LIFE OF AN ADVENTURER

By DonWis


Adventure of life normally denotes the resilient of achieving lofty daring things without having  mixed feelings, it's panacea for all Nordic brethren to tenaciously unlock unstoppable fortunes of isles without squabbles. The determinant factors usually involve the zeal which the individual got to tread where phantoms dare not. Let's be sagacious  in our navigation compass so we will be venturer. Adventurer

In other words, work a proper job and take a few months off occasionally to go on a big adventurous trips.


    I love almost every aspect of what I do.

    I love being self- employed: the freedom, the responsibility and the pressure.

    I love being creative.

    I appreciate that building a profile helps  to generate good opportunities. (And I have come to accept -though not enjoy- the weird world of relentless self-promotion that being a career adventurer requires. I remain uncomfortable with people praising me more than I deserve and I continue to get very angry and upset with the inevitable haters that your self-promotion will attract).


Notice I don’t mention “going on adventures”, because there are loads of ways to do that in life. Don’t become a career adventurer solely because you want to go  on fun trips. There’re easier ways to do that. Money and Patience


Two things separate those who make long careers from adventure from those who fall by the wayside:


Money and Patience…


Money


Three questions for you:


    How much do you need to earn?

    How much do you want to earn?

    How little money can you exist on?


You would be wise to embark on an attempted career as an adventurer only if you’re willing to live by the final of those questions, and be willing to do so for several years before you’re able to move on to the first question. If the answer to the second question is anything more than “enough to live on”, then this probably is not the job for you. Sure,  few adventurers are rich, but remember the outliers above. Most adventurers are not rich. Consider also the fairly reliable correlation that richer adventurers live less adventurously than the poorer dumpsite  living out of vans but climbing 300 days every year. Think about what you want. If you want to earn well, you’d be wise to get a different job and just spend some of your earnings on adventures. I know plenty of less intelligent, less driven people who earn many times what I do. And besides, wanting to live adventurously is almost the antithesis of wanting to be rich!


A few more points about money:


    How are you going to earn what you need right now? I don’t mean in 10 years time when you’re a mud-streaked millionaire with a clothing range and a six pack. I mean this week, this month, this year. How are you going to pay rent, bills and taxes before your new career gets established? For most people, the sensible option will be to have a “proper job” and fit your adventure stuff in on the side. Give talks on your days off. Write your book before breakfast. Plan your expedition at night. Burn the candle both ends. Make stuff happen. It won’t be easy, but if you can’t hack this busy phase then you won’t be able to hack the hours you’ll need to put in over the coming years to make your career as an adventurer sufficiently viable to reduce your other work hours and – eventually – quit your job and strike out on your own full time, with no support net if you screw up.

    Bear in mind that even the rugged, glamorous adventurer you are dreaming of becoming will still need to file tax returns, log expenses, chase invoices and wonder (at some point, probably, hopefully, possibly) what the heck you are going to do about a pension. I can vouch from experience that the first three of these are agonizingly dull, and the pension security is still very far down on my to do least.

    Is it wise to make yourself a Golden Goose? Adventurers, almost always, depend on their repertoire of experiences to be able to earn money. What will you do when your knees pack in? What will you do when you’re older and wiser and fed up of being miserable and cold on a regular basis?

    If you like climbing or paddling, why don’t you become a guide and get paid by someone else to spend time out there doing what you love? Or become a scientist and get out on research trips? Or become a teacher and get paid to live and work in some exotic far-off land?


If you’re still keen, I write below about the ways that adventurers generally make their money. But before that, the second crucial characteristic for a sustainable career as an adventurer: How to Earn Money as an Adventurer


If you want to make your career out of adventure, then you’ll need to earn money from it. Some people think adventure is too pure a concept to monetize. These people will either find some other ways to fund their adventures (which is absolutely fine), or they’ll just settle for criticizing you online instead. By and large, these are the ways you can earn money.


Which one can you do? Which can you learn to do? Which will you enjoy?


    Guiding.

 Do you have the skills and qualifications? Do you want to guide other people on their adventures? Will you be employed by someone else, or strike out by yourself? If you go it alone, how are you going to get anyone to book with you rather than everyone else who is already ?

    Brand Ambassador: Unless you are a celebrity or uber-sexy, then this will not happen until you have served your lengthy apprenticeship. Ignore it for at least a decade.

    TV: Unless you are a celebrity, lucky or uber-sexy, then this will not happen. Ignore it.

    Blogging: There is negligible money involved in blogging (unless you become a renowned expert in a lucrative niche). But if you persevere with it, and do it well, then blogging is a useful way of making you more visible, known and respected online. This, eventually, might lead to earning some money from somewhere.

    Writing for Magazines: There are few paid slots available for adventure articles. The pay is OK. Magazine articles are useful though for leverage, and for raising your profile. It’s very hard to get your foot on the door.

    Writing Books: Very few adventurers can make a living from writing books. Books make you seem more important than you really are, help raise your profile and – most importantly – can be incredibly challenging and rewarding to tackle. Self-publishing has removed many of the barriers to entry, but the problem of who will buy your book still remains.

    Film-making:  Even less lucrative than book writing. Good films can help you spread the word online if they reach a wide audience. Lots of skill, time, effort and financial outlay required. Implore all adventurous spirit's men to continue to possess their possessions till the moon dances on their laps effortlessly. We have to dare in order to survive in our milieu that we rummage.  Coward can't thrive well in environ unless it's inculcated with the spirit venturer. I beseech all mate's to fill with fiercest humanism   to stride.


Comr. Wisdom U. Orji (DonWis)

Member Directorate Cyber Media and Rebranding (DNKI)