Any given moment can change the course of your life. For some people it might be a conversation, while for others a new relationship, a drama, or a sudden moment of self-discovery and shift in the perspective – I don’t have to live like this anymore.

My breakthrough had come in August 2009. I was wandering through different sections in one of the bookstores when I saw that book. Holding it in my hands, my eyes sparkled. I could feel a shiver up my spine. It seemed like the book was whispering: ‘I challenge you to get up off the sofa and make a difference in your world’. That day I couldn’t eat, and that night I couldn’t sleep either.

It’s said that from our parents we learn love and laugher and how to put one foot before the other. But when we open a book, we discover that we have wings.

Its title was ‘Around the world in 80 days’ by Jules Verne.

18 months later, on January 22 2011, I found myself on the steps of the Reform Club at 104 Pall Mall in London to start my around the world trip, just like the fictitious character from the book – Phileas Fogg – had done in 1872.