Interview with Karol Gajda of Ridiculously Extraordinary

Nick: I’m here with Karol Gajda and we're doing a quick becoming bold interview. He’s in Michigan and for those of you who haven’t heard of him. He runs ridiculously extraordinary and he wrote a book called how to live anywhere and he does a ton of other cool things. He had a manifesto called the American dream is dead long live the American dream. So we're going to sit down with him and talk. Well he’s actually standing right now.

Karol: I am standing.

Nick: We’re going to talk and find out his view on the world and how he got into nomadic lifestyle or what not.

Karol: Thanks.

Nick: First thing I always start with is what’s one fun fact about yourself?

Karol: One fun fact. Well I’ve been playing guitar since I was 13 and it was all because of Nirvana and Black Sabbath. I guess that is a fun fact.

Nick: Definitely and what I remember you built your guitar in India?

Karol: I built a guitar earlier in India this year. That’s another fun fact.

Nick: It’s very cool. So for those who haven’t heard of you like I said you blog on ridiculously extraordinary. What prompted you to go nomadic or what not?

Karol: I kind of just got sick of staying in the same place and kind of settling down if you will like id settled down for five years. That’s not really my personality. I don’t know. It kind of goes back to the American dream thing and in defence of writing that manifesto I kind of got caught up in what everybody else is doing instead of doing my own thing. In 2009 I got rid of all my stuff and started travelling full time.

Nick: That’s awesome and did you start ridiculously extraordinary right then?

Karol: Yes. I started it July 1, 2009 which was a few months before I officially kind of full time travelling. I kind of started it a little bit ahead of time to kind of give myself I guess some leeway or whatever. It’s not much of a travel blog at all. It’s not really a travel blog at all. I write about travel a little bit. I thought I would write more about it but I’m not a travel writer. So it never really fit but yeah.

Nick: Got you. Very cool. I mean going nomadic for a lot of people is a hard move to make. I mean for me it took a few months of planning. This is my first stop in Florida before heading on to central and South America. What did you have to go through to get into travelling nomadically?

Karol: It took me a while as well. I mean I had so much shit. I had been working for myself for ten years and I’ve spent a lot of money on a lot of junk. So I had a lot of stuff to get rid of. I officially started kind of travelling full time from the first of September 2009 and that was a ticket to Australia and I bought that ticket six months ahead of time. So I gave myself kind of those six months to get everything in order and get rid of everything. I didn’t make it like I need to do this overnight type of process. I gave myself some leeway, some time.

Nick: And I know you started minimalistic or international minimalistic and so travelling full time I’m sure you find it being minimalist is very important.

Karol: Oh yeah. Oh man. When I’m travelling and I see people in like 70 liter backpacks like falling over. Like I’m in a 32 liter backpack which is not even full and it’s so much easier to kind of have less stuff and travel light besides the fact that you can just get around easier. You have less stuff to worry about and you know where all your stuff is. Misplacing stuff or losing stuff is more difficult because you don’t have much stuff to misplace or lose. It’s the way to go as far as I’m concerned.

Nick: I actually just as a side note I actually discovered ridiculously extraordinary from I was looking at packing light because I’m going with a 28 liter backpack and that’s it. I was looking and I stumbled across you washing your clothes in a plastic bag and I thought that was awesome and I’m going like with two shirts and three pairs of underwear and one pair of pants, a board shorts and a pair of jeans. So any last minute tips you would give to me as I’m getting ready to pack.

Karol: Cause we’ve talked before. I think I don’t know anything else I would tell you.

Nick: I keep finding that I have this urge just to throw one more thing in.

Karol: As far as that goes, I mean if you have room it’s not going to hurt. I mean you have such a small pack already it’s like big deal if you add something to it but I mean I travelled; now I have four shirts but I did it with three shirts, three socks, three underwear for a year and two months or something. I mean you have to wash your clothes every few days in a bag wherever you are. It’s not a big deal and also like say you’re kind of trekking somewhere or something you don’t need to even wash your clothes. Nobody gives a shit that you’re kind of a little bit more dirtier or whatever. So it’s kind of when you're only kind of going out or in a city where you maybe want to be more presentable. So if you’re out in the middle of Peru in an Incan trail who cares? Nobody cares. so you don’t need a 70 liter pack with six weeks worth of clothes like so many people do but anyway if you have room I don’t think it’s a problem if you want to add more stuff cause you have so few things it’s not going to overwhelm you.

Nick: Once I get the full pack in list together ill definitely shoot you a link to it and it’ll be posted on becoming bold because it’s nothing.

Karol: I love late packing lists. They’re so fun to look at.

Nick: One of the things that I’ve discovered, I’m a little under the weather as you might hear and were talking about neti pots before the interview. So you say you’re one of the biggest neti pot enthusiast. What’s the deal with that?

Karol: Well I discovered the neti pot about three years ago. I had really bad allergies, season allergies and it literally cured them. Like if I used the neti pot twice a day when I’m in like an allergy zone or whatever allergy weather, it doesn’t affect me. so I started using it basically everyday and then it also works, when you kind of feel you’re about to start getting sick if you start using it right then it’s going to help as far as you not getting really sick. Not getting the sinus infection but if you wait like a day too long it’s already it’s kind of too late. it will still help as breathing and getting all that done but I’ve turned so many people on to the neti pot and I wrote a full article about it and so many people contact me and say man I wish I knew about this neti pot like five years ago and I was like I wish I knew as well. It’s the future of medicine.

Nick: I’ve been testing that out with high dose vitamin c and it’s made a big difference like a gram or micro, whatever it is a big dose of vitamin C every hour that you’re awake. It’s made me feel a lot better. So a little bit earlier we touched on the American dream is dead long live the American dream. What prompted you to write that manifesto?

Karol: It was just kind of what I went through. life and I get so many emails with people that are kind of stuck in that owning things type of dream like buying, making a crap ton of money just so they could buy stuff. I have no problem with making a lot of money if you’re just making it just to make it. Just buy a house or a big car it’s going to feel empty because I know it because that’s what happened to me. I bought a BMW for cash when I was 24 and that was dumb. It didn’t make me feel any better and in actuality it made me feel worse. So yes that’s kind of what it is about and I was born in Poland. It’s about that story of kind of growing up here and chasing that dream and then realizing that’s its kind of BS.

Nick: Cool and they could at ridiculously extraordinary and I have a link to that in the post. You also wrote an e product called how to live anywhere. Can you share a little bit more on what’s that about?

Karol: Yes so I mean that’s basically about what I do. It’s about the logistics of travelling and finding apartments in new places and it’s also about how to build kind of an income while you’re doing it. It’s also about mindset and my philosophy. So it’s broken into three sections like that.

Nick: Very cool and I’ll include a link to that as well. Like trailing from the original part of becoming bold where I travel around to interview successful people. This is much easier the Skype format. It’s a lot easier than physically being in Michigan where its freezing but I can sit by a pool in Florida. A question I always ask in those was in theory most people have a secret sauce; successful people have a secret sauce. What would you say yours is?

Karol: I don’t believe in the secret sauce thing so much. I don’t think there is a magic pill or anything like that. All the successful people I know they have two common traits. These are the most common traits among the successful people I know. One they read a lot. That sounds stupid but so many people don’t and you’ll see successful people read. It’s as simple as that. It’s very rare that they don’t and here’s why. Successful people are constantly seeking knowledge. They have this yearning to constantly seek knowledge and the other thing is they’re not afraid to take action. When you have an idea you’re not afraid to just go for it and if something goes wrong, if it doesn’t work who cares you try something else. You try again. So that's definitely the most common trait. I would call it a secret sauce it’s just, it’s kind of just fact. It’s what successful people do.

Nick: Right now I’m listening. I’m a huge fan of (11:11) and I’m listening to talent is overrated right now and it kind of talks right now how everything thinks that someone has a talent or a natural ability and really it’s just persistence and the willingness to actually put creative effort into whatever you’re doing and that really touched on how I’m starting to feel about the secret sauce after doing all the becoming bold interviews was most people they’re just persistent enough and they don’t give up.

Karol: Yeah that’s exactly it.

Nick: And it sounds like that’s pretty much what you’re saying along with reading.

Karol: Yeah definitely.

Nick: Very cool. Now what would you say is the most interesting place, ill back out of the becoming bold stuff and more into the fun stuff, what's the most interesting experience you’ve had while travelling. I’m sure you’ve had some misadventures.

Karol: Yeah there have been man; there’ve been a lot of interesting experiences. Building the guitar was really fun. That was an interesting experience. It was basically like going to a wood shop everyday for three weeks and like working all day in the hot sweaty Indian like weather. So literally id be soaking wet by the time, because it was an outdoor workshop as well. It was just like covered with a little canopy and so that was cool. It was almost like a fun day job like a fun labor job. Not something I would like to do again because it actually was physical labor like I hurt my arm five days in, straining it. That leads to another story. I needed find a massage or I wanted a massage or whatever and so I went into this little shady, the shadiest place I think I could find and it was kind of right off the road and it was the most I don’t know how much detail I want to go into but basically a short Indian man made me this robe and gave me a full body massage instead of just on my arm. So anyway it was an interesting experience. Yeah anyway.

Nick: I’m sure you’ve dealt with some interesting differences in cultures and what not humbled a few times I’m sure. I don’t know. Have you heard of Johnny Vagabond?

Karol: I have yes. From you actually.

Nick: He’s from Austin and he has a ton of wild experiences as well. I’m excited about sharing those stories and the different things that you just encounter. I mean for travelling for me it’s so much I’m going on vacation it’s a choice to go for the lifestyle. So consistent learning.

Karol: It’s going to be good.

Nick: It’s going to be good. Any last questions I should have asked you that I haven’t.

Karol: That’s a good question. I don’t know a good question necessarily but I think anybody who’s kind of trying to achieve something and trying to be bold or trying to kind of get out of a rut. I think it’s really important that you believe in yourself and you’ll probably fail a few times along the way just kind of keep at it. I think that’s really important. Too many people give up on their dreams and that’s unfortunate.

Nick: Awesome. So where can people find you online? I’m going to include links.

Karol: The easiest place is ridiculously extraordinary.com and from there you can find the twitter and facebook and all that.

Nick: Awesome. Sounds great man. Thanks for sitting down with us and recording this interview. I’ll have this hopefully the next couple of days.

Karol: Sweet. Thanks man.