem to like to put ham in everything here, even their pasta.

Renting an Apartment

Anyway, my latest journey has been to find a room to rent. I walked around Palermo (people told me this was a cool neighborhood) armed with only a map, and tried not to look like a tourist. I visited about 4 different places that I found on craigslist. The people were all cool and very nice but the neighborhood was all a bit run down. I was surprised because this was supposedly a “good” neighborhood in BA.

Maybe I’m just spoiled coming from the U.S. but I really was not impressed with Palermo. It definitely looked a bit ghetto in a bunch of parts, although around the squares (plazas) there were some cool bar areas. A very hippy culture as well with lots of dreadlocks and playing guitar on the streets. Fun, but not really my scene.

One house I walked to was in the middle of nowhere. It was night time so I was a little worried, but I will say that BA has been very safe for me so far. They have a TON of police officers patrolling, and even on these streets they have an officer stationed about every other block. He just stands on that block for the whole night. This was pretty reassuring to see, since you are basically within shouting distance (policia!!) at all times.

Anyway, the next neighborhood I went to was Recoleta. Everyone told me this was the best neighborhood in BA, and it definitely lived up to it’s reputation. It is much more like what I hoped BA to be. Posh shops, beautiful women, European architecture, etc.

So after some more calling on Craigslist, I finally found a room to rent in Recoleta. It is in an AWESOME old house that is huge and it’s in the best neighborhood. Private bathroom, balcony overlooking Recoleta, spacious room, fully furnished kitchen, etc. Free wifi, weekly maid, all utilities included. It’s $500 per month US.

The house is shared with other foreigners which is pretty cool. There are a couple Brazilians who speak very little English, an American guy doing a similar sort of web business thing (he was working on two laptops at the same time when I came in, so I have a feeling we’ll get along), and another girl from Poland. The house is huge. A private apartment probably would have been more like $2,000 per month in Recoleta, but that was too much for me plus I wanted to live with some cool people so I’d have a few friends in the city.

So anyway, that’s it for now. Tomorrow I’ll be moving into the apartment and I feel like I’ve finally started to figure this city out.

It’s definitely a bit rough around the edges and is a much bigger city than I’m used to living in (a poor man’s New York City is the best way to describe it). I definitely don’t want to overhype it like I think some people have online. It’s got some nice parts and I’m going to enjoy living here for a while, but you are still in the third world and it’s obvious at times.

I’ll keep you updated, so far this has been a great adventure in “breaking free”!
Brian Armstrong

Two good pieces of advice I’ve gotten:

• Don’t wait till the last week to sell it even if you need the car. The cost of renting a car for a few days is negligible to the cost of having to take a fire-sale price at the last minute. – My Dad
• Most people are too cheap or lazy to spend $50 and get their car REALLY well cleaned and polished inside and out before selling it. But spending the $50 earns you $500 instantly – its a 9,000% instant ROI. – Donald Trump

Anyway, today I took my car to get professionally washed and I stumbled across this AWESOME car wash. It’s called Mister Car Wash on Kirby in Houston.

They gave me free pop corn, and had a water cannon (yes a freakin water cannon) where you could shoot the cars as they went by. I mean… I think it was there for kids, but I thought it was especially awesome and I even convinced an old lady to help me try it out.

This lady was hilarious by the way…I wish I had my camera on when I first met her because I asked her how her day was going, and instantly replied (totally deadpan) “Well, I woke up breathin today.”

Anyway, here’s the YouTube video:

This got me thinking….if these guys can make a water cannon in their car wash, how can I make my business more fun? I bet they get all kinds of repeat business from mothers whose kids beg them to go there. Google is also great at making their business “fun” by the way and demonstrating some personality other than the typical “professional” corporate demeanor. They put an “I feel lucky” button on their homepage, they change their logo for the holidays, they take April fools day VERY seriously. There is something to be said for incorporating fun and a casual interface into your design. What do you think?

Oh yeah, and if you’re in Houston and know someone who wants to buy a car…check out my very clean PIMPIN 2000 Honda Civic for sale on craigslist post.

It’s sort of nice to do these things in the middle of the day when everyone else has a “real job” and only the retired folks are out to keep me company. Keep breaking free!

Freedom comes in a lot of forms: Free time for doing things you really enjoy. Freedom to make your own decisions without a boss. And freedom to travel at will. It’s great to know that I don’t have to ask people for time off or count sick days and I need to start taking advantage of this more.

That’s why I’ve been spending the last year or so transitioning my business and income to be more passive and more online because I’ve had this goal in mind for a long time: I’d like to travel the world and earning money doing it!

The idea of traveling around the world on a shoe-string budget picking up odd jobs and staying on couches doesn’t really appeal to me. What DOES appeal to me is having a business that will continue to grow and thrive as I travel the world. The internet has made this possible.

What city are you going to?
I’m going to Buenos Aires Argentina first just because I’ve heard it’s amazing. I’ll probably just drop into a hostel there and figure it out from there. I eventually hope to see a bunch of places around Argentina, but I’m deliberately leaving it unplanned. I don’t want to have the deadline looming of a pre-purchased flight or anything like that. I want to just explore as I go.

When are you going?
Probably around early May after attending a friend’s wedding in the states.

Why Buenos Aires?
I first heard about this place from Tim Ferriss (this trip is very Tim Ferriss-esque overall) and have since read a great deal about it. Here are a few things I like about it:

• It’s called the Paris of South America – gorgeous city, cafes, clubs, shops, etc
• Extremely safe and welcoming of foreigners
• Still inexpensive
• Beautiful women
• Fast and widely available internet

Basically the only bad thing I can find about it is that people are allowed to smoke in bars and clubs there.

I plan to go to a bunch of other places after Bueones Aires as well.

How can you afford to travel the world?
It’s not that expensive. Most people think of world travel like a vacation – and that’s not the right way to think about it.

Vacations are expensive because you still have all your expenses back home (mortgage/rent, car payment, gym, cell phone, etc) to make in ADDITION to the new expenses you just rang up (plane ticket, hotels, etc). It’s basically like living in two cities at once.

But I’m not taking a VACATION to South America – I’m actually MOVING there. This means I will not be paying any living expenses in the U.S., I will be selling my car, and will be canceling or putting on hold all other expenses (phone, gym, etc).

I won’t be staying in hotels there or paying tourist prices. I will be renting an apartment (probably month to month). The plane ticket to get there isn’t cheap (about $1,000) but once there most travel around South America can be done on buses or trains (or even short plane trips city to city) very inexpensively.

How (in)expensive is it to live there?
Well, I’m told you can rent a fully furnished apartment with AC and internet included for around $400/month US which is just ridiculous. There is an elaborate subway and bus system in Beunos Aires (which costs I think 25 cents to ride?) so you don’t need a car. And the best steak dinner you’ve ever had in your life is about $5.

And that is living a rather nice lifestyle. You can also stay in shared Hostels for about $7 per night and eat more modest meals. This would bring your total living expenses in Buenos Aires down to about $15 per day or $450 per month if you really wanted to.

In short, I actually plan to be spending MUCH LESS than I currently do to live in the U.S. (Perhaps with the plane ticket the first month might about break even with U.S. expenses.)

What are you going to bring with you?
As little as possible. Basically a backpack a few clothes, my laptop, and a camera. This post helped me out a lot and a number of things I’ve read have convinced of the wisdom of traveling light. I still need to get a good backpack.

What will you do with all your stuff?
Sell it or give it away on Craigslist.com most likely, aside from a few boxes my current roommate might let me keep in the closet. If you live in Houston and want a pet tarantula send me an email. I have two!

How will you be making money?
The same way I make money in Houston. I will have to give my properties to a management company most likely (which will reduce the cash flow). But otherwise it won’t change much.

Ever heard of geo-arbitrage?
Yes. For those who don’t know, one awesome thing about making money on the internet is what’s sometimes referred to as “geo-arbitrage”. For the first time in history, the internet has allowed people to not have to reside in the same city where they earn a living. That means you can EARN money in dollars or euros and SPEND it in a currency that offers a good exchange rate (like Argentine pesos) – in effect, instantly increasing the value of your money.

Who are you going with?
No one! I’m going by myself. This will be a good process of self discovery and force me to meet new people I’m sure. I’ve done trips in the past with groups and it’s hard to really get the feel for a culture since you just stay together all the time (and ultimately end up getting on each others nerves a bit by the end).

If you happen to be in the same city when I am though I’m always up for meeting. Drop me a line.

Actually, a big shout out is owed to Manuel Zeh – a friend who is currently traveling the world (and in Honduras?) who has been traveling for years and gave me a ton of tips. Hopefully our paths will cross somewhere down there!

Won’t you get bored and lonely?
Well, honestly I have no idea. Maybe. That’s why I’m leaving it unplanned. I might stay there for a year and come back, or eventually head to another continent, or travel indefinitely, or be back in a month.

But I doubt I’ll get bored or lonely. After all, it’s not like I’ll be visiting museums or laying on a beach. I’m going to be LIVING there. So I’ll still be working a lot on my business, playing sports, joining clubs, meeting other entrepreneurs, partying, etc. I’ll be doing many of the things I do in Houston and hopefully lots more. I plan on taking up a few new hobbies. Also, I can be pretty outgoing when I need to be.

I don’t have plans to stay in Houston long term, so I figure world travel will be a good way to try a bunch of new cities and ultimately decide where I might want to live.

How is your Spanish?
Hablo un poco espanol. Necesito practicar y creo que Buenos Aires es un lugar perfecto!

Can you send a postcard?
I’ll be blogging my way throughout the journey (and the preparation leading up to it – the trip isn’t until May this year) with lots of photos so stay tuned. As always, I’d love to hear your suggestions or tips if you’ve had a similar adventure or know the area well.

I think this will be an excellent experiment in truly Breaking Free, and I hope to share as much of it as I can with you!

Instead, you should be pursuing “financial freedom” – the moment when your passive income exceeds your living expenses – because then you can really start to do your life’s work. Maybe you’ll try to cure malaria like Bill Gates. Or maybe your “work” will be for a charity that doesn’t pay a dime. Whatever it is, I guarantee you won’t have retirement on your mind because you’ll enjoy it too much.

Check out this brilliant article by billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban. Here are some of my favorite quotes:

On why entrepreneurs are the cure for every economic crisis…

Entrepreneurs who create something out of nothing don’t care what tax rates are…The impact of tax rates on productivity and development is something economists masterbate about, enterpreneurs don’t waste their time thinking about it. We have business to do…

On why business plans are bullshit and you shouldn’t borrow money to start a business…

The best businesses in recent entrepreneurial history are those that have been started with little or no money. Dell Computer, MicroSoft, Apple, HP and tens of thousands of others started in dorm rooms, tiny offices or garages. There weren’t 100 page long business plans…

Many entrepreneurs think the next step is to take all this feedback, update their 100 page business plans and go out and raise money. It’s as if the missing link for success in a business is cash to get started. It’s not. Far more often than not, raising cash is the biggest mistake you can make…

There are only two reasonable sources of capital for startup entrepreneurs, your own pocket and your customers pockets. I personally would never even take money from a family member.

Similarly, I enjoyed this post by 7-time best selling marketing expert Seth Godin on why, if you do decide to get a job, you should be very careful about it.

Your boss and your job determine not only what you do all day, but what you learn and who you interact with…Work in a high stress place and you’re likely to become a highly stressed person, and your interactions will display that. Work for a narcissist and you’ll develop into someone who’s good at shining a light on someone else, not into someone who can lead. Work for someone who plays the fads and you’ll discover that instead of building a steadily improving brand, you’re jumping from one thing to another, enduring layoffs in-between gold rushes. Work for a bully and be prepared to be bullied…

There are plenty of books about getting a job, but no books I know of about choosing a job

Until next time, keep breaking free!
Brian Armstrong