Meet Colin Wright: Author & Analytic Journalist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Colin Wright and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Colin, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
My main motivation in starting my first business, back when I was still in school, was wanting to do the work I was already doing better—according to my personal standards for “better.” I didn’t intend to get rich or achieve notoriety: I was just tired of having other peoples’ metrics of success determine the shape of the work I was doing, and that resulted in some research and footwork to figure out how to start my own company, balance the accounting books, and so on. I could never really go back after I’d experienced that freedom of behavior and alignment of my beliefs and actions. Transitioning to running your own business is not easy, and it comes with a lot of additional responsibilities, but to me the trade-offs were worth making for the benefits they provided.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
The work I do, today, has been shaped by influences I’ve encountered around the world. Back in 2009, I started traveling the world-full time, leaving behind a pretty solid situation in Los Angeles, running a branding studio, to at first consult, and then write full-time, from the road—my readers voting on which country I would move to, next, every four months or so. Exposure to all those people, all those cultures, all those different backgrounds and expectations and perspectives and lifestyle defaults helped three-dimensionalize my sense of things, and made me a lot more flexible in terms of my own understanding of possibility and expression. The path I’ve taken this past decade-plus has meandered wildly, and it hasn’t been at all easy, but it has been incredibly fulfilling on a personal level, and I think both those challenges and that sense of fulfillment have found their way into my work, be it written, audible, or visual.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I tend to be a recent arrival in most places I live because of my travel-heavy lifestyle. So when I have someone visit me I typically ask a local friend to take us where they prefer to go: especially the basics, like where they get lunch, shop, their favorite parks and landmarks, and so on. I personally find these slice-of-life experiences a lot more interesting and indicative of what the area offers than glitzier, touristy options, and it’s a great way to introduce another non-local to my newly adopted home, while also learning more about the local friend who has been so generous with their time, sharing their unique perspective and preferences.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I’ve been fortunate to benefit from the experience and wisdom of countless people over the course of my life, but I’ve learned more about how to engage with and relate to people from my parents than anyone else I’ve ever met. I kind of won the lottery in terms of family members, in general, and my folks have been incredibly supportive of all the strange experiments I’ve undertaken and decisions I’ve made over the course of my life. Everything I’ve done would have been that much more difficult, lacking their encouragement and enthusiasm.

Website: https://colin.io
Instagram: https://instagram.com/colinismyname
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinismyname/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/colinismyname
Facebook: https://facebook.com/colinwright
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/colinismyname
Other: https://exilelifestyle.com https://letsknowthings.com