Creating symbiotic relationships across the globe via value creation

Aside from branding, writing and such I am the founder of XP, a travel company that serves the cross-section of adventure, purpose and impact. You can see glimpses of this in my LinkedIn header, for example, but you'll have a greater grasp of it if you've ever met me personally and had a conversation. Simply put, I love talking about it.

Why?

Well, I won't say that adventure tourism is broken and needs fixing. It's not that. It's just that I've found a remarkable gap that, when filled, yields sustainable returns for all - the tourists, the local communities, and us.

XP creates symbiotic relationships between people from all corners of the globe in a way that's never been achieved before.

The folks who join our trips are typically from developed countries, and they receive physical, mental and emotional transformation via our bucket-list challenges (i.e. climbing Kilimanjaro). By virtue of their attendance, funds are raised which are invested into projects for local communities (e.g. we're building a school for the children of the Masai tribe who haven't had access to education before).

Sharing resources is easy, and we have done this too. Handing out groceries, donating toys, giving cash - these are wealth distribution activities that serve a short-term need.

The real holy grail is value creation. By taking time to understand the local community and having experts on the ground who know what's needed, we're able to create sources of prosperity that, proverbially speaking, teach how to fish. These are the types of impact projects that we are getting involved with and can only be achieved by having an excellent, informed, trusted network in the local area. The Masai's ability to farm and herd is depleting faster than the snow atop their famous, neighbouring mountain, and without access to education their children are destined for desperate measures in the streets.

Our school-building project is the perfect example of value creation versus wealth distribution. In other destinations, the answer might not be a school, it could be something else - and that's fine, that's the nature of the game, nowhere is identical and every community has its own unique set of variables.

So, in summary, the next stop for us is Kilimanjaro this September where a group of 15 people from different backgrounds will come together to achieve something remarkable, and create a symbiotic connection with a Tanzanian tribe through value creation.

If you're interested, please follow our journey and share your thoughts with us. There'll be regular updates about our progress over on our Instagram page