If you were a strapping, handsome, able-bodied youth just out of university, what would be your next step? Back in the late 20th century, young men chose professions such as investment banking or financial consultation, and diligently went about getting their MBAs. Remember those days of multiple degrees and breathtakingly impressive resumes? It all seems rather quaint now that the graduates of today are making other choices — so different from what they used to be that the goings-on of the 1990s may as well be a rather drab little tale from another planet. Today the field has no rules and no limits, or at least that's certainly what it looks like from the sidelines.
For a taste of what's happening, look no further than "Free Wheels East" — a 21st-century adventure story that really happened and actually worked, and makes the financial consultants look silly in a way that Occupy Wall Street can't quite accomplish.
In 2005, Jamie Mackenzie and Ben Wylson graduated from universities in England and decided right away that the suited, briefcase-carrying lifestyle was not for them. Cousins as well as good friends from childhood, the pair put their heads together and came up with Plan A: get on their bicycles, leave the U.K. and embark on a three-year trip around the world. No airplanes, no terminals — just their bikes and hitching rides on boats to take them from continent to continent.