Chris Mitchell: You couldn't see me because we're doing this over audio,but my neck hurts from nodding so much. [laughs]

I always come back to this quote by Aldous Huxley, which is "To travel is to discover everyone is wrong about other countries." I think that's so true.

In prepping to talk with you, I'd read a lot of interviews, and I had listened to some other interviews. A few times, you've mentioned that you felt like you were really a lucky guy. I guess I was curious -- how much do you think is luck, and how much do you think was just that persistence that you talked about? Or can you separate the two?

Don George: I think it's a hundred percent both.

Chris Mitchell: [laughs] Fantastic.

Don George: I do think there's luck. But I also definitely feel that we make our own luck, by choosing the path that you want to go down, and really focusing on it, and thinking to yourself, "I know where I want to get; how do I get there?" -- you make things happen. Things happen, because you're consciously intentionally focused on making that happen. And I feel really strongly about that.

So I think it's a combination of both. But it means you have to be willing to do the work to make that happen. You have to have the background knowledge and expertise to make it happen.

When an opportunity presents itself, you have to be in the right position to take full advantage of it, or it's not going to come to fruition for you. So you have to be aware of the opportunity; you have to see it, but you also have to be ready to take it.

So it's a combination of luck/preparedness, and fearlessness, or at least a certain amount of foolish courage, where you just leap at something and go, "alright, I know this is crazy but I'm going to do it, because it feels like the right thing to do. I think that's super important. I think that luck is partly creating a situation that you want to have and partly fostering the courage to jump at and grab and embrace that possibility when it presents itself, and you have to have both.

Chris Mitchell: I'm not shocked that you managed to put that into such eloquent form.[laughs]

But I think that sums it up perfectly.

I should take a moment to genuinely thank you for coming to chat with me, and offering a lot. I know that a lot of people are going to be reading this on my site, and wondering how can they follow you more, and how can they learn more about some of the things that you've mentioned. I wanted to give you a chance to let them know where to head. So if one of my readers is thinking, "this Don George guy, he's obviously got something going for him; I got to follow him" -- where should they head?

Don George: Well, I have a website, which is don-george.com, which is not updated as frequently as it should be, but it's there, and it sort of points people to more ways to read about me, or be in touch with me.

I have an Instagram account, and I have a Twitter account also.

I love it when people buy my book and send me an email saying something like, "I really liked this," or ,"I have a question about that." I love getting feedback from people about stuff that I've written, so I welcome that very much.

And I teach classes around the world, and give talks, and I try to post those on my website.

Chris Mitchell: Honestly, Don. Thank you so much. It's been nothing but a pleasure. Again, the neck pain, it's going to to hurt from all this nodding in agreement. Hey, It'll subside eventually, but the words will live on for a lot longer, right?

Don George: That's really nice. This is probably the one time in my life when I get to say "I'm glad I've been a pain in your neck." [laughs]

I really do feel like it's just a big... It's a big embrace. We all take care of each other. John McPhee got me started on this road and I love inspiring other people to follow this road, and you'll be inspiring other people to follow you, and I just feel like that's how it works. It's a wonderful chain of love and passion for what we do, and kind of honor for what we do.

I do believe that eventually the world will be a much better place if we all keep doing what we really love.

I want to thank Don George again from coming on my blog for an interview. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation and I hope it was enlightening if you're a travel content writer, consider yourself part of the "freelance travel writers" crowd, writing for travel magazines and everything in between.