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Living the dream: Mike Graziano

Part One of a five-part series on people who switch it up and pursue their passions full-time.

To get your degree from Mike Graziano’s school of thought, you don’t have to go to all the courses, you have to go to all the countries.

Embarking on a documentary journey to earn what he calls The Global Degree, Graziano, 24, intends to travel to every country in the world before he is 30. Which would make him the youngest Canadian ever to do so.

The Texas-born, Vancouver-raised entrepreneur discovered his love of travel three years ago while studying business in Copenhagen. Having never left North America before, it was on this trip that he had his first epiphany.

“I learned that you didn’t really need a business degree to get ahead,” says Graziano. “You could just kind of go out there with your own ambition and drive and common sense and do your own thing.”

While overseas, Graziano founded a business that made electronic T-shirts – the sound activated that move to music – customizable. He also travelled to 17 countries.

“When you’re travelling to so many countries so quickly, it’s culture shock. You’re not sleeping much, you’re meeting so many people, engaging with different languages, cultures, personalities. I compare it to really being alive.

“It’s more rewarding than a business deal, it’s more reward than, you know, sex or a relationship,” he continues emphatically. “To me it’s the highest reward to be doing something like that. There’s nothing better than that type of trip.”

But he came home to focus on his business, and it paid off. Graziano made it onto Dragon’s Den, and GlowLife was asked to make shirts for Coldplay and MGM Grand in Las Vegas to name a few.

But then travel again began blipping on his radar.

When a planned group trip to Thailand in December fell through, Graziano went for three weeks by himself.

He saw it as an opportunity.

“When you’re in that uncomfortable space, that’s when you have to do it because it’s going to take you to the next level.”

While travelling solo, he set challenges for himself: Go sit next to that stranger at the coffee shop. Say yes to travelling with the friend you just made. Go visit people in their home cities.

He refused in social situations to go “zombie” and retreat into the digital safety of his phone.

On his last day in Thailand, Graziano made a promise to himself: To reach all 195 countries before the calendar strikes 2019. When he got back to Vancouver, there was nothing here to talk him out of it.

“I looked at my bills, and I figured out that I’d spent more money as a ghost in Vancouver with car payments, subscriptions, etc., than I had living like a king in Thailand. That’s when something opened up.”

In addition to being helped along by sponsors like Hostelworld and Flight Centre, Graziano will be travelling with videographer Alex Hennessy and putting together a film series for other wanderlusters his age, meant to show this kind of travel blitz is doable, desirable and can be done on less than $100 a day.

“I’m trying to do it as cheaply as possible, so that any person who watches our show can take a good, hard look at their situation and realize there is another lifestyle available to them. The reason people don’t do it is, No. 1, they think it’s too expensive. No. 2, they think it will be lonely to go on their own. And No. 3, they don’t think it’s safe. Which is all far from the truth.”

They raised more than $10,000 on Kickstarter towards fulfilling that dream. Most of that money went towards camera equipment, but some will also being helping others.

“We’re pooling money towards the good deeds fund. This is not an organization. It’s us, and, as we go, we’re going to find people in need. On an individual-to-individual connection. We’ll already be passing though these areas and it’s an opportunity to be helping.”

Graziano left April 7 for Belize and will return in August, having gone to 21 countries in Central and South America. Then its saving for the next leg: Asia.

He also plans to loan himself out over the course of his quest as a brand “errand boy.” Instead of a travelling salesman, he’s a travelling marketer.

On this junket, he’s taking music from electronic label Monstercat to remote areas and filming people’s reactions to hearing it for the first time. He’s also playing Hodor to the Monstercat mascot, and carrying it around for photo opps.

As plans for the trip started coming together, Graziano happened to meet Prevail, and the Swollen Members frontman liked what he heard.

Prevail linked him up with internationally acclaimed mixologist and Absolut ambassador Jacob Sweetapple, and all three were sitting around a table a few weeks ago, discussing the trip and staring lustily at Sweetapple’s celebratory custom creation.

It was inspired by the Monster Cat song “Savage” using Absolut’s newest flavour, and the fact that it was created in a 24-hour window is but a testament to Sweetapple’s talent.

The drink tastes like if Jessica Rabbit walked into a rave.

The anise notes and strength of the absinthe are smoothed out dangerously by citric acid, and the drink itself, ‘The Burlesque Beauty Queen’, transitions seductively from pink to blue with a stir of the sugared violet flower that sits demurely like a geisha on the bottom.

And while this mind-bending drink won’t be appearing on any menus (you can replicate it yourself with the recipe below), it represents something that Graziano craves – the thrill of taking what you think you know, and allowing the entire world to question it.

Burlesque Beauty Queen
 

My Guide to the Good Life

Mike’s story is part of a five-part Living The Dream series that will run every week until the launch of our special May 22 edition, of which Craft Prevail is guest editor. It also marks the launch of our month-long contest, My Guide to the Good Life (#myGGL). Travelling is Mike’s idea of the Good Life; what’s yours?

Tell us, and you could win:

• a trip to Portland
• an $800 shopping spree
• a Squamish Valley Music Festival package and more

Enter here