I've seen it on Amazon and I see you have some great reviews.
I was super excited to see that.
Do me a favor and tell me more about the book.
Well, the book, so I've had an entire career
in civil engineering, but along the way,
I accidentally started an ultralight backpacking
gear company, Gossamer Gear.
And through a number of stories,
which are in the book, obviously,
but I got interested in going out backpacking with less weight.
I was involved in Boy Scouts,
and the boys, when they cross over,
sometimes haven't hit their growth spurt yet.
They're just small guys,
and we're loading them up for a week in the Sierras,
and it's a struggle.
So I thought about how could we make these packs lighter
and read some, you know, the book that was,
Ray Jardine's book out at the time
really started the journey.
And so I started sewing my own gear,
and it kind of got out of hand
and started a company on the side.
I've always worked full-time in civil engineering,
so never been paid by the gear company.
But so that as I worked through the years,
actually probably started in 1976
when I graduated high school and rode my bicycle
4,200 miles across the US
to get from the East Coast
to where I live now on the West Coast.
So I realized that at some point that the 50 years,
basically, I'd spent reducing my pack weight,
that some of the lessons I'd learned
had greater application,
they had application to other areas of life.
And so I was eventually pestered into writing a book about it,
which is what happened.
Wow, and it's, I can't take out of my head,
you said I accidentally.
That's so funny because I swear,
I think the biggest things in life
are often on an accident and not very intentional,
must be meant for you to have done this.
And so you said you were a civil engineer,
and then if I'm not mistaken,
you said you rode 4,000 plus miles on your bike?
Yeah, for some reason, and I don't know why,
I thought it would be a fun idea.
And actually, it's to date,
the biggest, probably the longest adventure
I've still done almost 50 years later.
And actually, this is kind of exciting.
You know, thanks to the magic of the internet,
I'm in touch with the three guys
that came along with me on that trip.
And we're talking about in 2012,
in 2026 will be the 50 year anniversary of that ride,
doing another ride, kind of complete the loop,
ride from the West Coast back to the East Coast.
So we'll see how that goes.
It's early stages, but that would be an exciting,
it's probably, one of the guys said
he wants to write a book about that trip.
So that would be fun.
I tell you, that's a lot,
but I commend you for that because,
and you're thinking about doing it again?
Yeah, we're talking about it.
And now a couple of guys have said,
50 years almost have gone by,
a couple of guys have said that they may need e-bikes
this time around, and they're not as excited
about sleeping in the dirt.
At least one has said,
no, this will be hotels for the nights.
Or an RV or something, I don't know.
We're still early stages, but be exciting
to complete the loop 50 years later.
Definitely.
And so interesting enough, after all of your careers
and all of your experiences,
you write this book, Take Less, Do More,
Surprising Life Lessons in Generosity, Gratitude, Curiosity.
Please share with me what made you focus
on those life lessons.
Well, there are a number,
and writing a book is the first time I've done this,
and it was an interesting process,
coming up with the title and the subtitle.
And those seem to be, we had a number of go-arounds
with the publishers, but those seem to be
good summary characteristics, things that
were interesting to people, maybe not typical.
I mean, there's a lot of books on gratitude.
I guess there's a lot of books on all those.
It's staggering, walking into a bookstore,
it's like, no wonder no one makes money writing a book.
It's like, there's billions of them out there.
And that's just in a bookstore,
that's not counting the internet.
But it was a fun process, and I enjoy the people that I meet,
met along the way, I've got some new friends
at the publisher, and the publicist, and podcast hosts.
There's a number of, there's some podcast hosts that are,
we just connected and they're making plans to visit my house
and we're gonna go backpacking, and it's gonna be great.
Yeah, you just never know.
I liked what you said about the,
we picked up on the accidental and it's interesting
sometimes to think about things that are in your life now
and the very thin thread that leads through life to that.
And at any point, if you hadn't met so-and-so,
or they hadn't talked about such-and-such,
or you hadn't been wearing that red jacket that day,
or whatever it is, so many little things
that these big events turn on,
it makes, to me, it's exciting.
Now when I meet someone new, I'm excited,
because I wonder, oh, do they have some problem
that I'm gonna be able to help solve,
or I know I'm gonna be able to connect them with someone,
or is this someone that I'm meeting
that needs to tell me some truth that I need to hear,
or is this someone who's gonna help me with some project?
I've been thinking about doing ABC
and looking for someone that knows something about that,
and I meet this, they might know someone that knows that,
so it's always exciting.
Yeah, as you mentioned it, I got goosebumps,
because I love life, like the life that we live
and the things that we can reflect on,
and as you mentioned, that thin thread,
you just never know what's going to happen.
And for those that are open, such as you and myself,
to receiving and giving,
a whole bunch of good accidents can happen.
Yeah.
And you are a testament of that,
because when you mention that, and I heard that,
and I was like, those are good troubles, good blessings,
good things that can occur out of something
you had no clue or love or passion for,
and of course, we wouldn't be Vision Pro's life
if I did not ask you to tell me about your vision in this all.
My vision is, I guess in different parts.
At a basic level, my vision is to help more people
get outside, and I think there's power in wilderness
and getting away, getting unconnected and unplugged,
and creating gear that allows people to do that
more easily with less weight
is why I accidentally started the gear company,
and that's our driving mission to this day.
And then, I guess to expand that to a larger level,
I mean, it's important, I think,
for people to unplug and get outside
and give their brains time to unwind and wander,
as it were, to make connections
that they didn't have time and energy to make at their desk.
Larger vision is applying that to life in general
so that people can have more purpose
and meaning in their lives, to look like you do,
look for that next, what's that next connection gonna be,
and what awesomeness am I gonna stumble around
in the next corner?
Yeah, it's, and backpacking,
I have not ever met anyone that did ultra backpacking at all.
I love the outdoors, so one thing you mentioned
that is definitely something that I could relate to,
and I'm sure many of the people that will watch this,
is the sereneness of being outdoors
and being with the earth, the sounds,
but also I think it's about that generosity
and that gratitude and the curiosity,
actually we wanna be there and do those things,
which of course, hence, have the words in your book.
I love that, I love that.
So now that you have this book out,
what has come about?
What new things have you experienced
or new people that you've met?
And that's one of the exciting things,
is new people that I'm meeting through the book.
I'm an introvert, so I have to push myself
to talk to strangers and things like that,
although I know amazing things happen when I do,
but it's still a struggle,
I need to push myself to do.
But I've met people in different parts of the world.
We've met, we've actually,
I mean, we have friends in Japan,
that are long-term friends,
and that's deepened through the book.
But I'm talking to someone about speaking to
like 2,500 people at the Air Force,
and that would not have come together without this book.
And just the emails I'm getting from people,
it's interesting to me to find the things
that they're taking out of the book.
Because let's be honest, there's nothing revolutionary,
I haven't discovered any new secret
to the meaning of life or anything.
But people receive things in different words,
and at different times in their lives.
And so for some people, the timing of my book
and the words that I chose for the stories that I tell
are colliding and making something meaningful.
Making something meaningful to them.
And so it's exciting to hear those stories.
It's a lot of work, I'm kind of in my mind
saying I'll give it a year, so we'll see come April of 25,
how much time and energy I still wanted to devote to it.
But we'll see.
Well, Glenn, that's a legacy.
I tell everybody, you can do a podcast,
and yes, it's recorded.
You can do anything, but a book will sit on a shelf
and often be read at the right time for the right people.
So I think that that's amazing.
Do you plan on writing another one?
Well, my standard response is no.
Yes, I have to ask you to look at your face.
It was a lot of work.
There is actually a project, I mean, the first thing,
we're kind of working on some study guides for the book
to maybe like a faith-based study guide.
So small groups could use it, a book club study guide,
maybe a leadership study guide.
But I'm a big fan of handwritten notes
and have lots of stories of how things
like those little turning points in those threads
that we talked about, a lot of those
have been handwritten notes.
And so, I mean, I can trace lifelong friendships
and millions of dollars in deals to a handwritten note.
So kind of rattling my brain, maybe if I get bored with life,
at some point is to write a shorter book
on kind of handwritten notes,
start with like the history of paper and ink and writing
and how it used to be kind of standard practice.
It was expected and now with email,
it's so much easier to type something out or text something
and so to actually write something and put it in the mail
is a rarity that I think I could bring back.
Yeah, yeah.
Interesting enough is I am a real estate agent full-time
and I handwrite my cards.
It just has thank you on it, but I tell you,
I think that there's so much more into handwriting
and I get in my head making sure
that my writing is beautiful.
However, I think it means so much more
and it allows people to see
that you've taken the time to do so.
So I do have an understanding of that
and I would love to see that
because that's definitely different, definitely different.
I mean, it's a connection.
The writing is, it physically connects you.
And I mean, I have so many stories about handwritten notes
where I've gone to someone's desk that I never met before.
I mean, we corresponded and pinned above their desk
is a note that I wrote like 10 years ago
and they pinned that like they're looking at it
every single day.
No one looks at an email every single day.
It's a beautiful, beautiful thing
and you know that it's personal and it's to that person.
So it just means a lot.
When it comes to generosity and gratitude,
how does that play a role in the lessons you've learned
in ultra light backpacking?
Well, I think in, you know, when you're on the trail
and you mentioned this backpacking,
it's kind of a different world.
It removes you from this world
and all the conveniences and systems you have.
And so in some ways you need to depend more on each other,
the other people out there hiking with you.
You know, if you forgot band-aids
and someone has some or something like that,
you can't run to the store.
You have to take care of each other.
And that's interestingly one of the things
that I find again and again is resonating with people.
I think most people want to be generous
but don't really, aren't systematic about it.
And so early on in our careers,
actually, even before I was married
and that was 42 years ago,
I have set aside a separate account,
separate checking account
and a certain percentage of all my income
goes into that account.
And so when, you know, needs come across my path,
I don't need to ask if I have money or not to address them.
I just need to say, well, does this have my name on it?
Yeah.
And if it does, there's money to address that
because I've already set it aside.
And so that makes sure I'm intentional,
I'm able to address the needs
that God's putting in my path for me to take care of.
And, you know, we started with a very small percentage
and now it's quite a large percentage of our income
that goes into that.
And, you know, I've got so many stories on that also,
you know, I mean, we can,
I mean, someone Francie worked with
and her son made some bad decisions
and ended up in prison and died there
and she didn't have money for a funeral.
And, you know, we're able to write a thousand dollar check.
It doesn't make any difference in our lifestyle
because that money's already set aside for that kind of thing.
Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions
as these episodes continue to move forward.
This is gonna get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show
and thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision
and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.