As we begin the second full week of August, many people are taking time to travel and experience new places. John Templeton was a life-long traveler: he traversed America as a boy with his mother, embarked on a months-long tour of Europe after college, relocated to the Bahamas from New York City, and even visited the North Pole in his eighties!
He strongly believed that travel contributed to his success, as we will highlight in a series of posts throughout August.
Robert L. Herrmann discusses Templeton’s early travels in Sir John Templeton:
John’s mother was in many ways a superb teacher of self-reliance. One summer, for example, when John was 12, his mother loaded him, his 15-year-old brother, and a couple of cousins in the car and took them on an extensive two-month trip throughout the Northeast. They traveled about one hundred miles a day, camped out, and did their own cooking. But this was not a parent-controlled vacation. The kids were in charge just as much as Vella Templeton, with each person participating in selecting the routes and activities and setting up the day’s campsite.
Even though they had a lot of fun, the trip was by no means merely a relaxed, carefree sort of affair. Every moment was scheduled, and myriads of stimulating sights and experiences were packed into each day. For example, every time they arrived in a big metropolitan area like Washington, New York, or Philadelphia, they would hit all the museums—and that meant every room on every floor of every major museum.
It was a hectic two months, but such high-powered activity, combined with intensive learning experiences, was what young John learned to expect and love as a boy. And that trip served to set the stage for still another summer adventure a few years later.
When John was 16, his mother loaded up the car again—this time with John, Harvey Jr., and one classmate—and they headed west. Their goal: to see everything west of the Mississippi—all the historic sites, national parks, national monuments, and the Pacific Ocean. Again, they were gone about two months, and they camped out every night.
This kind of intensive study of one part of the country or one area of knowledge was part of a regular pattern in John’s childhood. It not only instilled self-confidence in him, but also inspired a love for travel and an outward look, which in later years gave him an advantage in international investing.
