Episode 32: Anthony Manrique and Emma Stevens

Money makes the world go round? Anthony Manriques

“Have faith in other people because they just want to help. One of the most beautiful things you can do is to put yourself in an uncertain situation and allow people to access their innate kindness because when you see the joy that people get from sharing and helping - it’s wonderful.” (Anthony Manriques)

How would most of us feel if we were in a foreign country with absolutely no money, not even enough to get home?

Scared?

Vulnerable?

Maybe even a failure?

But as with so many things, it’s not the situation that matters – it’s our response to the situation. While most of us might have been freaked out by the idea of running out of money, Anthony and Emma were ready for it.

What I took away from my mind-expanding conversation with them was:

The concept of life without money is easier to grasp if you’ve seen other people (their Hungarian friends) do it and not just survive, but thrive. Knowing that someone has gone 11 days without food makes it a lot less bad to go hungry for a mere 2 days. Exchanging hard work for board and lodging (and a lot of learning) makes everybody a winner. As we’ve heard so many times before on this podcast, most human beings love to help. If you recall the story of the Good Samaritan, it seems less surprising that the Samaritan stopped to help, and more surprising that the first two miserable bastards crossed the road to avoid the injured man. When adventurers go out into the world with humility and vulnerability, people respond with kindness and generosity. Both giving and receiving trigger happiness responses in human beings, as a reward for our interconnection and interdependence – an evolutionary response that we needed for survival. Maybe money even gets in the way of our better natures. Psychologists seem to have proof that this is so. There’s a great video here (with transcription) about how people with more money are less likely than poorer people to stop for a pedestrian at a crossing, and more likely to cheat, lie, and steal candy from children. Seriously, I’m not making this up! Also psychologist Paul Piff’s TED Talk: Does Money Make You Mean?

So... does money really make the world go round?

Emma Stevens  

Other great quotes from Anthony and Emma's Uncertainties blog:

“Travel, exploration and adventure should be an expression of the sacred relationship between humankind and nature. A celebration of our connection with, reliance upon and duty to planet Earth.”

“From the struggle we find that we are in fact inextricably linked to these places. We have poured blood, sweat, tears, vomit and diarrhoea onto them. And in turn they have poured something into us; something that immediately validates the difficulty, even if we don’t yet know it.”

"Without uncertainty there is no hope and adventure fades simply to motion.”