So, Christine, thank you for accepting this unprepared, unplanned interview. This is your fifth time in Romania? Yes, my fifth time in Romania. Fifth time as a German tourist? Well, German tourist is my trail name. So, I've always been a German tourist, but as German tourist hiker it's only my third time, I think, my third or fourth time, yeah. How did you get this nickname of German tourist? It's not a nickname, it's a trail name. And a trail name. Because this is something very specific to these American long-distance trails. When you hike there, you get a trail name, and this trail name has various functions. First of all, during such a long hike, the hikers start looking very similar to each other. You get dirty and all the shiny, bright clothes get this gray, dirty, whatever color. All the guys have a beard all of a sudden. So, you need something to say exactly, "Okay, I mean this person." So, this is the practical idea of a trail name. And the second is more like a philosophical idea, is It is the same way as in a religious order. If you join a religious order, like you become a nun or a monk, you are also given a new name, and the new name symbolizes that you are now entering a new world. It's the same with a trail name. It shows, "Okay, you're not normal Jane Doe anymore, no. Now you're a hiker, you have a different personality, a new identity." In 2003, something happened that changed your life somehow forever. So, what happened is in 2003, I was like this new manager. I was working as a turnaround manager in a company, having good salary, you know, posh car, whatever. As a yappy. So, I did this yappy holidays in the US. I went to California to visit San Francisco and Los Angeles. This is like July 2003. So, I was sitting there in a commercial campground in Yosemite National Park. And, you know, very typical, like you had this big expedition tent, a super thick sleeping pad, and I was eating this dehydrated tracking stuff, you know, all this. Everything you know out of the outdoor magazines. So, and it was just getting dark when all of a sudden at this campground, these people appeared who did not look like any hiker I had seen before. They were really like scruffy, sort of like their clothes were torn. And I had this big expedition backpack, and they had a tiny little bag, you know, like you use for sports. And they didn't even put up a tent. They just rolled out their sleeping pad. And they were completely different than any hiker I've ever seen. So, I decided, I've always been a curious person, so I decided to go up and ask them, "Hey, what the heck are you doing here?" And I had no idea that their answer would change my entire life. Because they said, "We are hiking from Mexico to Canada." And this is the first time in my life I heard about this trail. It's called Pacific Crest Trail, and it runs from the Mexican to the Canadian border, and it's 4,277 kilometers long. And I was like, "Wow!" And the rest of the evening, they were telling me all these funny stories about their trail and the equipment, and God knows what. And I couldn't hardly sleep that night. And I had five million other questions, but when I woke up in the morning, they were all gone. Then you went back home. I went back home. I was a manager. No normal person, not even me, gives up, quits a job, like well-paid management job for this stupid idea to hike from Mexico to Canada. And what happened is that God, or destiny, or whatever I prefer to think of God, God said, "Okay, this woman has to go, so I just kick her in the ass." So I got two kicks. The last day before Christmas, I was fired from my well-paid management job. And looking back, for me, this is compensatory justice, because I had fired so many other people myself as a turnaround manager. I was experiencing myself how it feels to be fired. And I was like, "Oh my God!" I felt, "Why has this happened to me?" It was a disaster. I was still at home crying when the next kick happened. And this kick was much more dramatic, because a good friend of mine, he was exactly 10 years older. He had a stroke. They reanimated him for almost an hour in hospital. And what happens is, if you're getting reanimated for such a long time, you suffer irreparable brain damage. This is what happened to him. He survived the stroke, but afterwards, he had the mental capacities of a three-year-old. So me being freshly unemployed, I was just being fired, I had all the time in the world. So every other day, I visited him in hospital. And when he had a second stroke after a couple of weeks, I was the only person available. So again, I went to hospital, to intense care. And I was sitting the whole night holding his hand. And at this point, I could not refuse this question anymore. The question was, what would this friend of mine have done if he had known, on my age, he was exactly 10 years older, if he had known at my age, what was waiting for him? When I left the hospital this night, I realized I had to make a decision. And because what happened to him had shown me, wow, the most important resource in life is not money. Everybody thinks money is the most important thing. But the most important thing is time. Because other than money, time cannot be multiplied. You cannot plan time. You never know what's going to happen. So I realized, OK, if you have a dream and you really want to do it, you have to do it now. So I left the hospital and I booked the flights to the US to start hiking this trail. So you hike this trail for, like, how many months? Five months. It took me five months, which is like the regular time. And I tell you, 4,277 kilometers look quite different on a map at home in front of your computer than they look in the Mojave Desert. In hindsight, it's a mystery to me that it survived, because the only preparation I did for this trail was basically to buy new equipment. I didn't go to the gym. I didn't train. I didn't even do a training hike, nothing. So I was standing there. Behind me was this metal fence between the border. And in front of me was like 4,277 kilometers. And all I could see is this dusty, really, really dry Mojave Desert. And the trail angel who had brought me there had gone. So I was all alone there. And I realized the next water source is 37 kilometers away. So you better be moving to make it to the next water source. So there's no one could help you. And only then it dawned on me, hey, what have I gotten myself into? But you finished that trail. I finished the trail at the first attempt I did it. It took me five months and one day. And then you went back to Germany and got another job. Exactly. And for a couple of years, you did the same thing. You went for a couple of months to hike somewhere in the world. And then you came back to Germany to your job. But in 2007, something... You took a decision, right? So what happened is I worked for two and a half more years restructuring another company. Very successful. And successfully, I don't want to brag. It's very important because I all of a sudden had accumulated so much money that I realized, OK, I can afford to go hiking. So what happened in 2007, this is actually very funny. I sort of blackmailed my employer, which was actually the owner of the company. I blackmailed them to let me go hiking. Because I was the CEO. and as a CEO, you cannot go hike for half a year. It's just ridiculous. So this is when I did the next hike. Again, another hike from Mexico to Canada, this time on the Continental Divide Trail. And the funny thing was we had so many quarrels, my boss and me, about this damn hike. So in the end, when I was hiking actually from Mexico to Canada again, I was on trail. They fired me. And it was so hilarious because I had a friend of mine looking after my mail. And I called him. I had this agreement with him. So I called him every month to see if something has happened. And I called him and he said, oh, Christine, please sit down. Take a deep breath. And I said, I cannot sit down.
I'm in a public phone. So go ahead. Take a deep breath. Relax. I said, what's going wrong? He said, well, I just received a letter from your employer and you're fired. And my first reaction was jumping up and said, hooray, hooray, I'm fired. And I was very happy also because I had made the work contract. And I knew when they fired me, I get a lot of compensation. Whereas if I had quit myself, I would have got nothing. But being fired was the best thing that could possibly happen. But the decision that you took at that moment was not a decision that you actually have taken in the heat of the moment that you don't want to work like this anymore. You just want to go to hike. It was a decision that you have taken during a period of time, I mean... Back then, I even had a career coach because I was really I had a very super straight, very good career. I worked for 10 years. And so I was always deliberating. Do I really want to continue that or do I want to change careers? So the idea was in the beginning, OK, I have accumulated enough money.
I have saved enough money. And my career coach said, OK, you can go hiking for several years because if you're still younger than 50, you will always find a job. So the first idea was in 2007, OK, I do some big hikes and I really expect it to be bored very soon. But on the contrary, the completely opposite happened because the longer I hike, the more I hike, the more ideas I had. And then I realized, OK, hiking is nice, but what about cycling, and what about paddling? So I started cycling as well.
I started paddling as well. And the more I did all this, the more ideas I had. So all of a sudden I realized, hey, I'm 50 now. And I think it's too late to go back to work. But then something different had happened. If you look at my time back when I was working in management, I really had to take really, really life changing decisions. I was firing people. I was changing the companies. And it was really hardcore decisions. But now when I'm hiking, the only decisions I have to make per day is like, oh, do I eat Snickers bar first or Mars bar first? I was lacking the intellectual challenge. So after a couple of years on the trail, I decided, OK, hiking is nice.
I don't want to stop that. I like being a professional hiker. But I need some intellectual challenge. And the next challenge was that I started writing books. And after that, I started doing shows. So this is my life now. How do you relate to what happens along the trail when you're hiking? I mean, if you're doing this like a job, I think it's a job for you. Well, actually, I advise people to consider hiking as their job, which is like a psychological thing. Most people think, OK, I want to hike from Mexico to Canada. Or I want to hike Via Transilvanica, or whatever. So this is the one big thing. So they quit their job, or they have a sabbatical, and they save a lot of money. And so they think, OK, this is my once in a lifetime trip. This is my one big holiday. So if they do this hike with this holiday mentality, they will be disappointed if there are problems. And I guarantee you, while you're hiking, the question is not if there will be a problem. The question is only what problems will happen when and how often. So there will be problems. So with this holiday mentality, you think, what have I done to deserve this? I put so much effort into that. And I deserve that everything went smoothly. So they are disappointed. Whereas if you have the work mentality, this is why I say, OK, if you go hiking, please do consider this as your new job. Because with your job, you're not expecting every day to be brilliant or fine or fantastic. You accept that there will be days that are pretty crappy or pretty bad. But this is what happens to your job. So hiking is my job now. But I wouldn't want to change this job for nothing else in the world. But still it's my job. It's my vocation. I know you're doing a lot of planning before going on a hike. How do you set your goals while hiking? I mean, you set daily goals like today I want to walk 25 kilometers or you set like a very general goal. I want to go from there to there. How does it work? OK. So again, this is a very psychological thing. This is the second advice I give to all prospective hikers. And this advice is, OK, you have to have a goal and you have to have rules how to achieve the goal. So for me, the goal is I want to hike from point A to point B. Whatever point A and B is, it's basically random. It doesn't really matter. Sometimes it's like the southernmost point of Europe or the northernmost point, but basically it's random. And my rule is I want to hike with connecting footsteps. So I'm not always hiking the trail I have actually planned. Maybe I detour because of bad weather or because the trail is gone or whatever. But the rule is connecting footsteps. Some of the good things about the advantages of hiking is that you build up self-esteem. And this only happens like if some things go horribly wrong and you still master them, you still cope. It is raining the entire day. It's all horrible. You're running out of food. But you still hike through the rain. You suffer through the hunger and you make it to the goal. You make it to the end. My planning practice is always like having a point A, having a point B. I plan everything in great detail. I know exactly where I want to hike. I know every single supermarket, especially Lidl ones. I don't 100 percent follow that. As I said, sometimes I have to detour. And as soon as I start hiking, it's like a mechanism. Go on and go on and go on. This carefully planning, take away the surprise from you. Every hike is full of surprises. So I know for sure, no matter how much I plan, there will be several surprises. But what I want to do is I think hiking is very mind-freeing. Because see, most people they work and during work, their boss decides what they have to think about the whole day. And when they come home, their children or their spouse, wife or husband, they decide what you have to deal with, like doing the dishes or bringing out the garbage or whatever. So I think it's very, very relaxing to just have not to think about practical things. So with all my very, very detailed planning, I don't have to think about anything because I just have a look at my logistic paper and I know next supermarket in three kilometers. So no worries. I don't have to do any research on trail. And so I find it very freeing. It's not a corset because I don't have to go to the supermarket, but I can. And I don't have to think, oh, I'm out of food. Where can I get some? I know. But is there a kind of training for the unplanned situation that you're taking or making or... American thru-hikers, they have this saying and it goes like the trail provides. And I think it's very true. Somehow on a trail, somehow always something works. Something happens, things always work out somehow. That doesn't mean that you should go completely unprepared with no money. It will not work out then. But if you say, oh my God, it's raining. I'm out of food.
What do I do? Then some trail angel will have put some food for you. Or you encounter someone or you meet someone. And the other thing is, this is a very, very nice American saying as well. It says, "Be comfortable with being uncomfortable." And this puts it, pinpoints it very, very well. Many things when I post, I post a lot on social media when I post pictures of what happens to me on a trail. Everybody says, oh my God, this would be too much. I would quit immediately. This usually includes insects like spiders running over your face while you're sleeping or leeches sucking blood from you or mosquitoes. And all these things are not real obstacles. They're not real risks. One thing is being uncomfortable, which is not life threatening. And there's real risks which are life threatening. So I have no problems with being uncomfortable, but I realize what's the difference. So when there's a situation which is really risky or life threatening, I go out immediately. A related question. I know that you have a question that you actually hate. Yes. I know where you're driving it. My hate question. Okay. What is my hate question? "Aren't you afraid as a woman to hike alone?" Exactly. Nobody will ask you, Mircea, aren't you afraid as a single guy to walk, hike alone? So this is why it's so annoying. Why should I as a female be more afraid than a guy? And my conclusion is both sexes are equally safe or unsafe on a trail. We just face different problems. So of course, as a female, I'm facing the potential problem, the potential problem of being sexually assaulted or raped or whatever. But this is really potential because nobody, if you look at the statistics, I mean, nobody is hiding in the… no rapist will hide in the forest with five degrees Celsius in pouring rain and wait for a single female to pass by. If these attacks happen, they usually happen in cities or even like in your own household. So it's just not very realistic. Of course it can happen. But of course, I can also have an accident. But on the other side, I have a lot more advantages than you as a guy would have. For example, I'm always wild camping, which is not quite legaly in most countries. So if like the landowner shows up and he finds you in a tent, vice versa, me in a tent, he will be much more lenient with me and he will say, "Oh, you're just a female." Because women do not pose a threat. So I think, yes, I face dangers men do not face, but I have also advantages men do not have. So I think it's same, same. I know that you describe in your blog some very strange encounters during the night, while camping. And how do you cope with this? How do you cope with fear? I've never been afraid to be alone in the dark, in the forest. That's really strange to hear. I don't know why, because it's just logical. I'm a very logical person. So if you think about it, I realize nobody sees me, nobody expects me. Well, I'm incredibly safe. I have never been afraid because I'm just so logical. And now with experience, I know what I hear there barking in the distance. This is not dogs who are coming to eat me. This is just like deer. And I also know this strange noise from underneath my tent is not Dracula or Frankenstein. This is just a tiny insect, which is crawling underneath the tent and it's just so close to my ear that it sounds like, oh my God, some creepy monster is coming up. In Italy, a bear killed a jogger. So all of a sudden, in every interview, I was asked, aren't you afraid of bears? You're being eaten by a bear. I said, OK. This is the first fatal attack of a bear onto a human being in the last 50 years. So how many car accidents have happened in Europe in the last 50 years? Thousands, tens of thousands. And so you are going to work and with no hesitation, you're going, getting into your car and drive to work. But you ask me, aren't you afraid of being attacked by a bear? We have one fatal bear attack in 50 years and thousands of fatal car accidents. So look at the statistics. But are you a religious person? Actually, I have become a religious person through hiking. And this is an interesting story because I come from southern Germany, from Bavaria, and I went to a convent school. And my first teachers were nuns. So I was like, I really hated all sorts of religions because we had to get up every morning and pray. And I said, no, I refuse. I sit down. So I became a very adamant atheist. And then when I started hiking, I found myself every night lying in my tent and thinking, wow, what a fantastic life. Thank you.
I was overflowing with thankfulness. So who am I thanking? And I realized, OK, I'm probably thanking God. And this is how I came back to religion. And I realized that this is a very strange approach to religion because most people find back to God through really hard situations like death or unemployment or a spouse running away. And it's usually come through a bitter experience. And it's very unusual for someone to have so much happiness that you go back to religion. So now I really have become a very religious person to the point that my followers always say, do you have to post a picture of every damn church which is along the trail? Everywhere where is a church, I go inside. I want to say hello to God. And I also want to charge my smartphone because churches always have like electrical outlets. But you have a lot of time to think during your hikes. This is also one of the advantages. I mean, when people ask me, why should I hike? There's several approaches. But having the freedom to think what you really want to think about, this is one of the greatest. Usually when you're 16 or 18 years old, you think about, oh, is there a God? What is this? What is your sense in life and all these things, all these philosophical questions? And then you start working and your boss decides what you think about the whole day and your wife and your children. So all of a sudden you are free. You're totally free again. And this is really mind blowing. And this had very interesting side effects. For example, when I started hiking, I lost several friends because I was basically not available for going out for a beer or for a cinema or whatever. So they ditched me. But other friends, they realized, oh, Christine, if I'm a love sick or if I have a problem with my job, she's the person, I can even call it six o'clock in the morning and talk to her for hours because she has the time and she also has the mental capacity to follow me and to help me. And see, every hike, every trail, I have this sort of pet project. There's some friend of mine who has job problems or who has a burnout at job or who is a love sick because whatever problems in this relationship. And my only problem is, oh, do I eat a Mars or a Snickers bar first? So I'm open. Hey, if you come on with your problems, I can help you. Do you like chocolate a lot?
I know. I'm addicted to chocolate. Chocolate is the only food I will never get tired of. I'm an ultra-light hiker. So everything is reduced to weight. And there's only two foods that have this fantastic ratio. One is chocolate and the other one is peanut butter. The problem is you get fed up with peanut butter much easier than with chocolate. So yeah, chocolate, it is. So you eat actually huge amounts of chocolate. Generally, I eat four bars of chocolate, like 100 gram bars of chocolate every day. So 400 grams of chocolate. But actually, some of my friends tell me, "Christie, this is the true reason why you have become a long distance hiker." You know, from what you're saying, it seems like you're having a, I don't know, very sugar-coated life. Like, you're doing what you like. You're waking up whenever you want, hiking, thinking of what you want to think, and then eating whatever you want to eat. What are the downsides of hiking? You pay a price for every lifestyle. So first of all, I would not change this lifestyle for nothing. I mean, I just love it. For me, it's perfect. And again, I think this is the best life I could possibly have. But the price I'm paying has to do with relationships, because I'm constantly hiking, and nobody is so stupid as to go hike with me for six months in a row. And even if somebody would be willing, I didn't want this person to come with me, because I have to hike my own style. So the worst, I have three days per year in a year that I really loathe or I really hate. This is my birthday, which is in summer. And the same goes for Christmas and for New Year. This is like the typical situation that people think about the last year, what has happened. So I'm always, always alone. So I know this is the price I pay. It's not that I'm lying in my tent and crying and getting a depression. But I think, well, everyone else has family, friends to share these moments with, and I don't have anyone. I'm alone in my tent. People always ask me like, oh, I don't know whether I can do this hike. Am I fit enough? Do I have enough money? But that's the wrong question. The only question that you really should think about before you start hiking, and I'm really serious about it, is what do I do if I really like long distance hiking? Because you are laughing now, but there's a point of no return. When you get hooked like I got hooked, all your values change. You realize I can live on so little money. I can live with rain and bugs and God knows what, and you did so, so very little. So going back to a normal nine to five job where your employer tries to lure you into working more and more with more money, more status symbols, it doesn't work anymore because status symbols, you don't care anymore. Money is just like, okay, it's nice to have to go to the next hike, but it loses its importance. So you're basically ruined for a normal life. In the US, you can buy t-shirts, and it has this one saying on the t-shirt, and I really like it. It says, "Thru-hiking has ruined my life. Thank God." You are sort of an antihero You don't try to sell anything. Yes, actually, I'm glad you mentioned it, because I'm in this vast outdoor field like climbing, hiking, cycling, mountain biking. Everyone is sponsored except me. I reject sponsoring for me personally completely. I don't accept any sponsors, no matter what brand or what ideas. I don't take money from anyone, because I want this freedom. If I have a message, it's this one message. Everyone can hike. Actually everyone. Do not be misled by the outdoor industry, because we have this big outdoor industry, and they want to make you believe that in order to hike, you need this expensive, goretex e-vent, whatever, venting membrane for 2,000 euro, or you will not survive the first rain, the first drizzle in the backcountry. I'm hiking with a rain jacket from a discount. It cost me eight euros. Instead of a rain pants, I have a trash bag. So I cut it open and put it above my hips, and this is my rain gear. It works perfectly well. I have the money. I could buy expensive e-vent, gortex, whatever, but no, I don't want to.
I think this is more practical. So I'm really the anti-hero. In the beginning, when I started my outdoor career, lots of companies came up and said, "Oh, can we sponsor you?" Now, in the end, nobody comes anymore because they already know. I know. I'm not doing this. This is one of the best things a journalist has ever written about me. He wrote, "If you listen to Christine, you will realize again that hiking is the most democratic outdoor sports." I didn't say that, but he wrote it about it. I said, "Yeah, he's so right. This is so perfect, the most democratic outdoor sports." Money for me means freedom. Money equals freedom. It's as simple as that. So this is the only reason I'm interested in money. I have enough money for what I want to do, so I'm not really interested in getting more money. For example, I'm touring across the German-speaking world with my shows. I would earn a lot more money if I would tour, if I would do company talks because this gives you a lot of money. I'm thinking, "No, I do not want to stand in front of 100 totally bored salespeople who are forced to look at my presentation. No, I want really to give something back to the community." I learned so much from other people, from other hikers, from trail angels. So it's my way of giving back. So I'd rather earn less money, but speak to people who are really like, "Wow." What are the values that you're giving back to the people? I want to empower them, especially I want to empower women. I'm 56 now, and I think that my generation of women is a second generation who thinks, "Hmm, there must be something between being mama, grandma, and retired to old age, pensioneer home There must be something in between." For my grandmother, it was natural. She had children, then grandchildren, and then she retired and died. She didn't expect more. But my generation is, I think, the second generation of women who are thinking, "Okay, there must be more." Being in the outer world is attractive to them, but there aren't any role models because the outer world is still pretty much male dominated. There is more and more females, but these females have this bikini figure, model figure, and they say, "Oh, these 20-year-old influencers, oh, everybody can go hiking," and then 60-year-old women sing, "Pfft, no." And then I show up, and I'm very anti-hero there. Everybody says, "Why are you showing these ugly pictures?" I always try to show them, "Okay, look at me. I'm not slim. I'm not athletic. I have flat feet. I'm cross-legged. I'm overweight. I don't have a good sense of equilibrium, but still, bloody hell, I'm the most hiked woman in the world." So if I can do it, you can do it too. What have you received from your life as a thru-hiker? I've become a happy person. I think the greatest gift you can be given, the happiness you get in our normal civilized lifestyle is usually very indirect happiness, like your boss giving you a raise in salary. So you say, "Oh, this is nice," and you think of the money, and then you think of all the stuff you can buy with the money, and then you have to wait until the money is on your bank account, and you buy something, but you never know if that's what makes you happy or not. So this is very indirect happiness. On the trail, it's just like, "Okay, chocolate bar, you open it, you take a bite, instant satisfaction." So it's very bodily happiness. It's been raining for a week, and the sun comes out, and you say, "Oh." Or this one shower after a week in the desert. It's direct happiness, and it's very physical. And see, if you look at most people, the older they get, the higher is a threshold for happiness. Like when you're 20, you're happy if you live in a shared apartment, tiny apartment, and you eat tinned food, and then you have your first job, and all of a sudden it has to be an apartment of your own. And then you have another race of salary, and then all of a sudden, "Oh, you have a house of your own, and your kids, and you have a dog, and you have a yacht, and you have another car." So it always goes up and up and up and up. It's like, "Oh my God, I cannot quit this job, and what if my boss fires me because then I will have to live like 20 years ago?" And this is what threatens people. So with my lifestyle, I realized, "Hey, I can live in a tent for a month on end and still be a lot more happier, much more happier than I would be in a house of my own." In one quote you said, "Less money means more adventure." More money means less adventure. But this is a very good point because everybody says, "Oh, we want to experience adventure as well, but it has to be comfortable. It has to be luxury." This is a contradiction. If you look at the definition of adventure, it means you don't know the outcome. You learn something completely new and you don't know the outcome. So the less money you have, the more adventures you will have. How have you adapted to a simplified lifestyle during your hikes and how has this influenced your life perspective? I have adapted the hard way because when I started hiking I didn't know how tough it can be. I mean it looks, it sounds pretty nice to sleep in a tent for five months in the backcountry when you're sitting in a nice chair in a heated apartment. But it looks pretty different if you're lying in your tent and pouring rain just two degrees above freezing with no food left. So it was hard. It was actually very hard but it made me very tough because I realized how much I can endure. And this made me very strong. There's no other way, you cannot learn it by studying it or by listening to someone. You have to practice. You have to practice. I mean people can read all of my books, they can go to my shows, but they still wouldn't know what it is. You have to be in this damn tent, you have to be freezing, you have to be hungry, you have to be cold. And afterwards when you're back again normal life you will be so proud. You will look back and say wow, I have gone through that and this, only this can give you, And again you usually don't learn it the You usally don't learn it the nice way but the hard way, but you learn it and you don't forget it. So for me, for many years now I'm hiking half a year and the rest of the year I'm in Germany writing books, doing shows, preparing the next trip. When you were young, a student, you liked to go to techno parties, and then you became a businesswoman and now you have a very happy life as a thru-hiker. What's the next stage? Honestly, I have no clue. I mean I've already entered several stages because from a hiker I became a best-selling author and then I became a public speaker. So currently I'm working on the public speaker career, but at some point I'm already filling venues with 1000 people and more. So if I have reached everything in this career I will change to the next one. I have no clue what it is, but I think the difference between most people and me is that I see chances everywhere. It all started with me being fired and I was sitting in a corner crying because I was fired out of this well-paid management job. So most people would have thought, "Oh God, I have to find a new job, I have to prove myself, find a new job, earn more money." And I said, "Okay, this is a really shitty situation, but what can I do most out of it?" And immediately I said, "Okay, I'm fired now, it's December. Hiking season starts in April, this is perfect timing." So maybe I should just go hiking. So I saw the chance. I saw there's a crisis, but in every crisis there's a chance. So I don't know what will be the next chance, but I'm very good at seeing chances all along the way. And I think that's the difference. Most people only see the crisis, they don't see the chance. So let's see what is next.
