“You chew it,” he instructed as he handed me a wad of leaves from his worn-out, callused, black hands. His smile was radiant and his clothing ragged.
“Really,” I asked nervously.
It was boiling hot outside. Garrett was standing next to me sweating through his button-up shirt. He was miserable.
I chewed it.
It was 10 am and we were in the middle of Kibera, the infamous slum in Nairobi—Kenya's capital - viewed as “the biggest, largest and poorest slum in Africa.” I was chewing on Khat which tasted like feet.
A rolly polly looking man was with us. Garrett hired him to do his book launch. I convinced him to take us to the slums before the event. I was looking for the infamous banana wine that circulates in the slums.
It was two hours until the book launch in downtown Nairobi.
I could tell Garrett was getting nervous about the book launch, the heat, and getting murdered in the largest slum in Africa, so we decided to leave.
On the ride back to the city, the rolly polly man hammered Garrett about US politics. Donald Trump, this, Donald Trump, that. For some reason, this clown thought Garrett was friends with the President of The United States and could get him to save Africa.
We got to the location of the book launch and the rolly polly man took us to the conference room. Garrett changed into the suit and tie he had logged across 25 African countries for this very event. He set his notes on the podium. It was to be the first book launch for his first book, 10 Seconds of Insane Courage. The room was set.
Then nobody showed up.
Now, when I say nobody, I mean not a single human being.
Garrett is the posterchild for an Enneagram Seven, the ultimate extrovert, and an optimist.
He was devastated.
I didn’t know if I should make fun of him or console him. After all, he tried to do a book launch in Africa where the majority of the people can’t afford books.
The hard thing about hard things is they are hard. Doing hard things takes courage. A lot more than 10 seconds sometimes.
Two years earlier I was sitting at a Starbucks in Atlanta when Garrett spotted me. He came over to my table to say hello. I had only met him one time before.
After some small talk, he asked…
“Is there any chance you would want to go to West Africa?”
The thing about Garrett is his outlook on life. It is fucked up in a good way.
I said yes.
Today is Garrett’s birthday. Not only has he become one of my best friends but possibly my greatest teacher.
Garrett has one motto about life:
Say yes.
Say yes to life. Say yes to adventure. Say yes to loving people, having fun, and taking risks.
Most important for me, say yes to myself.
Yes, I can.
Cheers to the kid from Marietta, GA who became the SGA President of UGA as a sophomore, walked away from a finance job in Hong Kong to live in an African orphanage, talked his way into Harvard Business School, has traveled to 195 of 197 countries, and married the love of his life.
It looks like saying yes has worked…
Follow along on all of his adventures here.
Trey
Awwwww 🥰🥰😘