Creating a 300 Million Dollar Adventure Travel Company with Bruce Poon Tip

Founder of G Adventures – Bruce Poon Tip

Bruce has created an amazing business based on his passion of travel. Learn how he set himself apart, and had tremendous growth even when the industry wasn’t growing on it’s own. He talks about creating your companies core values- (which he is an expert at considering many of his employees don’t even speak English!)

Resources Mentioned in the Podcast:

• Looptail by Bruce Poon Tip

Go to GAdventures.com for more info!

Thanks so much for listening!

Transcript:

Announcer: Welcome to the Eventual Millionaire podcast - with your host, Jaime Tardy. Real talk and real advice from real millionaires, with a sharp focus on you - the Eventual Millionaire.

Jaime: Welcome to Eventual Millionaire. I'm Jaime Tardy and today I'm really excited because we have Bruce Poon Tip on the show. He is the owner of one of the largest adventure travel companies in the world. It's called G Adventures, which I think is super cool. He's also the author of a book called Looptail, and the forward was written by the Dalai Lama and I thought that was amazing. Thanks so much for coming on the show today, Bruce.

Bruce: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Jaime: Tell me a little bit about how you got started - I know you started this from a garage.

Bruce: Don't all good businesses start from a garage?

Jaime: Definitely.

Bruce: Well I was very young. We're 24 years old this year. I just had a eureka moment travelling. I think every entrepreneur has that moment where they feel like they can make people's lives better or they feel that they have a way to impact the world with an idea and mine was when I was travelling. Back in 1994, before the internet and before even fax machines, people researched travel very differently. There were two types of traveler, which were the mainstream traveler, who were compound resorts, or it was a race to build a bigger cruise ship, and then there was the backpacker and I thought that we were in between those two, where we wanted people to have that cultural experience, that independent, free experience, a cultural immersion type of experience. I actually wanted to go on holiday and there was nothing like that in existence when we started, so that was the motivation. Like any business, you want to always do something that you love and one thing that I loved was travel and another one was music and I was going to start a record label but then Nirvana came out in 1990 and just ruined everything so between those two things I decided that travel was the best bet.

Jaime: How old were you then?

Bruce: I was 22, almost 23. I was just out of school. I had my idea while I was in school, to put it together, and I did a business plan, which I got a very average grade for, as part of when I was studying tourism. But when I actually went travelling that was when I saw all of these travelers who were in limbo, all of these young professionals with disposable income that were backpacking with guidebooks. They didn't necessarily want that but they had no choice - it was either that or go to a compound resort.

Jaime: That's crazy. Did you always know that you were going to start a business? Had you done one before or was this your first one?

Bruce: I had three businesses before I turned 16.

Jaime: What?

Bruce: Yeah, as a kid I had three businesses. G Adventures was my fourth business. The other ones certainly weren't as sophisticated and I was much younger but they all taught me something, they all taught me different lessons. I was quite an odd kid that way because when other kids were out playing sports and chasing frogs in the ponds and stuff I was starting businesses. My first one when I was 12 and two others before I turned 16.

Jaime: Were your parents entrepreneurs? Is that how you knew?

Bruce: My parents were entrepreneurs. They're not very good ones, mind. My parents were somewhat self-employed, they had jobs. My parents were survivors, though - they were immigrants. I wasn't born here. I come from a family of seven kids. My parents had to move to a new country and just had to have that mentality of survival and that's really the skill that they taught me as an entrepreneur. They always dabbled in different things - my dad always had different business and my mom always had quite a traditional job but the main skill that they taught me was that tenacity that's needed to be an entrepreneur.

Jaime: I love that. So you said you learned a lesson from each business that you did - do you remember what those lessons were, from each of those business?

Bruce: I do, and it's chronicled in my bestselling book, Looptail, but I'm going to tell you now! My first business was a newspaper delivery service. Back in the old days, when newspapers were a little more relevant, they used to deliver them to houses. You had to be 12 years old to get a paper route and that was going to be my first job and I remember just waiting, I couldn't wait to get a job delivering newspapers and have my first job to make money. You had to be 12 so as soon as I turned 12 I realized that I could apply for different routes in different parts of the city and I contracted them out to 11 year olds who were also in my position. So what is the lesson there, besides the use of child labor?

Jaime: That's a good lesson!

Bruce: There's a lesson there, because I had wanted that job so badly, I saw my own personal need when I was 11, I was so dying to get a paper route that when I turned 12 I said "You know what? There must have been other 11 year olds, just like me, that are dying to get paper route." So I applied for multiple routes throughout the city at different papers, because there used to be a morning paper and an evening paper, and I contracted them out to 11 year olds who were dying to get a paper route just like I did. What I learned from that was about customer service - I learned about how you have to take ownership even when you don't deliver the product. I had kids who just decided that they didn't want to deliver newspapers one day or they were sick and they didn't care because it wasn't their responsibility so I had to take responsibility for other people's mistakes, like when someone walks through someone's garden and someone calls the newspaper to complain about how the newspaper is being delivered, I still, at the age of 12, had to take ownership. I remember one kid who just threw all his newspapers in the garbage and went home. He wasn't feeling very well so he took all of the newspapers he was supposed to deliver, put them in the garbage and just went home. All of a sudden, everyone on my route was calling up saying they didn't get their paper so I had to go to a convenience store, buy new papers and go out at 9 at night, a 12 year old going out at 9 at night, delivering papers to the people who didn't get theirs.

Jaime: Did you fire that 11 year old kid?

Bruce: Yeah, I learned that too - how to fire people when they didn't deliver on the customer service. The next one I guess I learned more about innovation because I noticed that there was a problem where people bought rabbits when they were cute, fluffy little bunnies and then they grow up to be huge, ugly livestock and then people don't want the rabbits anymore. I read that in the Netherlands there was a new rabbit breed called the Dutch Dwarf which never grew past a certain size so I imported the first male/female couple into Alberta, where I lived, and I bred them and I took them to shows and won awards. I only sold the females and I sold stud services of the males, and I was 13-14 at the time. My last job was with Junior Achievement - I joined a companies program in school with Junior Achievement and I started a bookmark business. I was selling bookmarks on the car top and I was selling them as what they are, which is bookmarks, and then one day I decided to change the story, and I mention in Looptail how entrepreneurs are the best storytellers in the world and it's not a coincidence that entrepreneurs are great storytellers. Instead, I changed the little box that sat on the counters of drug stores and I told my story about how, by buying this bookmark, you're helping a young entrepreneur and a young entrepreneur's program. I created a story around it and it transcended the bookmark and my sales quadrupled and I won a gold medal for Junior Achievement with selling bookmarks in my bookmark business and that was the first time I realized how you can engage customers to a much higher purpose and engage them beyond just the project. That's what led me to G Adventures. I got fired from Denny's and McDonald's during that time - I tried to get a real job, I got fired and that was my catalyst. I knew that then, because when I tried to get a job I was terrible about it, so I knew my destiny was to have my own business.

Jaime: So what do you take from that storytelling piece into G Adventures? I mean 200 million, biggest company in the world doing what you're doing. Did you have that vision way back when?

Bruce: No, I don't think anybody can dream like that, unless you're dealing with venture capitalist companies and you have millions of dollars to start a company. I started my company on college credit cards. I tried to get funding - I went to banks and nobody would give me the money that I needed. I don't think I could compare my vision to what we've become now. We have offices in 20 companies, we truly are global. People from 160 countries booked trips with us this year and we ran trips in 100 companies. We have 2,000 employees. Those kinds of things you can't envisage when you're in a garbage with a vision and passion. You think you can take on the world but at that point you don't have that kind of scope. Good entrepreneurs take advantage of opportunities and once you start and doors open for you and there are opportunities that present themselves you're very quick to market and you're able to take advantage of those opportunities.

Jaime: So how did it grow? You started it when you were 22 and maybe you didn't have this crazy, huge vision but you probably had a pretty big vision, especially for a 22 year old. What did that transition look like?

Bruce: First of all, I thought we were going to be a North American based company. I wanted to do tours and I had this idea of very much more grass roots, local tours into very local communities - rain forests, Indian tribes - creating unique, special authentic experiences. I originally had that idea and I thought it was all going to be around north America and within my first year I realized, as I did more and more research and I came across my biggest problem at the time which was that north Americans only get two weeks holiday. Back then you couldn't Google stuff - there was no Google - I didn't even have a fax machine, so imagine communicating with people. When I made hotel reservations I used to write a letter.

Jaime: Even in 1990? Wow.

Bruce: There's no fax machines, it was very different. You wrote a check and you sent payment by mail. You have that vision but that was my first business challenge. I started reading that the British and the Germans, they all get four or five weeks holiday. The French, the Spanish get four or five weeks holiday. Australians, they kind of work between vacations, so I started learning all of this and realized that that was my first problem and I would have to export tourisms. When I decided that I had to export tourism that's when everything changed. I realized that our brand had to stand for something if I was going to export services. The world didn't need another travel company back then - I had to create a brand that meant something to people and that you could export because your service was unique enough that you could export it. That changed my whole mindset of what my business was, instead of just planning travel.

Jaime: So how did you do that? What steps did you actually take in order to accomplish that?

Bruce: The first thing was that creating the product, at the time, was so unique. It was so different because no one had ever thought of doing what we were doing. So that stood on its own but soon other companies started doing it. By the mid-'90s there was Google and people were using e-mail, so around 1995-96 it was more common and then it was about your brand and your people and creating a culture and identifying with your business, with your customers and creating that transcendent relationship that transcends your product. Then social media came in the last decade and the intimate relationships it created between me and our customers was unprecedented and we just started growing because our brand meant so much to people.

Jaime: So in those first few years how big did you grow before that branding really took place?

Bruce: I would say up until 1996-97, we were a $7-8 million company and up until 2000 we were still only $40-50 million. Now we're heading towards $300 million in the next year, so just look at that kind of growth. As a company, I would say after 9/11 we were still only $40-50 million and then we jumped to $80 million and then $100 million and then $150 million and then $200 million. It just kept growing at a rapid pace because we became more relevant to our customers because there was so much transparency with the social revolution that's happened over the last five or six years.

Jaime: It's funny how that was happening and it helped you guys even though you didn't have anything to do with social media coming into the space but you were able to engage and take advantage of it. Did you do anything specific to take advantage of that social media revolution or did it just automatically happen for you?

Bruce: Our company was so unique, how we ran our company, how we valued our employees and our customers - our customers love us, they're ravers, we call them ravers. We have these incredible statistics like we have 99% customer service satisfaction, we have very high numbers of passengers that repeat, so with all of those things we outpace our industry by double all of those statistics. When you do something that unique, social media allows people to engage with companies like that. I always use this example, but in the old days Nike used to hire Michael Jordan and do these great commercials and it was a one-way relationship - you went into the store and you saw Nike clothes and it make you think of that commercial, it made you feel a certain way and it caused you to buy. But in the modern age, it's a two way relationship now, so if you want to be a fan of Nike, commercials don't trigger you to buy anymore. You can follow the CEO on Twitter, you can follow the company on Facebook, you can follow their employees, you can follow their factories in China, you can do just about anything to engage and create an intimate relationship between you and that brand if you love that product and that product means something to you. We were just so perfectly setup for that because our customers loved us and they wanted to be part of our brand and wanted to be part of our story and we were able to create an environment, finally, where they had the tools to be able to create that two way communication and two way relationship.

Jaime: What's amazing is that it sounds like such an amazing evolution but it also sounds really easy and I'm sure it wasn't easy, as much as you're telling the sort of "This happened and we grew amazingly fast!"

Bruce: Who said it was easy? It's not easy at all!

Jaime: Exactly, so tell me about some of the problems you've encountered while doing this.

Bruce: We've had all kinds of issues; I could go on. Just think about the funding for me to retain ownership for all of these years, not taking funding and self-investing in the business throughout the years, that in itself posed numerous challenges in terms of financial funding, and not having initial funding, to start with, posed its own challenges. Then there's currencies - when you think of the late '90s, the global currency fluctuations, and we're paying for services all over the world and employees in different countries. It almost killed us in 1997 when the US dollar got incredibly strong and other currencies didn't, and then times of recession, everything affects us - 9/11, SARS, bird flu, tsunami, everything - it's a very fluid business. I think my greatest challenges, though, are my own personal challenges, which are leadership. My own personal leadership is possibly the biggest challenge I've faced over the years because when I decided to start a company on college credit cards I didn't envisage the leadership of employees in 100 countries and having offices in 20 countries, I didn't really sign up for that, so I've been a student of leadership since the very beginning because I realized that my own development and my own leadership will stall the business if I don't continually grow and develop. As an entrepreneur, we are notoriously self-centered, pig-headed people, stubborn, all of those things, so to constantly re-evaluate and grow as a leader is a very painful process. At one point it becomes tiring and so a lot of people sell their companies at certain points because they don't have that ability to keep reinventing themselves to that next level of the company, so for an entrepreneur leadership is one of the biggest challenges - leadership that changes as the dynamic of your company changes.

Jaime: Tell me about that - one or two of the key takeaways that you've had to learn about becoming this leader. This thing has grown so huge, you must have learned some lessons, but give me one or two key ones that you've learned along the way.

Bruce: There's lots. First of all, my challenges are unique because I have employees in 100 countries and probably about 50% of my employees I'll never meet throughout their careers so that leadership is very different to when I'm in a one room office and everyone that works for me is in the room. So there are levels of leadership - there's lead by example and I knock that one out of the park. Lead by example is the best one - I work hard, you see me work hard, you work hard. That's the easiest leadership on Earth. Then there's the coaching style which is also difficult for some people but great for me, where you can coach people to be better leaders, but that kind of leadership where you don't meet employees because you have people all over the world and you want those people to wake up every day and you want them to reach their potential in their lives, you want them to love your brand, deliver on a very aggressive promise and also represent your company and inspire them, yet you don't meet them, it's a very different type of leadership and so defining those roles and defining your weaknesses and finding the tools that you need to get past that hump, which involves admitting your weaknesses continuously, admitting your flaws on a daily basis. As I said, for stubborn and self-centered entrepreneurs, it's very difficult, especially when you're winning like us, who have had double-digit growth for ten years, to look in a mirror and see how you can get better, stronger, faster, is a constant work in progress. I know that if my leadership stalls, the business stalls. I know that sounds very arrogant but when you have an owner-centric business and you build teams within it but they all rely on you for the vision and once you lose that you feel the company stalling. I've had stops and starts all the way through my 23 years. I know that when I get into a good place we're kicking field goals - in 2013 we didn't have a single month where we didn't grow 40% from the previous month.

Jaime: Wow.

Bruce: Yeah, so all of those things are great so I'm really loving it right now, I'm a hero of the moment, but that could end at any time and I'll have to reinvent myself - like Madonna, I'll need a new look.

Jaime: Tell us any tips you have for this, because that mindset, looking inward and all of that stuff, seems 4 a little intangible to people. Like, yeah, that's great, I would love to do that but I don't know what to do. Can you give us some tips that have worked for you, in actuality, to look inward and change what you've got.

Bruce: Well it shouldn't be any different in your business than in your life, let's just say that. If you're not already predispositioned to look at your life and how you can make your life better and how you can find success, all of those things that you have to do to find your own personal happiness, find your purpose and driving your own personal happiness through delivering on your purpose and knowing your place in the universe, all of those things that sound really esoteric to people but it's what gives leaders great strength and it gives leaders that ability to inspire people, so it shouldn't be any different to how you live your life. So if you sleepwalk through life you will sleepwalk through running a business. People are successful doing that, by the way, it's just that people who create iconic brands - people like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos - the leaders transcend their brands and it's their vision. When you say tips, it's a mindset about how you look at life. If you have the mindset of always seeing obstacles as problems, as ways of slowing you down, or if you're solutions-based and you see obstacles and just things in your way of getting where you're going, it's a totally different mindset in everything that you do. It shouldn't be any different to how you evaluate your business and how you create a business. It's about finding your own personal purpose and creating happiness. People think that that's crazy in business but it's not only about your own persona happiness, it's about finding happiness in others and creating happiness for others and doing that within your business, if that is part of your life - and it should be, because our purpose, as humans, in life, is to achieve happiness, so it shouldn't be any different in your business. That might not make sense but it makes sense to me.

Jaime: It makes sense to me too, so hopefully everyone else understands. That's one of the key things that I've really enjoyed about your story in general, is that it really is about happiness, both on your side and everything else. I was reading some quotes from the Dalai Lama and how you live your life is really interesting, because a lot of the time entrepreneurs are about profit and not purpose. Most of the people watching this show are about purpose, so can you tell us how you've aligned that? I love some of the Dalai Lama quotes on this but making people happy and entertained is a life-fulfilling goal, from what he says, and it sounds like that's what yours is, but some people are sat there going "I don't know what my purpose is and I don't know how to align it with my business and make it match." Does that make sense?

Bruce: Well, first of all, finding that happiness and that purpose and profit are equally important. That's the first thing that people have to understand. As a profit business, we're all driven by profitability, so let's not mistake those two things. Just because, with Looptail, we've got this purpose-driven business model doesn't mean that we are not aggressive as a company - aggressive about growth and aggressive about profitability. Don't mix those two things. The original tagline for Looptail was "Why community, culture and karma matter in business," and that karma side, people see karma as a spiritual world, meaning coming to life after death and whatever, but the idea of karma really is about what goes around comes around or paying it forward, about getting all of these things right and all the good things will come, so you have to have a little bit of faith in business. This is very new - when you took business school in the '80s or '90s they didn't teach you to have any kind of faith, they taught you that business was cold, as cold as ice, you had to be able to be nimble and you had to be able to be fast, but there's an emotional intelligence for business that's needed today that wasn't needed 20 years ago and that emotional intelligence is so critical not only to attracting better people today, the relevant people that are going to drive your business, but also to attracting people to your brand. So you have to get your business model right, get your company culture right, get your purpose, your core values, all of those things that you spend so much time on. People say when you spend time on that, you're not spending time on sales. You have to have faith, and that's where karma comes into it, that when you get that right it will drive the success, it will drive the profitability, it will drive staff retention - you'll attract the best people and you'll have them longer - it will drive growth and profitability because happy people drive performance. You have to invest in that base of all of those things that are important where people think they're a bit airy-fairy when they first hear about it but when you see, for us, it's just delivered performance and results year after year, month after month, you realize that it's not just a coincidence. We're a travel company and we were very innovative when we started, there are lots of companies doing what we're doing right now, but none of them are achieving the numbers that we're achieving right now. It's about pace in our industry.

Jaime: That's insane - I mean it's insane to see your growth but it's also insane to compare it to the other people that are probably doing all of the things that the business book says too. They have leaders, they have growth, "Let's do this, let's do this," but you, who have faith, and set up that foundation, which is what you were saying, you really set up that clear foundation and you can outpace them like crazy. I know sometimes we try to talk about this side of things because a lot of people don't, especially in business, we don't talk about faith because everybody believes whatever they want to believe, all of that fun stuff, but tell us a little bit about yours and how much a part of your life it's been.

Bruce: I have two kids now and it's changed my life and my leadership dramatically. My kids are at that age, they're 10 and 12, and we just went through the whole thing, in the last few years,about believing in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy and all of those things. My kids believed in Santa a little too long because they used to say "Someone at school told me that Santa doesn't exist," and my daughter came to me, tears in her eyes, saying "Does Santa really exist, Daddy? Is Santa real? Because people at school are saying he's not," and I looked at my daughter and said "It's whatever you believe. If you believe that Santa is real then, for you, Santa is real. There are lots of people in this world that believe different things - there's different religions, different cultures, but whatever they believe is real in their heart, so if you want to believe that Santa is real, no matter what anyone else thinks, you have to believe." In my business I equally believe in what we stand for and what we do beyond childhood by changing people's lives, creating wealth distribution, community development through tourism, how tourism can be the fastest path to peace by people getting to know each other and different cultures and appreciating what they have at home by understanding how other cultures live, breeding tolerance and peace, all of those things that are great, things that we need more of in this world - travel can be the vehicle for all of those things and our people here really believe that and so faith is a big part of it but the business model side of getting all of those things right, I have to jump in with a lot of faith and I would think that, in many ways, it was more self-confidence. Another thing for entrepreneurs - entrepreneurs have to have an unnatural level of self-confidence because when you really believe in something you have to drive it wholeheartedly to get people alongside it, even if you're not sure it's going to work. In your mind, you might think that it's going to work no matter what, but you know there's always failures, so at the beginning it was about self-confidence, driving something new and a different way of thinking, but over time it was when we delivered results, that's when people are interested in reading about it in a book and I can actually write a book about it, but five or six years ago when I was jumping around, saying "We have to build our business model around happiness and core values and a purpose-driven business model," ten years ago, fifteen years ago, people thought I was a nutcase. I've had wins and losses - sometimes it would work, sometimes it didn't work - but over the course of 23 years, well we're certainly doing a lot of things right now, so it's been great.

Jaime: That's an incredible story. Telling me about your daughter gave me chills. I think a lot of people don't have that belief or don't know where to pull that belief from, or maybe they have it but they ignore it because that's not what real people do.

Bruce: That's their faith, but that's the level of confidence you need as an entrepreneurs. You have to harness all of those ideas, you have to understand your own purpose. Whatever it is you want to do, you have to understand that purpose. Sometimes I'm embarrassed to talk about this because we have a sexy adventure travel company. What's more sexy than adventure travelling around the world, right?

Jaime: Totally.

Bruce: But he's not," and I looked at my daughter and said "It's whatever you believe. If you believe that Santa is real then, for you, Santa is real. There are lots of people in this world that believe different things - there's different religions, different cultures, but whatever they believe is real in their heart, so if you want to believe that Santa is real, no matter what anyone else thinks, you have to believe." In my business I equally believe in what we stand for and what we do beyond childhood by changing people's lives, creating wealth distribution, community development through tourism, how tourism can be the fastest path to peace by people getting to know each other and different cultures and appreciating what they have at home by understanding how other cultures live, breeding tolerance and peace, all of those things that are great, things that we need more of in this world - travel can be the vehicle for all of those things and our people here really believe that and so faith is a big part of it but the business model side of getting all of those things right, I have to jump in with a lot of faith and I would think that, in many ways, it was more self-confidence. Another thing for entrepreneurs - entrepreneurs have to have an unnatural level of self-confidence because when you really believe in something you have to drive it wholeheartedly to get people alongside it, even if you're not sure it's going to work. In your mind, you might think that it's going to work no matter what, but you know there's always failures, so at the beginning it was about self-confidence, driving something new and a different way of thinking, but over time it was when we delivered results, that's when people are interested in reading about it in a book and I can actually write a book about it, but five or six years ago when I was jumping around, saying "We have to build our business model around happiness and core values and a purpose-driven business model," ten years ago, fifteen years ago, people thought I was a nutcase. I've had wins and losses - sometimes it would work, sometimes it didn't work - but over the course of 23 years, well we're certainly doing a lot of things right now, so it's been great.

Jaime: That's an incredible story. Telling me about your daughter gave me chills. I think a lot of people don't have that belief or don't know where to pull that belief from, or maybe they have it but they ignore it because that's not what real people do.

Bruce: That's their faith, but that's the level of confidence you need as an entrepreneurs. You have to harness all of those ideas, you have to understand your own purpose. Whatever it is you want to do, you have to understand that purpose. Sometimes I'm embarrassed to talk about this because we have a sexy adventure travel company. What's wondering, do you have anything that can help us? Especially for somebody who's letting that fear stop that self-confidence to be able to push forward - what can you say to them?

Bruce: Fear is a very funny word for me because in business fear does not exist. Fear is a self-made emotion and it's a real waste of energy. You have to get to that place where you're not fearful. I always say you can't be afraid because fear is the most crippling of prefabricated emotions. It defeats so many people, so you can't really be fearful or else you'll manifest that destiny. If you think too much about it, you will fail. So you have to get to a place where you feel confident to bring your ideas to the world and the best way to do that is to work on finding your purpose. I always tell people, find what your purpose is - whether it's your purpose, personally in life, or the purpose of what you want to do, or both. "What is your purpose?" Most people say "It's to raise my kids, to raise my family." Everyone understands that part of your purpose, but what is your real purpose? Why are you here on Earth? What is your place in the universe? What is your dent that you're going to make in the universe? Be truly understanding of what that is - because not everyone can be Batman, we have to have Robins. The world needs Robins - everyone can't run around in a Batsuit, it would be really inefficient. You have to understand where you fit in the world, where you can contribute and where your happiness lies, because, as I said, we can't all be leaders, we can't all be A-type leaders, we can all lead, though, in different ways. We just have to find our purpose. Once you get comfortable with what that is, whether it's around your product or your company or your life, whatever it is, and you understand your existence - I don't want to sound like it's too self-help because it's really not like that - it's about understanding why you should go into business, there are so many entrepreneurs who don't know their purpose. I say "Why do you want to be an entrepreneur?" and they say "Because I want to have lots of free time, I want to control my own destiny and I want more money," that's usually the answers you get, but you know what? You're not going to get those for a very, very long time and you have to work your ass off to get there, so you'd better not put that at the forefront because you're a long way from getting any of those things.

Jaime: It's easy to give up on those things if you don't get them for a long time, definitely.

Bruce: Yeah, so people have to understand what their motivation is for these kinds of things. When you get that, it's so much easier to make that move, when you get that base right, so you don't feel like you're base-jumping. You understand your purpose, you understand your motivation, why you want to do it, you take away all that fear and then make that step. You might want to quit your job and do it full time, you might want to start it slow and bootstrap your way to success. Either way, it will work, because if it's meant to be, it will happen. If you have the right mindset, it will work. People will be convinced and buy from someone who's passionate about what they're doing.

Jaime: It's so easy to ignore this stuff because, like I said, it seems intangible. I remember when I first started trying to interview millionaires I wanted to see what you actually did, that's the whole point, and over and over it comes down to visioning, knowing your purpose, this stuff that seems so easy to dismiss is the critical stuff that really moves you forward so I really appreciate that answer. We have to wrap this up, so what's one action that listeners can take this week to help move them forward towards their goal of $1 million?

Bruce: One action? Well, you know, the one action that I would say is, whatever it is you choose to do, whether you've started in your business, whether you've already started a new business, or you're working for a company, make sure you're passionate about it. One of the things that you need in order to achieve that happiness is you have to be connected. Connectedness is one of the key pillars to happiness. Look in your life and find where you achieve connectedness. Everyone is connected to their family. I believe that the reason that Facebook is so huge is because people want that connectedness and Facebook offers connectedness that has never been achieved before, it's unprecedented, and people are reaching out to achieve that happiness, creating that connectedness. But you also have to have that with your business, you also have to have that with your work, you have to have that connectedness with the people that you work for. If you work with people that you don't? like you can do a good job but you'll never achieve happiness. So take those two words - passion and connectedness - the two things that you need in order to be successful in life, I believe are those two things, evaluate those two things in your life, whether it's your job, your family, any aspect of it, and make sure you have connectedness and passion. I always say if you love what you do you'll never work a day in your life, on the passion side, but connectedness drives that need we all have for happiness in life. The Dalai Lama hasn't endorsed a business book other than mine, it was a big honor, but he often professes and I'm a believer that our destiny is to achieve happiness - our purpose in life is to achieve happiness and most of that is about achieving happiness for others. So you have to wrap all of that up, without getting too emotional into the self-help realm, because this is business and you still have to be aggressive and strong and those other kinds of things. Take that and harness it together and put it into the grid that is your life presently and hopefully it gets you thinking.

Jaime: So make sure you either take time, stop this right now and go and do it right now, or go and put it on your calendar, because I know this is something to hear and not do but we need to take action on it. You really need to take a look at those pieces of your life. Thank you so much, Bruce. We really, really appreciate your time here. Can you tell us where we can find more about your book and also about G Adventures?

Bruce: Yeah, if you want a life changing adventure you can go to gadventures.com. We have a website for the book called looptail.com. The book is available in any bookstore and online retailer, so grab that as well. Thank you.

Jaime: Definitely pick it up and check out G Adventures. I was looking at your website - it's killer, I have to go on one too. So thank you so much, I really appreciate it.

Bruce: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Jaime: I hope you enjoyed that interview with Bruce. I thought it was an insane and amazing story at the same time. I had no idea there was so much opportunity in adventure travel. It's crazy how he's built his business. If you thought his book sounded really cool, make sure you pick that up. If you have actually already picked up my book, Eventual Millionaire, I would be forever grateful if you could leave a review at Amazon. It's what everybody who's new to Eventual Millionaire and checks out the book will look at to decide whether they want to get it and the more the merrier, so if you liked the book definitely leave me a review, I would really appreciate it. I hope you have an amazing day.

Announcer: Thanks for listening. You can find out more great information like this on EventualMillionaire.com.

Tags: Bruce Poon Tip, Business Values, Fear, millionaire interview, Motivation, travel business, Visioning

Categories: All, Business, Business Model, Entrepreneurship, Fear, Millionaire Interviews, Sales, Visioning

Hi I’m Jaime. Each and every week I bring you the top business advice from the people who know best.

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