Leadership is Not Built in Comfort with Cameron Mofid

Cameron Mofid is a traveler, social entrepreneur, and speaker who became one of the youngest verified people ever to visit all 195 countries in the world by the age of 25. After struggling with obsessive-compulsive disorder for much of his life, Cameron used travel as a form of “real-world exposure therapy,” pushing himself into unfamiliar and uncomfortable environments across the globe. His experiences ultimately inspired him to found Humanity Effect, a nonprofit organization supporting children in Makoko, Nigeria through schools and an orphanage serving hundreds of students. Cameron’s work and story have been featured by Forbes, CNN, People Magazine, and other major media outlets for his message around resilience, uncertainty, gratitude, and service.

A Couple of Quotes From This Episode

• “She wasn’t dancing because everything was okay. She was dancing because it wasn’t.”
• “To become best versions of ourselves, we really have to learn to accept and work on all of those things.”

Resources

• Website - Humanity Effect 
• CNN Article - ‘It was a form of healing’: How traveling to every country helped this American cope with a mental health disorder

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Attend The Global Conference in Toronto, October 28-31.

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

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Transcript

Scott Allen: [00:00:00] Okay, everybody. Welcome to the podcast. Thanks so much for checking in wherever you are in the world. Today's a fun Really exciting conversation. This gentleman that I am speaking with has been on some adventures, and you're gonna learn about those adventures. When I say adventures, I'm not kidding.

Adventures. And we had the pleasure of meeting at a National Speakers Association event in New Orleans a couple months ago, had just this wonderful conversation at dinner. And so I reached out to him and I said, "You know what? We need to continue the dialogue." So this is Cameron Mofid. Cameron, I'm gonna let you introduce yourself, share a little bit more about you, the adventures you've been on, and what you've been up to as far as making a difference in the world.

So sir, thank you for being with me. 

Cameron Mofid: Scott, thanks for having me. As you said, yes, very much enjoyed our time together in New Orleans, getting to learn from you, getting to hear about your life, getting lots of life advice from, yeah, someone I really respect. So yeah, very excited to, to be here with you.

A bit about me. [00:01:00] So I just finished a seven-year trip to every country in the world. All 195 countries, yes. And yeah, finished in North Korea last year. Ran in the Pyongyang Marathon. That was my way of getting in. Don't give me too much credit because I ran in the 10K. I finished in 17th place behind a woman who had two hip replacements, so nothing to brag about there.

But yes, I also run the nonprofit Humanity Effect. I started the organization about three and a half years ago in Lagos, Nigeria. We have two schools and an orphanage there. 750 students up until a couple months ago were under our care. Have had a lot of issues with government demolitions of the community we're in, so trying to find solutions there for the kids as best we can.

That nonprofit was started as a GoFundMe fundraiser after I visited Nigeria. That was my 115th country. And we received a $45,000 donation from Kyrie Irving very unexpectedly and randomly, famous NBA player. Yeah. That was the genesis of how that organization started. And yes, just like yourself I'm an aspiring speaker.

I'm trying to share the lessons from my [00:02:00] trips to every country in the world. And yeah, really looking forward to our conversation today. 

Scott Allen: Oh, awesome. Kyrie, Cleveland Cavaliers, he was instrumental in a- Yeah ... championship we won a few years back, he and LeBron. So- yeah. He, he- Oh, that's wonderful

Cameron Mofid: He donated back when he was, I think, just starting at the Mavericks maybe. Okay. This is early 2023. And it was crazy because I got a call from them that... I never actually got in touch with Kyrie. I got a call from them that he had seen the fundraiser and was very inspired and moved to donate.

And yeah, it was just stars aligned very perfectly there. Random act of luck, of kindness, and turned into something, I think, very beautiful. 

Scott Allen: Ah. Okay. So let's start a little bit with the genesis of the 195 countries, and tell that story if you would. Just I loved learning about this.

Cameron Mofid: Yeah. So I grew up in San Diego, California. Beautiful part of this country, beautiful part of the world. On paper, I think, my life was very perfect in that way. But at the same time, I was struggling deeply with obsessive compulsive disorder. So for those that don't know, [00:03:00] OCD is a anxiety disorder where an individual's unwanted thoughts called obsessions, turn into these repetitive actions called compulsions.

For me, I would lock myself in my room for hours trying to count patterns in my head or rearrange notebooks on my desk to the exact millimeter, literally. Or I would have to wash my hands 100 times over every single day. This sort of thing that really just consumed every aspect of my life to the point where I wasn't able to leave- to lead a life that I was, proud of or happy with.

I wound up saying that I needed to get out of San Diego, get out of my home environment. I took a gap year and I got a job at a tennis magazine writing for as a contributing writer, covering tournaments around the world, which was very cool for me because I love tennis. It was a way for me to break out of my shell a little bit try to at least get away from the environment that had caused me a lot of pain, let's say for lack of a better word.

Wow. And went on an amazing trip in that way. Got to see so many different places, and then I started college at the University of Miami. As one does in Miami, I took a job promoting nightclubs. Again not [00:04:00] something you'd expect from someone with OCD, but a way for me, again, to break out of my shell.

And then COVID hits, and I'm in lockdown, I'm isolated, I'm on edge. My OCD rituals are coming back stronger than they ever have before. And I saw an article one night that stunned me, which was that more people had been to space than every country in the world. Wow. And I thought, yeah. I thought that w- it's a crazy stat to read that, right?

That more people have been to literally outer space than have visited every country. I didn't even know you could go to every country at the time. I thought there were some that, North Korea, some in the Middle East, in Central Africa, that you just couldn't go to. Stuck with this idea, let it sit in my head a little bit and, Then yeah, I just thought that would be...

I'd always been interested in travel, I loved geography would be the perfect way to, yeah, break out of my OCD shell even more, try to push myself into the most uncomfortable situations that I could. I guess a real world exposure therapy. So exposure therapy is- ... yeah, this idea of like intentionally forcing yourself into the things that make you [00:05:00] uncomfortable.

It's a treatment that's highly effective for people with OCD. So wound up starting a nightlife marketing company, saved up very aggressively for a few years. Was working every night from like 10:00 to 4:00 in the clubs, and then having class and trying to travel on weekends and during breaks and missing a few weeks of school here and there.

My, my attendance record wasn't great, but- ... yeah, that was how it all started, and eventually just led up to me having this goal to visit every country. 

Scott Allen: Wow. Okay. And so what is the moment, what's the wa- the tipping point where you say, "Okay, I'm gonna go for it"? Will you talk about that?

Cameron Mofid: Yeah. I think in college, of course, after reading that, you have this idea of like I'm gonna get to 195 countries, but I don't think until you really get to 60 or 70 countries do you really truly believe that you can do it. Because, it's one thing also to travel around Europe, and it's another to go to Afghanistan and to Iraq and to the Congo.

So as I started with the easier countries, working my way to the more medium difficult ones, and then the very challenging ones where security [00:06:00] situation is unstable, it's very difficult to get a visa, the borders are closed, whatever the reason may be. But by the time I had finished college, I'd been to about 100 countries.

So- Wow ... yeah, I'd been to 100 countries, and then at that point I'd saved up enough from the nightlife business where I said, "Okay, I'm gonna yeah, get rid of my apartment. I'm gonna throw a bunch of clothes into, to a backpack," which is what I did. I didn't even bring a pair of shoes. I just had flip-flops with me.

And yeah, set out to, to finish the last 100 countries on the list. 

Scott Allen: Wow. Okay. Just to, because I know listeners are gonna be interesting, or I know listeners are gonna be interested what are a couple stories that stand out for you when you... A- and maybe even through kind of the lens of leadership Some things you saw, some things that you experienced that just- Yeah

kinda hit you hard that- Yeah ... you weren't expecting? 

Cameron Mofid: Yeah. I think there's quite a few. I'm trying to think of a good one. So I was in Somalia and I wanna preface this by saying that I hate to feed into the trope of that the world is, very dangerous and all these [00:07:00] countries are too unstable to travel in.

By and large, a lot of the countries that we deemed as unsafe, dangerous, Yemen, Syria Iraq, I had, very safe experiences that I didn't think I was gonna have before going to those countries. But I was in Somalia, which is a country that's been plagued by war and economic crisis for decades now.

A country has spiraled into anarchy after fall of the government in the '90s. And a unlucky period that I was there. There was an Al-Qaeda attack first night that I arrived. And city went into lockdown. So international airport shuts down, my flight's canceled. I see military convoys rolling through the streets, security checkpoints everywhere, and I'm

I head to the beach to clear my head. I'm freaking out at this point, right? My, my flight is canceled. I can't leave. I'm in what's named to be the single most dangerous city on the planet. And US Embassy puts out this statement that, you should take shelter and notify loved ones of your safety.

So as dramatic, as it could be in my mind. And again, with OCD you're [00:08:00] constantly perseverating. You're overthinking. M- my mind couldn't stop thinking. Was my hotel a target? Were people looking af- going after me? Did they know that there was an American here? This sort of thing.

So I'm on the beach trying to clear my head and off in the distance, I see this woman wrapped in this shiny purple dress, like in the water. 

Scott Allen: Yeah. 

Cameron Mofid: And I was confused, right? So I walk a little bit closer, and she's dancing, and then I hear this music coming from her phone. She's carrying her phone in her hand, and she's just swaying in the water, like dancing, almost dancing like to the rhythm of the waves, like side to side as they're crashing.

And she turns and saw ... t- she turns and she sees me, and she waves me into, to the water to dance with her. And so a weird just ... Yeah, one of the weirdest moments. I'm just sitting on this beach, standing on this beach in the water and just dancing alongside this woman. We didn't talk much at all, but I in watching her realized that she wasn't dancing because everything was okay, right?

She was dancing because it wasn't. You can imagine, like a city that, bombs had just decimated part of the capital [00:09:00] behind her, this very dramatic scene, and then this lady is dancing on the beach. And it's this idea that we cannot control everything that happens around us in our lives, right?

Like for us, I think living in the States, things are relatively stable. That's a privilege and a luxury that- Billions of people around the world are not afforded. People that live in countries of war, economic crisis, political corruption. And so these people really have to roll with the punches in ways that we can never imagine.

They live with a level of uncertainty that is hard for us to fathom, right? Yes. That you can wake up every day with the threat of violence that could erupt at any moment, and you have to find a way through that. And so I think the re- the way that, that people do that is, is not by trying to fixate on, what's out of their control, what will happen but more so focusing on their own emotions, their attitude, how they maintain a steady mind.

And, as dramatic of a, an example as that is, I think in our own life, whether we're, students or professors or [00:10:00] really in, in any career, we're gonna face things that are completely out of our control that seem unfair. And the best way to find a way through that is, is to maintain a calm mind.

And I think that woman in Somalia did a very good job of that. 

Scott Allen: Wow. Powerful story. And I think you're exactly right. How an individual navigates some of those moments of confusion, uncertainty n- not easy to do. It's so difficult to do well. And but I think that says so much about that individual, our own mindset and how we navigate that.

I just, I can't-- I personally can't imagine, right? I just, I can't. How about another? Anything else stand out for you as you- Yeah ... reflect on- 

Cameron Mofid: I guess shifting to my nonprofit in Nigeria. So we have one of our students, probably the one of the most beautiful travel memories. One of our students, his name is Shagun.

His parents died when he was very little. He's one of our orphans. We have 31 orphans. And Shagun is the star of the school, let's say. He's class president. [00:11:00] He grew up in really the worst environment you could imagine, right? Makoko, where our nonprofit's based, is in the water. So it's a slum inside the water, so people live on these wooden stilt homes.

Instead of streets there's no streets. There's canoes, right? But it's not Venice, right? The water is black. It's filled with sewage. There's garbage everywhere. Cooking fires. The haze gets into your eyes. It's, this is not a suitable place for people to live, let alone little children.

And Shagun, when I first met him, was sleeping on the floorboards of our school at night because he had nowhere else to sleep, right? So he's sleeping on the wood. But despite that, he's at the top of his class every year. He was elected as class president of our school in his last year. And every single time that we have a big donor, he's the one that, takes the initiative to thank them, to make a donor video for them, right?

That's just who this kid is. And so a couple years ago, we asked all the kids in the orphanage to write down two things, what they're most grateful for and what they hope to become one day. And so we got like a bunch of, cool answers, especially from little kids who wanted to be, actors and football players and some more serious, doctors, engineers.

[00:12:00] And Segun wrote that he wanted to be a lawyer. And it was a good answer, but what really impacted me was why, right? And he wrote that he wants to be able to advocate for other orphans like him who never had anyone looking out for them. And I think, for me at least with my OCD not to make this about me at all, but I always thought I was like the unluckiest person on the planet, even though I grew up like in this amazing city in the most free country in the world, and I always thought that, life was so dark, like because of this disorder that I have, and I blamed it for that, right?

And I was just always had this reason, like everything that didn't happen for me in my life was because of that. Almost neglecting all the amazing privileges and blessings and opportunities that I had. And then here's a kid who grew up in the worst environment possible, right? In this like unimaginable poverty, and with every reason to choose, resentment and to [00:13:00] be bitter, he choose- chose to be grateful.

So a- and I forgot to mention, he wrote on his letter that he was most grateful for Makoko, which is the community he lives in, because it made him strong, right? Wow. And with every reason to be bitter, this is a kid who chose to say "I'm gonna use my pain, I'm gonna use all my adversity, all the obstacles I've had to face, to drive myself towards a purpose to not only make my own life better, but to make the people around me better."

And I think that was a pretty extraordinary lesson to learn from, a 12-year-old kid. And I think again you and I will never know what it's like to live in that level of, yeah, of poverty in those living conditions. But again, like I think everyone has had something in their life that has felt unfair has had some death of someone that they loved.

Maybe it's a physical or mental disorder, financial shock, heartbreak, whatever it is that, that feels [00:14:00] unfair. And so we can give ourselves an excuse not to perform, not to have purpose, not to be best versions of ourselves, or we can take a different approach, which is to actually use those things to push us to be better people, to be better versions of ourselves, and to do better for the people around us.

Whether that's for our families, for our teams at work, for our kids or just, for society in general. 

Scott Allen: Yeah. And as you reflect on I think you said that the nonprofit is three or four years old now. Is that correct? Yeah What have you learned about yourself as you've thought about building that organization, leading that organization?

What what's been present for you? 

Cameron Mofid: Yeah, I think on a, I wanna say entrepreneurial side, right? It's a nonprofit. I've never taken any sort of salary or anything like that, but it's still like starting a business, and I had no idea how to start a nonprofit, right? I was 22 years old when I started Humanity Effect.

And I think it's, and it'll sound cliche, but it's really just like you need to take the first step because we [00:15:00] spend a lot of our lives, especially me, like overthinking how to do things and how everything needs to be perfect before we can, achieve the next step, let's say. But with something like this, you learn along the way.

And so it's this idea of really just having an open mentality, an open mindset to becoming a better learner, to learn, how to I better run a business, how do I better run a nonprofit, what are things that we can do to expand what are things that we can do to better service the kids? So I think on a business, more like analytical mindset, I've become a much better student if that makes sense.

I think I've learned more from running my nonprofit than I have in, 20 years of education. So that would be my first answer. And then I guess on a little bit more of a personal level seeing our kids and how they've been able to move through life despite everything that's stacked against them, and yet also seeing how s- how hard it is for them to achieve things that they so deserve [00:16:00] because of their starting line.

So in other words, in this country and in the US, you can be at the top of your class, you can work really hard, and no- kinda despite where you came from, you still have a pretty good shot at making it. We hear a lot of success stories in this country of people who start from very little, who make the right decisions, who do the right things, and they wind up really achieving the things that they want in their life.

But that reality doesn't exist for people in many Third World countries, right? People that can be the top student, they can be extremely intelligent, they can work their ass off, and they'll still be stuck in a cycle of poverty because there's no opportunity, and the system is stacked against them.

I think recognizing our privilege is something that running this nonprofit has taught me, that of course the decisions we make and I know that Tony Robbins loves talking about decisions being the driver of our lives, and that's very true. But at the same time, we do have to recognize our starting line because, so much of our current where we are in life came from the moment we were born, right?

The passport that we held [00:17:00] family we were born into, socioeconomic group, if you had any physical or mental ailments, this sort of thing. And really being more aware of where I started and trying to make good on that responsibility to, to do better for society, to do better for people that didn't have that same opportunity.

Scott Allen: I love that phrasing, make good on my responsibility. I love that phrasing. So y- a couple things in what you just said that really just nicely stood out for me. There's a great book, it's a quick book, it's a simple book. It's a silly... It's it's simple in a silly way, but it's called Start Ugly.

And the book title almost tells you exactly what the book is about. I think so many people spend so much time worrying and planning and strategizing, that you just gotta go, and you just gotta start. And it's gonna be ugly, it's not gonna be pretty. You're gonna learn along the way. It's not gonna be perfect.

But just start building and start going. And again, you can't do that for everything in life, but for something like this, I just love the fact that you just [00:18:00] started. And again, it's probably been one of the greatest educators in your life as far as just what it means to, to engage in entrepreneurship.

I I co-founded a for-profit that failed, and a non-profit that was successful, and another for-profit. And the learning that I've had in those experiences has just been absolutely incredible. Absolutely incredible. And so that just really stood out. But I think also it's this whole notion, the research on, gratitude is that both parties benefit.

The individual displaying the gratitude and saying thank you also benefits just like the receiver benefits. And so I think it's too bad, I don't know why as human beings we don't have this more hardwired into our being. Maybe within our close family i- it, it can be more hardwired, but, for something that just has mutual benefit in that way I love the fact that you're giving [00:19:00] and that you're putting yourself out there.

And and of course, because you're giving in that way, you're receiving a lot in response. 

Cameron Mofid: Yeah. And I think, side note, but one of the reasons why I advocate for travel so much and you don't have to travel to, far-flung corners of the world to, let's say dangerous countries to, to experience this, but it's that I think the reason why gratitude sometimes gets a little bit lost is because as humans we like to compare to the people around us, right?

In our circles, right? And, and- Again, it's ... I hate when I hear people say not hate because I think it's a good thing, that's the wrong word, but when someone will go to, let's say, a war-torn African country, and then they'll say "Wow, this is the first time that I recognized how privileged I am and how grateful I am for everything I had."

And it's a shame that it takes, an experience to travel to, to somewhere so far to be able to say "Okay, now I recognize how much I have." Yeah. And so I think for us, again, come down to awareness to, to take a more active role in appreciating the things that we have in our lives. I [00:20:00] think for our kids in Makoko, as crazy as it sounds, these are kids that grew up with many of them no parents.

For them, they're the lucky ones because they get to go to school. Yeah. They ... In their minds, they're thinking, "All the kids around us in our community, none of them get to go to school. None of them have uniforms. They don't have backpacks. They don't have colored pencils and books to read." And so I guess everything is relative to what we perceive, right?

And we can choose to, yeah, r- recognize that, or if we're a little bit numb to it, it becomes much harder to connect with with all of our blessings and the privileges that we have. 

Scott Allen: Yeah. Any other lessons that come to mind for you as you think about- Oh ... re- reflecting on starting the organization?

I know you were just there, right? 

Cameron Mofid: Yeah, I just came back. We had a pretty sad, for lack of a better word, situation, which was that the community was largely destroyed. This community of Makoko has been there since 1800s. The homes were lit on fire, shot with tear gas, and the space was sold to a luxury developer to build hotels and [00:21:00] condos because the community's kind of in a central part on the water of Lagos.

And I very sad just to see our orphanage was destroyed. Our enrollment went from 750 kids to less than 200 in the span of really a couple weeks. Many of the families of the kids that we had students, they relocated to other parts of Nigeria, to neighboring countries. And to actively see like, all of these homes in the water, to see the remains of our orphanage, like the wooden planks sitting in the lagoon is very sad.

Our schools are still intact. They're part- badly damaged, but we're still teaching some classes for now at least. And then as you're seeing all of this horror you can see them actually reclaiming the land for their condo project and already actively advertising for that. And I guess it, as many qualms as, we might have maybe with, our government or people in more developed countries have with their governments, like this is something that wouldn't really happen, I think, in, in states where you'd have, people terrorized with no due process and no course of action.

Sad. Very sad to see that, and at the same time shows the level of resilience from our kids, the ones that are still [00:22:00] there, they're still showing up with a smile on their face. We do morning singing and dancing every single day. So every single day we start the day with a kind of a school assembly where the kids will sing and dance.

They talk about gratitude. We finish ... The last song we sing is the Do Your Best song, right? So they sing the Do Your Best song as they march into class. And that's just who they are. Like they're resilient kids. We're gonna do our best to find solutions for them. Orphans are our number one priority, so try to move them into a new place in the mainland, get them enrolled in new schools on the mainland.

And yeah y- I think you hear this a lot from people who maybe do non-profit work, but it's this idea that if I could really and truly change the life of even one kid, like one, one kid comes out of our programs and has achieved their dream, then all of this for me will have been worth it.

Scott Allen: So much respect. So much respect. A- as we begin to wind down our time I just want to ask you, so as you think about the conversation we've had, 'cause we've been going for about 30 minutes now, what's the practical wisdom for you when it comes to leadership? What's as you reflect on the [00:23:00] conversation or just even y- your travels the non-profit, what's the practical wisdom for listeners when it comes to leadership and your story, your narrative?

Cameron Mofid: Yeah. I guess I'll give less of a maybe academic bre- breakdown- No ... of it. Please don't. Yeah. But I would just say this to show up best for ourselves and the people around us, like we do really have to reconcile with, the darkest parts of ourselves or, parts of our past our demons, whatever they are that we try to avoid.

So for my entire life, really growing up I was trying to push away this OCD, I ran away from my home in San Diego really, like I left. I didn't come back for three years. I broke my relationships with my friends, my family, just because OCD kinda drove me to do that, and maybe for me that's a unique case, but I think everyone in their life is avoiding or escaping some bad habit, some of their biggest fears, whatever it is.

Everyone is running from something. And to become best versions of ourselves, to be best [00:24:00]leaders, to be best teammates, to be best people, we really have to learn to accept and work on all of those things. Because if we let those things go ignored and unnoticed, they will creep back and they will follow you for the rest of your life.

And for me with OCD, this, let's say exposure therapy, going to every country I'm not cured of OCD. I still have it, something I still struggle every day with- But it's something I'm working on, and it's something that now doesn't impede my daily life. Even looking back and thinking okay I, again, would wash my hands until they would bleed with hot water every day because, that's how bad it, it got.

So to see how far I've come and that really came from putting in the work, and for me to going to therapy, right? To actively, pushing myself into situations that my mind hated. And that, I think, is what everyone needs to do in their own life to, yeah, just become the most full, best versions of themselves that they can be.

Scott Allen: Yeah. You're playing... We are singing from the same hymnal. We're playing the same music, man. I think [00:25:00] every one of us have great strengths. We have areas of growth. We have things that we're proud of, things we're not proud of. And I think life, I think leadership, I think as we've discussed parenting, it can be a mirror, and if you're willing to look in the mirror there's a lot of learning there.

Absolutely. Yeah. For every one of us. And I think if whether it's a parent or whether it's a manager, a leader, a founder, what- however you wanna partner, if you're the best possible version of yourself, the most whole integrated version of yourself, however we wanna define it, then you can be there for others, and I think that's just, I think it's wisdom, man.

It's wisdom. Yeah. Sir, we'll do it again. I really appreciate you. Thank you so much for stopping by to share your story. And for listeners, there's a bunch of links in the show notes. Please click on those. I'd love for you to learn more about Cameron and his adventures and how he's making a difference in the world.

Thanks, Scott. Be well, sir. A big pleasure. Yeah. 

Cameron Mofid: Talk soon, all right? 

Scott Allen: Bye-bye. [00:26:00] Bye bye.