countries and six different cities 0
eros my name is Edwards and in June 2016
I traveled for 21 days with absolutely
no money now the first question you
might wonder is why why did you do such
a thing
well I wanted to see what happens when
you take money out of your life and more
specifically what happens when you take
money out of a relationship if I don’t
have money to offer you why can I give
you in a sense what happens when you
become independent of money so from
Germany to Hungary it was the challenge
to travel with absolutely no money I
emptied my wallets before leaving home
and I hit the road and to toughen up the
challenge of its I committed to not use
internet so I couldn’t use websites that
allows you to find accommodation or
hosts for free and like this began one
of the most incredible experiences I’ve
ever lived in my life when I came back
home everybody asked me the same
question how
how did you survive for 21 days with
absolutely no money
I can’t even survive for one day with no
money I have to eat I have to sleep
somewhere how did you do that well for
transportation I eject the old trip was
average height in his life who stop stop
ooh all right for food I was asking
local restaurants for leftovers and for
accommodation I was basically asking
random people in the streets hey can I
sleep at your place tonight all right
I’m not gonna ask you as expected I
experienced a lot of rejection a lot but
I learned something from that I learned
to redefine my view about rejection and
there are two things I’ve learned that I
would like to share with you about being
rejected the first thing is people are
never rejecting you people are rejecting
the idea you represent when you are
rejecting for example the vast majority
of people won’t stake you each I King
don’t do that simply because that’s who
they are it’s in the identity they don’t
take each hikers you are in each Iker
they don’t take you end of the story
don’t take it personally and the second
thing is rejection does not mean you
won’t have anything at all rejection
just means that you’ll have something a
little bit different when I was asking
random people in the street hey can I
sleep at your place tonight and people
would tell me no
I wasn’t telling my server that means
I’m going to have to sleep outside the
night no I was just telling myself all
right that means I’m going to find
someone else live another experience
that might be even better that the one I
just missed in the end I didn’t sleep a
single night outside it did happened
that at 4:00 a.m. I was still looking
for someone in the streets but I always
found a roof above my head now coming
back to my question from the beginning
what happens when you take money out of
your life did I find the answer yes I
did and the answer is you simply become
dependent on people and I have found
that when you travel being dependent on
people is actually quite fun and can
when you are traveling with money you
can just pick anything you want you can
choose the restaurant where you’re going
to stay when you were you going to eat
the your sauce tell where you’re going
to stay at the transportation you’re
going to take but when you decide to
travel with no money you just don’t have
that luxury anymore so when someone
gives you something you have to accept
it you have no choice but I have found
that sometimes when you travel not
having the choice is actually the best
option you can have when you are
checking for example someone stops his
car and the car looks a bit dirty the
person doesn’t seem to speak the
language you’re speaking you can’t just
say yeah sorry I’ll just wait for
another car
you count because the person gives you a
chance so you have to give them a chance
and this is how I ended up spending two
hours in the track of a Ukrainian truck
driver that didn’t speak any languages I
was speaking during two hours he kept
telling me stories in Ukrainian
I don’t speak Ukrainian and every ten
minutes I asked to reply him with the
broad smile on my face you get that I
don’t understand a single word of what
you are saying don’t you but you know
what that was one of the most
interesting and funniest experience of
my journey because you see I am not so
sure that if I would have met this guy
in a bar in my own town I would’ve spent
two hours talking with him especially
not in Ukrainian but here 1000
kilometers away from home with no money
I had no choice and sometimes not even
the choice is the best option you can
have as you can imagine traveling that
way made me meet people I wouldn’t have
met in my daily life when I was in
Vienna I spent one night at the place of
a woman of 28 years old
that was actually an Afghan refugee she
and her family flew Afghanistan when she
was only four years old she accepted to
host me and during the conversation she
explained to me that hospitality as an
ocean was something very important in
Afghanistan then in Budapest Hungary
I spent two nights at the place of a guy
of 27 years old who used to be homeless
during one year he just left he was just
living in the streets and he was now
living in a lovely apartment he accepted
to host me and again during the
conversation he explained me that he
knew better than anyone what it meant
someone opened the door to you traveling
that way made me learn something I’ll
never forget it is that this is not
about what you get this is about what
you give I began this journey wandering
each time I was meeting someone you what
can I get from this person can I get a
food can I get a ride
can I get accommodation and I was so
wrong I ended up this journey asking
myself completely different questions
questions like what can I give to this
person can I give a smile my enthusiasm
an inspiring story to share an ear to
listen to problems sing a song dance
with them anything and switching these
questions from the getting to the giving
completely changed my journey and I have
to say that I lived the best moments of
my journey when I was in the giving
mindset and not in the gating mindset as
a closing am I trying to sell you
something am I suggesting that you
should just leave your wallets and all
your money at home and start travelling
the way I did of course not if it’s not
your thing don’t do it all I want to say
is that traveling that way
give me fewer options and therefore made
me meet people I wouldn’t have met in my
daily life it’s taught me to drop my
fear of approaching people and overcome
my fear of getting rejected and to
always remind myself to give more than
what I received and I truly understood
during this travel the meaning of the
quotes of Alan Keller that once said
life is either a daring adventure or
nothing at all
thank you very much [Applause]