Conor Woodman

My Friends thought I was Mental

Last year, Conor Woodman gave up a lucrative career in finance, sold his flat and set off travelling around the world. But this was neither a case of city burn-out nor a classic repudiation of the capitalist ethic. Far from it. Woodman’s aim was to take £25,000 of his own money and buy and sell goods as he travelled from country to country. He wanted to trade in its rawest form, the way millions do every day, and have done for centuries. Instead of being in front of a computer screen, buying and selling commodities on a virtual market, he was out in the field, buying coffee direct from a plantation, wine from a vineyard, or jade straight out of the ground, taking it to a suitable market, and selling it for profit (in theory).

The result is a fascinating new four-part series on Channel 4, Around the World in 80 Trades. Here, Woodman reveals how he had to answer the call of the open road (and open market), why horse trading in Kyrgyzstan is not to be recommended, and what it was like to have a near-death encounter on a beach in Mexico.

Where did the idea for the series come from?
I was in Nepal, actually. I went off with a mate of mine, a director who was making a travelogue film about Nepal, and I helped him set it up and ended up going along and presenting it. And we were up on the border with Tibet, watching all these guys taking a caravan of yaks loaded up with furs and dried meats and stuff, over the mountains into Tibet. My translator told me they were on their way to sell their goods in Tibet, and they would then load up with salt and travel back and sell all the salt on the Nepalese side. They don’t pay any attention to the border, they just go from one market to the other, as they’ve been doing for hundreds of years. Ands I thought “That’s brilliant. I want to do that.” I used to work in the city - I trained as an economist and worked in corporate finance, and I know about making money, but I just thought that simple, ancient idea of trading is something I’d never experienced first hand, and I wanted to know if I could bring my experience to bear on this really exciting way of making a living.

When you announced to people that you were quitting your job and selling your flat to go off and do this, did they think you were mad?
Yeah, utterly mental, I think. A lot of people that I worked with just didn’t get it. I think family and friends were concerned, because I was selling my flat, which was my one investment. I’m very good at advising other people what to do with their money, but I’d always just put money into property. So selling my flat was selling my nest egg, to go off and gamble it on trading around the world. I think it seemed a bit crazy to some people. But I wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t thought I’d make money out of it.

Added to which, selling your property was probably the most financially astute thing you could have done anyway.
Yeah, ironically it was probably the best trade of the whole bunch, selling at the top of the market.

Where did your travels take you?
I started in Sudan, and went down through Zambia and Botswana through South Africa to the Cape. Then I went up through India, and had planned to go through Tibet into China, but when we got there, the Tibetan uprising had happened, and the Chinese had shut the border, so we had to rethink. So I decided to go to Kyrgyzstan, then into China, where I went to the jade mines in Western China, then crossed all the way by train to Shanghai. Then I went to Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan, and finally went to Mexico and then down to Brazil.

How much of it was pre-planned, and how much spur of the moment?
The route was pre-planned, because it had to be for visas and filming permissions. But the actual trades, the things I was buying, weren’t. before I left, I put together a jigsaw puzzle of countries that were emerging economies that had exciting things to buy, but also had a big enough domestic market that you could sell things there as well. So the newly emerging economies were perfect, still new enough that the barriers to entry were quite low, and people would do business with you if there was money in it, and everything wasn’t sewn up by big business, but they were big enough markets that there was still a bit of money floating around.

You started off in Sudan. It wasn’t the most auspicious beginning, was it?
It was a bloody disaster! The logic was that I wanted to confront the toughest, hardest negotiators in the world, and the general view from the research I did was that they don’t come much harder than camel traders in North Africa. So I thought I’d just jump in at the deep end. As it turned out, the plan was fine, to buy the camels down south and take them up to Cairo - loads of people do that. They really didn’t want a westerner turning up and muscling in on their market, so they just shut me out. And finally we got accused of spying.

Spying on what?
Exactly, that’s what we said. We were in a camel market! But at that point our translator and our driver got really concerned. They could have been arrested. Our embassy would have got us out, but they could have been tortured or worse. They were both from Darfur. It just got to the point where we realised it wasn’t worth it, and we just left.

At that stage, did you begin to worry that the whole trip might be a complete disaster?
Absolutely. The whole thing was set up like dominoes. The route was set, and the dates when I had to be in certain places were all set, so to take a big knock on the first trade was a real blow. At that point, bad thoughts start to creep into your mind. By the time I got to Zambia, I’d been tipped off about Zambian coffee, and how it would be great to sell in South Africa. That was a coherent theory, but it was vital then, when I got to Zambia, that that worked.

So was the Sudanese experience your lowest point on the trip?
No. It was definitely a low point. But the horse market in Kyrgyzstan, I got the metaphorical crap kicked out of me there. I got taken to the cleaners by everyone. That was my own fault, I just took on something that was just beyond me. It was also physically very tough. We rode up into the mountains, we slept rough for two nights, then rode all the way down. That’s three days in the saddle. Then up at the crack of dawn the next day, drove halfway across Kyrgyzstan, slept in a field by the side of the road for about three hours, and then turned up at the horse market at 5am. I was just not functioning properly, and then I went into this really hostile environment. I thought the camel traders were the toughest negotiators in the world. I think I learned that the horse traders are a little bit tougher. It was a bit more adversarial than I was used to at that point. I think if I did it again now I’d do better.

On your four month odyssey, did you have any scary moments?
I went off in search of the most inaccessible tea I could find. The more inaccessible it is, the higher the value, and on the way I had to cross a ravine in a little basket hanging from a cable. It was about a mile-and-a-half across this gorge and about a mile down. That was pretty terrifying, and I’m not the greatest with heights. And I bought body boards which I took to Mexico, and my plan was to take them down to a place in Southwest Mexico where there’s the biggest shore break in the world, with enormous waves. It’s full of pro-surfers, and I thought if I found a pro-surfer to try my new inflatable body board on this massive wave, and say it’s all right, then that would be a brilliant endorsement. Then when I went down, I couldn’t resist going out with him myself. He was fine, because he’s a professional surfer, but I nearly drowned. The wave was way, way too big, which I realised when I was being sucked under for about the fourth time, not realising which way was up. That was pretty scary. When I got back to the beach I threw up and cried.

What was your best moment on the trip?
There was a turning point in Japan. Everything was going really, really badly, and I decided to go into the fish market and try and make some money out of fish. And I hardly made any money, but it was the first time in ages I actually made a profit, and that was a really nice moment. The big money I made on things like wine and tea, but at that moment it felt like a real moral victory. It was just the boost I needed.

Did you have a favourite place?
City-wise, Tokyo. I’d always wanted to go there, and I found it fascinating. And in terms of what I ws trying to do, I think Brazil was the most open-minded of all the places that I went. People were really up for trying new things, they totally understood what I was trying to do, there was no bureaucracy, no closed doors, it was a really open market. It was really refreshing and just what I’d been looking for.

On the whole, you’re a pretty fearsome negotiator. Do you enjoy that aspect of dealing, or do you find it a bit embarrassing or awkward?
Oh no, I really enjoy it now. I’ve been having loads of fun since I got back. I’ve been negotiating over the rent on my new flat and everything. I think we should all negotiate more. There is that real British reserve about asking for money off, and it’s crazy. In 90 per cent of the world, people wouldn’t dream of buying anything without asking for money off. And they get it. It’s amazing, especially now, in our current economic climate, if you ask for money off, I’m sure you’ll get it, because people are desperate to sell. Unfortunately, we only really ask for money off when we buy houses or cars. Why not ask for more. If you’re happy to ask for a grand off a new car when you buy it, why not ask for money off a new sofa or a kitchen table?

Have you learned any other lessons on your trip?
Oh definitely. Don’t underestimate anybody in business, wherever they are, whatever they’re selling. I kind of had a hunch that there were universal truths to making a profit, and there are: know what you’re talking about, and stand up for yourself, and don’t settle for less than you can afford to. It’s the same wherever you go, from a horse market in central Asia to a fish market in Japan, nobody’s a fool when it comes to business.

Around the World in 80 Trades is on Channel 4 on Thursdays at 10pm from 9th April.