Embrace regret avoidance. Act on curiosity. (And why nose rings are just a bad idea.)

"The only way to satiate your curiosity is to go and do it. "
-- Daniel Noll & Audrey Scott, Uncornered Market.com

A few years back, I got a nose ring. I'd been thinking and talking about getting a nose ring for months.

I was curious. Curious about how I'd like having a nose ring.

(Never mind the "why??" That is not the point of this story.)

One day, it occurred to me -- Wouldn't it be a lot better to stop thinking and talking about that nose ring ... AND JUST GO GET a nose ring?

Indeed. And so I marched right into my neighborhood nose piercing establishment, handed over something like $75, and I got 'er done.

(This, by the way, is also the day that I learned that about 1 in 10 people who get nose rings are "bleeders." Yes, I'd be in that 10% - for the love.)

For various reasons (including the one mentioned right above), the nose ring lasted exactly six weeks. At that point, I decided that I'm just not a "nose ring person," and I took it out for good.

At face, I was out 75 bucks (and had an incredibly sore nose).

But in reality, I gained far more than my money's worth from this experiment.

Getting that nose ring reaffirmed to me the importance of satisfying one's curiosity. And it served as an important catalyst that reminded me how important it is to experiment. And take risks, both big and small.

So in a very weird way, the nose ring has led to big entrepreneurial and life decisions that have catapulted me into a happy stratosphere that I couldn't even begin to summarize here.

A couple of weeks ago, at the World D ominati on Summit here in Portland, a couple named Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott (you'll find them at Uncornered Market.com) shared stories of their 5 1/2 consecutive years of global travel to more than 70 countries.

They said that people ask them, with frequency, why they have spent such a lengthy stretch of time traveling (with no hard agenda, by the way).

Their answer?

Because they were (and are) curious about the world, and they knew they'd never get a full picture by reading alone.

Daniel and Audrey have had a hell of a 5 1/2 year adventure, thanks to their decision to act.

They acted. They thought and talked about it, I'm sure. But then you know what they did?

They acted.

I absolutely loved Audrey's motto, which she shared with everyone at the Summit --

"Embrace regret avoidance."

I embraced regret avoidance.

I got a nose ring, and then (after I recovered from blood loss) went on to act on a bunch of other curiosities (e.g. "What would happen if I started my own business?" "I wonder what it would be like to drop everything and move across the country?" "A blog seems like a cool idea...")

Daniel and Audrey acted on their travel curiosities, in a huge, huge way.

They're 70 countries into an adventure-turned-full-time-job that has no end in sight.

And so I ask all of you ...