Driving to Mongolia
My good friend Andrew is driving to Mongolia.
That’s just a great lead-in line 
He and 3 others are participating in something called the London to Mongolia rally. You can read more about the team here but I want to share my part of the story.
Andrew called me a few months ago to get blessing for this insane adventure. He knows that of all people, I would be most likely to tell him to go. Tilting at windmills and doing the crazy thing for the sake of it is my kind of fun, if not always my modus operendum.
Initially I disappointed him. Andrew is lucky enough to have a good job and taking a month off (even without pay) seemed like a major risk. The prevailing mood was depression. I myself was watching my income dwindle as client work dried up.
I’m very glad to say that the circumstances have changed. As the lack of work spread to more than just me it became easier and easier to sell the idea of taking a month off without pay. In a consulting business your staff are one of your only two real assets (the other is your reputation). You have to keep paying them even if you have no work otherwise you’ll have no business left when work does come along. In Andrew’s case the timing lined up very well with his current work so to Mongolia he will go!
More recently Andrew bought a new (used) car for journey. I was glad to help translate the french ebay listing.
Go to the Creeping Blandness blog and foll0w along. It’s sure to be a very interesting story.
April 7th, 2009 at 10:57 am
Thanks for the mention, Michael. I’m really glad it all worked out. I wanted to say that the rally is not solely an adventure, it’s also a fund-raiser for charity (donation box on our blog in the sidebar). We’re raising money for Mercy Corps, an organization doing development work world-wide.