Bryan Johnson spent two years living in mud-hut communities in Ecuador in 1997. The extreme poverty sparked guilt about his privilege and a resolve to become an entrepreneur, make money, and use it to help humanity.
When you went to Ecuador, can you tell us a little bit about what that was like and what some of the impressions it left on you?
Ecuador at the time, in 1997, was mud floored and dirt huts. So I lived among extreme poverty for two years, and it was a defining moment of my life. I went there and I experienced maybe what many of you have experienced, which I felt guilt for my own privilege in life. But really, the thing that happened, most importantly, is a fire got lit, and when I came home, it just raged inside of me, and I just burned with this desire to do something useful for the human race. At that moment, I decided that I would become an entrepreneur. I'd make a whole bunch of money, and then with a whole bunch of money, I'd go out and do good things in the world.
