Are vagabonders like entrepreneurs?

Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley on the cover of Entrepreneur magazine. Photo: Dennis Crowley / Flickr

On the surface, it can seem that vagabonders and entrepreneurs live in different worlds. Vagabonders are constantly going to new lands and learning new languages. Entrepreneurs are constantly working on new ideas and promoting their businesses.

This blog post by Peter Shankman got me thinking that the two are more similar in mindset: How to jailbreak your life so you can live the way you want. Shankman is best known as the founder of Help a Reporter Out (HARO), a service that connects journalists with expert sources. He is also deeply involved in doing marketing and public relations.

His “jailbreak” post was a rousing call to arms, as well as a kick in the butt for people to go for their goals. Shankman travels a lot, often to glamorous locales. Like many of us, he gets flack from friends and family who think he’s lucky and just gallivanting around.

He lists every excuse for not living your dream, and takes a sledgehammer to each argument. Don’t have the time, don’t have the money? Think your job has to be tied to location? Shankman demolishes each one. Not to prove that his way is better, but that we can all start building the life we want.

Shankman is talking about starting your own business, but these are the same constraints that also hold people back from vagabonding. Both travelers and entrepreneurs are risk takers. Another trait they share is that they don’t do it for one-upmanship. It’s not about collecting stamps in a passport or stacking money in the bank. The driving force is to live life to the max.

One other major point is that the same technology that allows travelers to stay in contact, is the same technology that enables you to conduct business wherever you are. If there is a backpacker who has never used Skype, I haven’t met them.

An interesting idea that wasn’t covered was how travel could inspire your business ideas. Red Bull was supposedly based on a Thai energy drink called M-150. Music videos were popular in Europe long before the birth of MTV. Osamu Tezuka, a seminal figure in Japanese manga comics, said he loved the American Scrooge McDuck comics (see #1 on this list). In a nice cycle, Disney later imitated some of his artwork.

More recently, Apple’s elegant products were heavily influenced by the work of German industrial designer Dieter Rams. CEO Stave Jobs’ formative experiences were visiting Sony’s factories and seeing Japanese perfectionism in action, former Apple CEO John Sculley said in an interview.  New experiences and foreign influences can prime the imagination.

Are you a traveler who runs your own business? Have you spotted more similarities? Please share your thoughts in the comments.