Travel Wisdom Podcast -travel and learn languages for success and money

Melanie Curtis is a life coach, author, and location independent entrepreneur. She started as a corporate American, turned professional skydiver, turned life coach, fear consultant, and mobile-entrepreneur expert. Her 10,000 jumps out of a plane were not interesting enough so she decided to stop that and start her own consulting business while doing a world tour.

In this episode we talk about her transfer from being a famous professional skydiver into a life coaching business. After having started this for some years she decided to quit the skydiving and then do a many month world tour. During this time she was able to run her business as well as gain the wisdom from being abroad. We also talk about what it means to be a life coach as well as what they do. We discuss her qualifications and how she got accredited in this field. We then do a bit of a life coaching session to discuss my issues with my fear of speaking German.

I believe that it is important to become a wiser person. I think that experiences are important in life and that to experience more is to live a fuller life. That is why I have always tried to say yes to any experience that has come my way. I am not one to say no to something like skydiving, river rafting, trying new foods, going to strange lands, or trying out new business ventures. I have a heard a good quote that stuck with me recently “Good judgment comes from experience, which often comes from bad judgment.” So in order to have more good judgment, my opinion is that you need to have as many experiences as possible and from that you can gain good judgment.

What I try to show is that travel can open your life to experiences which is absolutely essential to gain wisdom. I have also tried to show that travel is not the only way to obtain wisdom. Since experiences can really be anything, and generally are simply reacting to new things, attaining wisdom can be all around you. All you have to do is put yourself in a new situation like talking to people you wouldn't otherwise talk to, doing things you wouldn't normally do, or going places to places you have never been. You can do all of these things without ever leaving your hometown, all it takes is the adventurer's mindset. By putting yourself in this mindset you can put yourself in learning mode which will allow you to continually get better in what you do.

Doing new things will give you perspective on your life and will help you realize that the way you have been doing things is not necessarily the right way. You can start to see that there are many ways to be successful and even if you continue doing what you were doing before, you become richer through this knowledge. Who would you rather listen to for advice and guidance, someone who had never left their hometown? Or someone who had travelled around the world and had experienced much more. I think the latter is one who could have a more balanced perspective on things and might be able to offer solutions that others implemented in faraway lands.

Of course one of my heroes, Immanuel Kant, never left his home town. He was still able to become a world renowned philosopher who's ideas are respected to this day, especially my favorite idea of the categorical imperative. This basically asks the question that if everybody on earth was doing what you were doing, would it be a good place? This is something I ask myself often whenever I embark on something new. Is it good, is it sustainable, and what will be the benefits of it? Finally, is this something only I can do or would it work if a large amount of people were doing it?

The way that Kant was able to do this is by immersing himself in books. So although he did not travel, he was able to effectively have a one way conversation with someone who may have been alive or dead. This follows the first rule of talking to people you wouldn't otherwise talk to. By having these 'conversations' one can learn more about the world around them and possibly solutions to everyday questions. Remember, a book holds the same information you could get as talking to someone, just more condensed and better organized.

However, just like while travelling, it is important not to listen to only one person. Otherwise you could be led astray by the fallacies of one source. It is when you talk to more people that you get a sense of the options available and what everyone is leaning towards. Especially here in India, I make sure to ask a few people when asking for directions. Everybody tries to be so helpful even if they end up leading you the wrong way.

This leads to the next method of gaining more wisdom, talking to new people. By going out and seeking those people that you normally do not talk to, you can get a different perspective on life, lifestyle, beliefs and more. So if you are a student, or working in a corporate job, get out of your usual circle of friends and explore a bit. Go to the poor part of town and strike up a conversation with someone. It will surely be interesting and even if they don't convince you of another way of looking at things, it will be enlightening. A common community that people ignore is those of immigrants. No matter where you live, there is most likely a neighborhood of a particular group of people from a different region of the world. In this way you do not need to walk more than an hour in order to get the same insights you could get by going across the world. Listening to them and hearing how your town is different from where they are from can be very interesting. Additionally, these people are often very grateful for outside social contact as they can often seclude themselves because of not knowing the language well enough. But if you have patience, and wear a smile, you will make friends and become beloved in that community.

My friends Liz and Veit have started an community in Dresden, Germany where they help out the refuges ending up there. These people often don't speak very good German or English and so are ostracized from the community. Additionally, they have culture shock by moving to a wildly new country. That soft serve ice cream you just bought them might be the first one they have had in their life! A little goes a long way.

Now, you don't necessarily need to dedicate your life to service nor may you have a large refugee population like Dresden. However, people from another country exist in every city larger than maybe 10,000 people. By finding them, and learning from them, you can experience their country by proxy. It can also be a good push to visit their country and learn even more. Who know? You could fall in love with an aspect of their culture and it could change your life for the better! But my opinion is that actually visiting the country is better, but this is very similar.

Next is to do things that you normally wouldn't do. This could include simply going to events or activities that you have never tried and keeping an open mind. My gf recently took me to a salsa dancing club and although we practiced, I wasn't very good and didn't find it as fun as she did. However, I am grateful for the experience because it made my life richer and now I know a bit more about myself. I would recommend trying out any type of event such as a music festival, convention, meetup, house party, celebration, or anything else. You could end up liking it and become a regular, or realize that you don't like it and not do it regularly. Either way, you learned something and became a fuller human.

It can also be as adrenaline filled as skydiving or paragliding. I have tried both and absolutely recommend them to anyone! I actually hope to work on a paragliding license so I can fly on my own someday. It was such a fun experience, well worth the $60 for the 5 hour session. When you spend your money on experiences instead of things, you learn a bit about yourself and know what your limits and capabilities are. I now feel more confident in things that I do because I was able to fly a parachute on my own after only a few hours of training.

Of course when you are travelling there are more options for these kinds of activities. Your town may not have opportunities to do scuba diving, hiking, or river rafting but it usually has at least something. That is why it is easy to opportunistically take part in many new things while travelling. Especially to do the things that are not an option where you're from. That is why I always try to do new and exotic activities or events while I am travelling even if they may be expensive.

The final way to gain more wisdom even while at home is to go to new places. Even if you have lived in a town for many years, there are likely many roads and parts of town that you do not normally visit. This partially goes back to meeting people you wouldn't talk to because doing that may lead you somewhere you have never been. This can be really good for freshening up the weekly routine and can put you in an adventurer's mindset. I'm not sure that you will necessarily learn anything new by walking down a street you have never seen, but I think it will set you up for enjoying new experiences. This tip I guess is more of a building block kind of thing in order to get used to novelty.

So, gaining new experiences and wisdom is not only limited to travel but it certainly helps speed things up. If you are in the right mindset, and talk to new people / read new books, do novel activities, and go new places, you can speed up the wisdom that you accumulate.

Remember, wisdom is just the accumulation of experiences so that you can have better judgment. So what are you doing this week to have more new experiences?

Special thanks to Edward Meyer who left an iTunes review saying “One of my favorite podcasts, thanks so much for the information presented in a pleasant and easy listening style. Always love it.” Thank so much Edward and I hope that I can continue to exceed your expectations until I am your favorite podcast! :P

Andrew Henderson is host of the Nomad Capitalist where he helps people discover the offshore secrets "they" don't want you to know about. He share 100% legal strategies for wealth creation, asset protection, and doing business overseas. He talks about how you can shop around to go where you are treated best in terms of a passport, bank account, business accounts and even simply talking to people. He teaches that the US might not be the best place for any of these things.

In this episode we talk about how 'flag theory' is something that can allow you to shop around for the best deals in terms of all aspects of your life. Since travel is so easy and cheap now, it is easy to have a second residency somewhere and banking somewhere else. He says that it is always best to be treated as a tourist wherever you are. Many of these things affect mostly those who have their own companies or those making more than $100k a year. Although this probably does not affect you now, it is always a good thing to know and to know that options exist. Finally we talk about the possibility of me giving up my US passport to get something else, although I am not sure about this at the moment.

Addiction. Now, I can get in lots of trouble for talking about this but this has been a part of my journey and I think it has helped me on my road to wisdom. This is a very dangerous thing to say especially in my home country of the US where drugs are demonized and even soft drugs like marijuana are seen as the devil incarnate. However, through my travels around the world I have made it a point to not say no to anything and to experience all that I can.

I think that drugs can be used as a tool for gaining wisdom or perspective, the same way travel can. By using some drugs you are removed from your present state of thinking which allows you to see that there is more than what you perceive. Just like travel, it can also be done in such a way that no beneficial thing comes out of it. It can be abused and the learning opportunities ignored.

I had remained extremely clean for the first 18 years of my life. Possibly living with my family deep in the suburbs prevented me from making any contacts with people who could tarnish me. But as soon as I moved out on my own I felt independent to make my own friends and to live my own life. Part of this was experimenting all sorts of things that I wanted to try so that then I could judge for myself if it was good or not. An old friend used to say “you cant knock it until you try it.” The same way you couldn't talk about how horrible it is to live in Australia for example, if you've never even been there, you can't speak of the horrors of a drug and shun the people who use it if you've never tried it. That is why I went on a journey of exploration to see all that I could see and to try as much as I could. Partway down the path I got hooked on some but now I feel I am back to where I should be.

Let me explain what I define as a drug. Anything that changes your body or brain chemistry to me is a drug. Even food and especially sugar does this. I have had some bites of sweets when I was hungry and my first reaction was to grab all of it and stuff it in my mouth. That is why I was always a bit surprised when the Mormons in my home city of Salt Lake City had very strict rules on what a drug was. They said they didn't want to alter the mind not knowing that Indonesian sailors who don't drink regularly get 'high' on sugary drinks. In Europe many centuries ago, sugar offered another way to get high. So chances are if you have had some sweet coffee, you have already had at least two drugs, caffeine and sugar.

The reason I am talking about this is because my travels directly led to my drug use. Whether it be getting drunk for the first time in Russia, or smoking weed for the first time in Netherlands, it was the place that opened the door for me. However, I was actually seeking out that this door would be opened and I was happy that it was. Experiencing all that there is and knowing more about life was something going back early in my life. I remember as a 16 year old talking to the druggy work colleagues on the pros and cons of each drug and the route one should go on in trying them. This was research for my later years. Looking back on it now, it feels like a research project that I had intentionally set out on in order to learn more about the world.

Essentially, what I learned is that any drug can be useful, beneficial, or harmful depending on the mode of use and the frequency. Even though I have never tried it, I think even a drug like Heroin might not be so bad if done in a safe setting maybe once a year. I think the addiction is the most damaging part and it can sneak up on your. Even I thought I wasn't addicted even though hardly a week would go by if I didn't smoke weed or drink.

The main question I learned from overcoming addiction, or at least getting it under control, is to ask why are you doing this. What is the purpose of doing what you are doing and what do you hope to accomplish. Who do you want to be like, and if you continue down this road where are you likely going to end up? Is this a place you want to be? This is what I asked myself and my answers weren't shocking like I'll end up dead on the streets but it was actually much worse. I will end up in the same place as I am now in the next 5 years and nothing will have changed. This is what I noticed when a friend would always come over with some nice weed to smoke, nothing ever got done even though there was much to be done. I would complain about all the homework I would have to do for school even though I would waste 30 hours a week getting high.

Even realizing this, its hard to stop the cycle unless you change your environment. In my case I got a girlfriend and as things tend to happen, I did not meet as often with my friends. This definitely helped but probably the biggest thing was my allergic reaction to weed that developed. Possibly after getting into some really bad stuff, I became extremely paranoid and couldn't function after smoking. It was so bad that I had to stop. A few times I forgot the power of this and how bad it feels and smoke again but then realize that I cannot ever do it again.

I have realized this with drinking as well. I realized that the combination of drinking, smoking, and staying up late absolutely killed my body during any weekend I did this. Those weekends I didn't, I realized there was so much time in the day that could be better spent by going on a hike, learning something new, or exploring your city. I realized that it was a time suck without any real benefits being built up.

This is a key with all addiction. Actually this morning I decided to kick the habit of going on a website called 9gag which was also introduced to me while travelling. It has user generated content where people post cartoons and funny stuff and I would spend about an hour a day on this. After coming back from a week long trip without it and feeling fine, I came home and got sucked back into it. I realized it doesn't lead anywhere and the possibly 10 hours per week could be better used either reading or learning Hindi as I should be doing. I believe that by kicking this habit I can also be more productive in the mornings when I can be very lazy. I already had the urges to just go on it for a few minutes but I had to fight it and give myself something else to do. By changing your environment you can change your outcomes.

I have found that there can be certain tricks to make your mind think differently. Instead of doing something that you would usually do, you can instead do a much healthier option. Earlier I talked about how sugar is a drug and actually it is extremely unhealthy as well. Some new science is emerging showing that sugar and carbohydrates is one of the main things that ages you and damages your body. That is why possibly skipping desert could be extremely healthy for your life and your physique.

But what do you do if you still crave something? I have learned that one piece of very dark chocolate of over 70% cacao usually does the trick. My mind is satisfied with it and I know that I hadn't eaten much sugar at all. There are many tricks that you can do that are similar to this in order to change your environment to change your outcomes. Instead of drinking on the weekend, simply get out of the city during the weekend to completely avoid any temptations. I would do this in Germany to get myself to study instead of lounging around in my apartment all day. I would go to the library with all the hardworking people instead of watching YouTube, taking a nap, and cooking food. This was a huge improvement and I was able to get about 3x more work done.

I started out wanting to write about drugs and their benefits but ended up writing about the downsides of drugs and what they do to your time. I guess this was more on my mind and I want to tell people about what I learned. What I learned is that travel introduced me to many of my addictions and I am grateful for that. I had seeked out many of these experiences in the past but then got sucked into some of them. But I am grateful for this because it gave me perspective on addiction and I can better understand those dealing with it. I also believe it has made me stronger, so when the next addictive thing comes around I can stop it or at least recognize what is happening.

What I also learned was that travel can be the solution to many of your addictions. By changing your environment so drastically, sometimes you can't have the thing you once used every day. This can be good in realizing how you can live without it and can be much easier than trying to simply not use it while you can still see it. Whether it be not being able to drink in the Middle East, not smoking weed in former Soviet Georgia, or not having internet to go on 9gag, it can force you to quit. When you get back you can judge whether or not it was beneficial and what you got out of it. Your circle of friends will also heavily determine what you do. Being around alcoholic students who party all the time will probably cause you to become one just by hanging around them. Sometimes it is easier to see if reversed. If I told you someone was best friends 5 partyers what would you think that person was? What if I told you someone was best friends with 5 bodybuilders, what kind of person do you think they are?

So in the end, addiction is bad but mostly because it is a time suck. Whether having a hangover the whole weekend, spending your evening being high, getting sucked into the uselessness of the internet, or even getting fat one sugar, it causes you to have to undo the wrong direction you went in. But maybe if you can catch yourself early enough it can still be a learning experience and you can teach others how to get out of it.

Special thanks to Stan Warner for leaving an iTunes review saying “Great podcast with wonderful guests and fantastic interviews. Highly recommended!” Thanks for leaving a review and increasing the visibility for the podcast. Now if you have been listening for at least a few episodes and like what you hear, please also leave a review so more likeminded people can find it on the interwebs, thanks!

Cheval John is the host of the What's the Word podcast, a show about finding out what motivates people to be successful in their respective careers. Cheval is an Amazon Best-Selling author, blogger and social media consultant. Every week, he asks guests how they chose their career paths and how they overcame the odds to be successful.

In this episode we talk about how his study abroad in Mexico and Chile affected his life. While his classmates were complaining about the conditions there he was offended by their perspectives. Instead, he decided to embrace the people and the culture. There he learned about what to do and what not to do, especially sensitive things to talk about like someone's favorite sports team. Then the show devolved into a therapy session to get Cheval to go back to Chile and live there. Since he seemed very happy over there I think it could be good for him to go back to the place that he loved so much.

MK Sharma has been trying to preserve the history of the desert state of Rajasthan India in his Desert Cultural Center for almost 20 years. He has collected many rare historical artifacts into one museum which is mostly self funded. When we went to his museum we started talking to him and it was so interesting that I knew I had to come back to get an interview. He had seen so many changes in his state and was a wealth of information about the history and culture of his state.

In this interview we talk about the importance of keeping your culture. He talks about how the young people are chasing money and fancy things that the West has to offer instead of how to live a balanced and tradtional life. We talk about his efforts to maintain history and how we should do this as well. Finally we talk about how things will change over the next 50 years and if there is hope in even maintaining this.

This is an interesting episode because with Westernization and modernization many cultures are sure to be lost. How do we preserve our culture and who we are for the future?

Ani Alexander is the host of the Write to be Read podcast where she talks about being a writer and making sure you sell books. She has written a few books like Highfall that have been quite successful and now is sharing what she did in order to make sure it went well.

We talk about the travel and moving around that Ani did for much of her life. She has lived in many countries and she shares how she started getting into writing. It is a strange story that shows how your mind knows what you want to do before you know yourself. We talk about her success getting successful people on her podcast as well as creating relationships with some of the most successful people in the industry. She does this by first creating a relationship and providing value in order to get names like this on her show. She then talks about her company which helps people publish and become successful. Finally we talk about how her travel has affected her writing.

I have felt insanely rich during my stay here in India. Because the cost of living here is so low, I am able to live on less than $300 a month for all my expenses. During the travels for 6 weeks in Northern India and Nepal, I think I only spent around $600. This has ended up being one of the cheapest places that I have ever travelled to and needless to say I love it!

I am not one to hold back on money on certain things. For some things like fashion, hotels and other luxuries I find relatively pointless, I am incredibly cheap. However, in terms of food, travel, education, electronics and the things that I find useful I am not afraid to spend money. Sometimes I even spend more than I have. Then I have to look at it as an investment rather than just a fun thing to do. If I can't justify the expenditure as something that can benefit my future, I won't buy it.

From some investments and other things back in the States I have about $1000 a month that comes in passively. This means that whenever I can live for less than that, I can choose to work for fun instead of working in order to live. Honestly, when I was in the US and then later in Germany, it was a bit difficult to live on this amount and I sometimes had to supplement my income doing odd jobs or little side projects to make me money.

Not having enough money was not fun as I could not focus on things that could help me grow as a person but instead had to potentially work in a soul crushing job which would not get me anywhere. Whenever I didn't need the money as much, I was free to do unpaid or lowly paid internships which would allow me to progress in my career and teach valuable skills. This is one of the main things that I attribute to being able to get to where I have. I feel very privileged to have gotten to do the things I have because it was a luxury to be able to pick and choose the path that I wanted. Before this, I had experienced a very turbulent environment which would force me down a certain path only for money. It was only after a certain distance down this path that I would discover that it was not where I wanted to go. By then it would feel like I wasted time and I felt a certain 'sunk cost.' It would be tempting to just stay on the path because I had gone so far already and it would take my friends and family to convince me to take the path to be happy, but more on that in another episode.

Maybe that is why I never really went all in on any certain path. I have always been one to try many things before making a decision and always enjoyed being sent on other jobs at some of my previous employers. I wanted to see how everything was done and I wanted to make sure that I was doing the thing that would be the most interesting. Maybe this is the reason I have gone to 80 countries, to see them all and eventually to pick a few I liked. I finally feel like going all in, now that I feel like I know what I am choosing from, but more on that in another episode.

So back to this situation in India. Even when I was travelling here I was spending less than the money than comes in passively. I realized I was eating well, doing the things I wanted to do, seeing the things I wanted to see and I still had money left over. But I really didn't see a point in spending more. I had my needs met and was living a comfortable life. Anything more would be just an invented or fabricated way to spend money. I did not need fancy suits, fancy cars, or somehow showoff my status. But it wasn't always this way, I used to be the opposite.

I attribute everything to outside influences. I feel that the way I acted before was not really the way I actually am. The BMW, 1000W stereo, and other flashy ways to get attention were probably encouraged by the things I surrounded myself with. The pop radio playing songs about showing off money, the TV shows about fancy things, and finally surrounding myself with people who would blow a paycheck in a weekend on a good time. Being surrounded by these sorts of things makes it really hard to then do the opposite. But I wasn't happy.

It really wasn't until I went to Germany that I was able to experience the things that I really needed. There they have a culture against spending money and everyone is a hipster, rolling their own cigarettes and wearing old clothes. I ended up liking this much more as the culture focused on having and spending time with friends. It felt like there I was able to get better at these skills as well. Needless to say, I loved it and when I came back to the US to finish my bachelors I couldn't wait to come back. There, a crazy night out would cost maybe $10 but back in the States it could cost $50.

I've gotten a bit off topic, but what I meant to say was that moving to Europe made me see that the way I was living before was a bit strange. There were other ways of spending money and more importantly not wasting money. After living there for some time I started to focus only on the essentials: food, drinks, a few electronics and of course travel. Everything I spent money on had a purpose and I could clearly say that it would help me in the future.

That is why when I went to India recently it really struck me as strange that people would spend so much money on silly things. This was of course after visiting all the temples and palaces built centuries ago. It seemed strange to me and frankly a waste of money to be spending so much money on such opulent things like baths and even larger palaces. It wasn't until we went to the desert city of Jaipur where I saw something I could get excited about, an astronomy exhibit! Finally there was somebody that used their money to advance science instead of merely trying to look more impressive than the next ruler in the next city. One could hardly call this as an investment and the energy and time far outweighed the $3 entry fee for foreigners a century later.

That is why I think that the best things to spend money on are investments. First you need to invest in yourself to make sure that you are the best that you can be. Then you can invest in the things around you to make life better not only for you but also for those in your environment. You can also invest in learning more about the world either in terms of culture, geography, or science. But ultimately this is also an investment into yourself and your surroundings.

After feeling extraordinarily rich here in India, I realized that I am not spending all the money I could be. This is because my needs have been met and I don't need to spend more. Paying for the expensive drink or expensive clothes will not make my life better and so I use less than I could. However, I see many business opportunities that require a small investment and I am happy to give it. I see it as a way to plant a seed for success and further income in the future. By doing this you also help people with jobs as well as cool products that you are providing.

I look forward to starting businesses that make lots of money. But not necessarily to have more money. I guess I could use more money for plane tickets but that is still a relatively small expense. Actually, what I am most excited about is using that money to spin off other businesses and ideas to make more things a reality. I look forward to the day that I can bring a new product or service somewhere which will improve people's lives and provide money for employees as well.

I feel blessed because I am rich. But by being rich I have realized that it doesn't bring happiness. Of course you can buy certain things that guarantee happiness, like a Jet Ski, but even this will not last. What I now see is that the thing that will create happiness the most sustainably is to make sure that others experience the wealth as well. This doesn't mean that you directly give a beggar money, but by creating a job or a fair source of income for someone you can make the world a better place. By sharing the wealth evenly, everyone is able to spend money on the things that they want and need. Hopefully, they also spend it on investments.

Matt McLeod is the host of the Austrailian Backpacking podcast. He has worked in the hostel industry for over 6 years and has seen the change of many people who go through the doors. The podcast talks about what to see while in Austrailia from an expert in the industry.

In this episode we talk about his life journey which eventually led him to work in a hostel in Australia. We talk about the trip that made him change his mind about what is important to see while in Australia. We talk about the work opportunities doing farmwork and other ways to make money while travelling. They have many people coming through who spend many months and can do it without much in terms of savings. Finally we talk about how he has personally seen travel around Australia change people's lives. He talks about how after 3 months the same people come through his hostel and he can see a change in their behavior and speech. How mothers call him and thank him for the changes done to their child during their stay abroad. This has been the episode that has proven the idea of the show the most, Travel is a learning experience which can lead to success.

First of all I want to hear what you guys think about my new microphone. Although I had bought it about 9 months ago, I was too cheap to pay for the faster shipping and therefore it was sitting in my mom's house until now. I hope you guys like it as well as my ever increasing commitment to quality. I hope I can have a super sexy voice that you guys will fall even more in love with!

Now this episode might be a bit strange but in my mind it is incredibly important! What would it be worth to you if you never had to charge your phone again? Our phones are becoming the centers of our world as they have replaced a dozen devices from a decade ago. I myself have seen this shift in my travels and what I needed to carry with me while backpacking. Earlier, I had to carry my camera, laptop, books, microphone, ipod, and of course my cell phone. Now this is all in one convenient device which has dropped my packing weight in half!

The problem with this is, before you had many batteries to handle all these things, but now you only have one device. I can sometimes drain my smartphone battery in only a few hours. These are usually the times that I need it most! When I need to check my bookings, find my accommodation, or take that once in a lifetime picture. The stress that comes with a low battery is real and I can start to act differently depending on the numbers at the top of my phone screen.

So what would you do or pay in order to never have to charge your phone again? What would you do in order to have unlimited phone charge? I have tried many devices and methods in order to make this happen. I have used battery banks, battery cases, charging it wherever I go, and even turning it on airplane mode for most of the day. However, no method works nearly as well as simply having extra batteries.

With extra batteries, as soon as your phone is dead, you can simply pop out the old ones and put in new ones. There is no time to wait for charging and you can get on with your work within 30 seconds. You might also carry an extra one in addition to that which means your battery life could extend for days. I did this as I was looking for a location in London. I was actually given the wrong address and therefore was using Google Maps for about 4 hours. But I was not worried even as my battery bar kept going down, I knew I had a few backups. That day I actually went through 3 batteries, and I could not have imagined finding the place without it.

Since I hosted many events in Germany I would always laugh when there was a get together and inevitably there was someone with a dead phone. Sometimes they would try to revive it and frantically ask around for a charger. It was like a drug addict running around wanting more 'juice.' It actually ended up being somewhat of a constant and I now estimate that one out of every 20 people at an event would want to charge their phones.

I actually have gone many months without charging my phone. What I would do is simply pop out my dead batteries and then put in the new ones. I would then put the old battery on a charger. This would mean that when it was charging, I would not have to be tied to an outlet to do whatever work I needed on the phone. I was free to move around or even leave the battery there while it did its work. Since the chargers also have an external USB, it is also possible to charge both at the same time. This means that overnight in your hotel or hostel, you can charge twice as much.

Some people use power banks and I used to also. However, it doesn't make sense to need to hold two devices for a few hours in order to get it to work. They are big and clunky and I have actually messed up my charging port by putting both of them in my pocket at the same time. But mostly, the biggest inconvenience is the time it takes to charge it.

Finally there is a great problem to be solved in terms of emergencies. Even if you charge your phone as you normally have, it is always wise to keep a spare in case of an emergency. I tried to tell my friend, that even if you only use the spare battery once per month it is still worth it. That one time in that month would likely save your ass and you would be very grateful that you had it.

Now, some phones with sealed in batteries don't have this option. This is a huge problem as phones like the iPhone think that their product looks better when you can't look inside. And if you have this phone, all I can say is I'm sorry, nobody is perfect. You will be stuck with a powerbank or tied to an outlet. That's what you get for getting the wrong type of phone :P

I have a recommendation for this. This is the charger and batteries that I used for over 6 months before my phone was stolen in Northern India. I absolutely loved it and it was very useful. It came with 3 batteries which were only about 80% the strength of original ones but that didn't matter much with 3 extras. It is only $20 with shipping and this is the cost to never need to charge your phone again. You will always be secure and always be able to use your phone when you need it. It is a small price to pay.

Sorry for this very strange topic but it is something I have become strangely argumentative of. I see that the way I have done things is far superior to the silly things that my friends do and I try to convince them. Hopefully I convinced you a bit about why it is better to have extra batteries rather than any other way of charging your phone.

Special thanks to Juliano José Lourenço for writing in!