Today, our CEO Sean, takes you on a look behind our own Indie Travel Manifesto, why he created it, and what his top 3 values on it are:
“In February of 2012, my colleagues, Rolf Potts, and I shared the Indie Travel Manifesto for the 1st time.
I pushed for doing this for a many reasons. If you’ve read my 16 lessons from running an internet travel start-up for 15 years piece, why will make even more sense.
I had co-founded BootsnAll with several awesome travelers and friends about 13 years before we wrote the manifesto and had tried so many topics in travel. One topic, long-term travel, we were experts having done it, and coached and encouraged people for years.
As a team, we had just identified the words that were already our core values as a company in the Fall of 2011. Writing a list of core values for Indie Travelers felt like the right thing to do to help clarify what Indie Travel, Vagabonding, or RTW travel was/is.
And working with Rolf, perhaps the father of the modern independent travel movement birthed with his still resonating book from 2002, Vagabonding (read this if you haven’t yet – it may change your life) – seemed like the best way, to come up with a set of values that describe and communicate what Indie Travel (or whatever word/phrase that you want to use for some sort of long-term travel experience) is.
My 3 favorite values from the Indie Travel Manifesto are:
1) Private transformation over social status and bragging rights
2) The Present Moment over dreams of past and future
3) Emphasize listening more than talking
For me, and from the thousands of travelers I’ve spoken with over the years, long-term travel’s life changing themes are often centered around these one or all of these 3 values.
Try them on today. I will again.”
– Sean Keener, CEO BootsnAll.com