Andrew McCarthy

It was a story.

And I had the same feeling when I finished that writing that, that I had

When I was 15 years old and walked out on stage, it's the Artful Dodger and Oliver in my high school play.

And I knew, I felt like my wife is Irish, has these good Irish sayings, and one of them is, I felt like myself from the toes up.

And that's how I felt like when I was 15 when I did that play.

And I knew in that instant that's what I was going to do with my life.

And then...

15 years later, I had the same sensation when I wrote that in that hotel in Saigon.

And I'd never written anything.

I was not a reader.

I wasn't a writer.

I didn't do any of that.

But I had that sort of white light experience again of feeling, wow, I really feel like myself when I just did that.

So then I just started.

And I became successful at travel writing.

More answer than you wanted, isn't it?

But I became successful traveling quickly because I knew two things.

I knew that traveling, I've been saying, is really this profound, important use of your time.

It can change your place in the world.

And I also knew, tell a story, don't sell a destination.