Hi there wanderer,

It's been a long long time since my last update about the progress of the Founders and the Underdog book that you helped me fund. 

Here is what happened in the past 6 months and what will follow:

I roamed 3 continents and 9 countries (UAE, Tanzania, South Africa, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, England, Spain). I was planning to go to Australia too but my visa application was refused. Twice. They thought I was a potential immigrant (ha ha ha). 

I crashed the TED conference, was kicked out with security, then came back to their farewell party to meet a very inspiring person who is organizing a tech startup accelerator in Somalia. I traveled through time too. Tanzania felt like going back to the 90s, and then Hong Kong seemed like skipping to the future where Earth is way overpopulated and overbuilt. 

Meeting top entrepreneurs started to get easier and easier. I went to a conference in South Africa where I was invited as a media person. The organizers assigned me a personal headhunting team of girls who were running around to scout entrepreneurs and schedule interviews for me. So much for a party-crashing underdog!

All these trips and mentors I met ruined me. They pushed my limits to an extreme. They made me break down and cry at times. And I was alone in this. 

It was so painful I needed to rest and not travel for about two months (greetings from my home country, Bulgaria). It's good to be a little bit bored sometimes to recharge.

ONE MORE TIME

But I am about to do it again! 

Even though I went through many hard moments and a lot of pain, the things I learned gave me a new mindset. With every meeting and story, I started doing better and better. No more hitchhiking or surviving on pasta (unless it's for fun) !

I failed in some ways and succeeded in others. But now I know how to fine-tune the questions I ask, be more organized when it comes to attending events and chasing people, write better, and do better PR. 
Starting from March, the plan is to visit London, New York, Los Angeles, Shanghai, Auckland (take that, Australia), Tokyo, Mumbai, Somaliland (for the tech startup accelerator), and Istanbul. South America is on the list too. 

Any entrepreneurs in Antarctica?

It takes me longer to write the book but one thing I realized is that this project is bigger than me. It doesn't belong to me, it belongs to the world. 

Writing the book transformed me and I want to make sure that reading it will do the same for others. 

TOP OF THE LIST

I like to write about undiscovered entrepreneurs but there are two celebrities I really want to meet and haven't been able to so far – Elon Musk and Richard Branson. Soon, I will be in both London and Los Angeles, armed with all my persistence. 

If you or anyone you know can help me meet either of them, please let me know. It's an extremely hard challenge but I don't want to give up on it.

ON PUBLISHERS

I do have a few offers from publishers and also a sponsor who offered to cover all publishing and distribution costs if I self-publish. This is amazing and I appreciate all these opportunities!

But there is a third option which is to be published by a big five publisher that I haven't explored yet. Again, an extremely hard challenge. And something tells me that sending emails won't do it, even though I have the list. 

This is one of the reasons why I'm going to New York – to use my party-crashing skills to personally meet important people from the publishing world. 

BETTER PR

One friend I met in Singapore gave me the idea to contact journalists from the mainstream media in every country I visit. Bulgarian journalists are already contacting me proactively and I have been featured on the Bulgarian Bloomberg TV, national TV, some entrepreneurship magazines, another book about successful Bulgarians.

If I can get the US media to pay attention, I will get them all ;-)
It's time to get into mega-hustle mode!

Travel is a resource – you can use it to learn new things, to find new clients, to expand your network, to do PR... If you are creative about it, it pays off.

ALPHA READERS

I was thinking of starting a group of alpha readers to read and "test" the early version of the manuscript before your official copy is ready. If you are interested in something like this, just send me an email. It's optional and it can spoil a few things but you can experience the creative process.

Napoleon Hill wrote that if you want something bad enough, you should burn your ships when you get to the island. 

Last year, I traveled with one-way tickets. I was afraid of what will happen if I run out of money during the trip and so I worked twice harder. Close to the end of the trip, I did have a short moment in which I ran out of money as a few payments were pending at the same time. 

My biggest fear happened. And guess what. It wasn't that scary. The first friend I messaged lent me some until my next paycheck arrived two days later. 

This time, I am about to sail with a bigger ship. And "torch it" once I set foot on Manhattan island. 
Sail!

Best regards from your totally nuts friend,
Anna