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Imagine leaving your home on holiday. Your destination: to travel across the country. Your transportation is a beat-up yellow Beetle. Your ID, cell phone and a backpack of clothing are the only belongings you take with you. No money. No food. No gas. No friend. The only resource you have to get from your home to your destination across the country is relying on the kindness of strangers. Could you do it? Would you be brave enough to do it?
What if we were to tell you a story about a man who did just that? Leon Logothetis, the host of the popular Netflix and Discovery+ series The Kindness Diaries, has traveled to over 100 countries with no money relying on the kindness of strangers. In his new book Go Be Brave, Leon shares 24 (and 3⁄4th) new adventures to help children and teens become fearless, deeply connected, and braver humans so they can grow up to live lives free of anxiety and fear; even in the face of uncertainty. Teaching parents and their children life-saving tools that can start to make a change in bringing voices back to so many that have felt so silent. This courageous quest to teach global acts of kindness did not happen overnight. It was an inspired decision that came to be after a series of struggling life events.
Prior to becoming the guru of kindness, Leon had a dream life. He was a broker in London. From the outside looking in, it was a storybook life, but his inner turmoil was the opposite of the idealistic fantasy. "I found myself very depressed, anxious," says Leon. "I was not in a great place. Then one day, I stumbled across a movie called The Motorcycle Diaries. The main character traveled around South America relying on kindness, and it just really touched my heart in a very profound way."
Leon quit his job shortly after and started traveling around the world to see if he could rely on kindness to survive. "The very first trip I hitchhiked across America," he says. "Times Square to the Hollywood sign relying on kindness. I then went from the Eiffel Tower in Paris to Red Square in Moscow. I did it across England, London up to Scotland and back to London." Thereupon, he moved to Los Angeles and set up a TV production company. In spite of his success, history began to repeat itself, and once again Leon found himself going down a path of desolation.
Eight years would pass before destiny intervened. During a walk down Hollywood Boulevard, Leon saw a homeless man with a sign that said, "Kindness is the best medicine." Inspiration struck again, and Leon quit his job. "I decided to buy a vintage Ella motorbike this time to travel," says the guru. "In this instance, there was going to be a twist. The unsuspecting Good Samaritans would receive a life-changing gift. I met a homeless guy who I ended up sleeping on the streets with, and the next morning the crew and I put him up in a new apartment and sent him back to school."
This wondrous act of kindness was filmed and eventually picked up by Netflix. In season two of the show, he traveled from Alaska to Argentina in a 50-year-old beetle. Same concept. No money. No food. However, he landed in the middle of winter in both Alaska and Argentina. Leon exclaims, "The car was so old that when it snowed, it snowed inside the car!"
At the peak of his adventures, Leon hit a roadblock that halted his travels. That roadblock was COVID in 2020. With little to do and the world at a standstill, Leon shares what he calls an epiphany moment. "Whilst I was doing nothing but watching Netflix in my house, I had another epiphany. Believe it or not, I didn't quit my job again," he laughs. "But I began to wonder, how do people end up living magnificent lives? I realized that it is done through being brave."
Now most of us have our definition of bravery, i.e., saving children from a burning building, rescuing a cat from a tree, etc. Albeit those are examples of traditional bravery, Leon's distinct perspective lies in your ability to face your personal truth. "Speaking our truth is the truest act of bravery," says Leon. "Carrying our pain and standing in our power."
The first time Leon stood in his personal truth was at 15 years old. He was badly bullied at school and never told anyone, until it became too much to bear. Leon reflects, "One day, I walked into my mother's room and spoke my truth. I've been bullied for a while. I can't stay in school anymore. You've got to help me. That was the first moment where I remember consciously I was brave, I was vulnerable, and it changed my life," says Leon.
From his teen years into his mid-20s, Leon faced ongoing personal challenges. At the height of his depression and anxiety, he went on a spiritual retreat. There was a Navy SEAL also attending the retreat. Leon recalls sitting next to this figure, who, by all accounts, looked physically intimidating and scary. But the most unexpected exchange happened between the two. At the end of the retreat, this SEAL turns to Leon and says, "Everyone thinks I am brave because I'm a Navy SEAL. The truth is what is happening in this room right now, people showing their pain and speaking their truth. That is true bravery."
That message resonated with Leon and changed the course of the definition for him. "Everyone thinks I'm brave for going up to random strangers," says the author. "The Motorcycle Diaries movie, the Navy SEAL, and the moment that I quit my job were the three things that made me realize if I could share that bravery in speaking our truth, whatever that truth may be, maybe other people will also find the inspiration inside to be authentic."
Leon is stepping in to teach how bravery can build confident children and teens who have the courage to stand up to bullying that happens to themselves and others. Together with starting a much-needed movement in this country to combat the hate that takes the hallways and social channels that have led to the mental health crises we are now experiencing with his age group. Go Be Brave comes out on the heels of Mental Health Awareness Month.
If you're relying on kindness all the way from Alaska to Argentina, there has to be the creation of a story. The first epic journey for the world traveler was from America to Time Square, to Hollywood. Times Square posed the most challenge since no one would help him, and just as he second-guessed his decision. Serendipity played its hand once more. "I ended up chatting with this guy. I say to him, look, no one's helping me," says Leon. "He said you've got to have a story. A story people want to be a part of; your journey. I never forgot that." It is one of the very reasons why he picked the motorbike and the Beetle to have a character in the play.
"My truth is different from your truth, and your truth is different from that person's truth. But if you're bravely willing to speak it and to take action to change your life, I promise you you'll become magnificent," says Leon. Social media has had a profound impact on society, and in some ways positively and in other ways we've lost a piece of our humanity. Leon shares, "Leave your phone, leave money, leave everything, and just go out into nature. Sit down, down and sit there for 20 minutes and ground yourself. If you can do it, you'll have that experience of being human."
The principle of the book is to reconnect to our humanity. Go Be Brave, offers exercises and principles to guide us in that direction. "Sit down in nature for three hours, and you'll remember what it's like to be human, not sitting in front of an Instagram feed. I'm suggesting that you reconnect to your humanity by being brave, simply being vulnerable, speaking your truth, sharing your pain, and standing in your power," says Leon.
Feeling is something we all get to experience. It is a gift that knows no creed, race, color or religion. Yet people have to decide to feel it themselves. They have to want to experience something in a felt way to be able to truly change. The book encourages us all to go be brave against our adversity. Go out and feel something. Leon quotes, "Maya Angelou once said, people will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel." This is what Go Be Brave is about. It's about making people feel.
In all his travels, TED Talks and seminars, a child once asked the simple question, "Will you ever retire from being kind?" "I'll never retire on being kind because it's not a mask that I put on to be kind," says Leon. "I will retire from traveling around the world to crazy places, yes, at some point. But kindness and bravery, you retire when you cease to exist."
Go Be Brave is available now worldwide. Leon will also be at the Barnes and Noble in L.A. at the Grove in June. Check his website for dates and times.